Some more Snippets

By Melanie E.

Another set of super short shorts.

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With a Little Love
~

“With a little love,
And some tenderness,
We walk upon the water,
We rise above the mess,
With a little peace...”

Alex bobbed her head as she listened to the song playing over her headphones, never turning her attention from the subject before her as she sketched, sketched, sketched away, the charcoal in her hand scratching pleasantly across the rough surface of the paper. She hummed softly as, stroke after stroke, she brought just a little more life to the drawing.

“Hold my hand,
I want you to hold my hand,
Hold my hand,
I’ll take you to a place where we can be,
Anything we wanna be ‘cause,
I wanna love you,
The best that,
The best that I can...”

She couldn’t wait to see what her fans thought of her latest work. She had signed more sketches at the last convention than she could believe, every one to a fan whose eyes lit up when they saw her in the room. And for a brief moment, she was happy. Her fans were there, cheering her on, and she could forget for however brief a time all the pain she felt.

“Well I was wasted,
And I was wastin’ time...”

That’s why she did her artwork, after all. They loved it. She loved it. It was her escape. When she had started, webcomics had still been a fairly new field, and what better way to speak your mind and stay in the background at the same time than to be online? As the years had gone by, though, she had increased in popularity, and now what once was her way to be herself but stay out of the eyes of critics had become the only place she could escape to get away from them. She laughed at the cruel irony that by trying to find a way to express herself, she had inevitably shoved herself even more deeply down inside to keep her problems out of the public eye.

A hand on her shoulder pulled her attention from her sketch pad. Turning around, she found a member of the hotel staff holding a message for her.

“Mr. Bradford, they’re expecting you in meeting room B for the talk on line theory.”

With a sigh, Alex stood up. Adjusting her mental focus, he packed his things away. Mike Bradford, webcomics genius, made his way to talk to the aspiring artists who had come to see ‘the man behind the ‘Alex Nova’ comic series’.

=====
Happiness
~

"Mom, can you please do my hair?"

"Sure, honey, come here."

Leslie sat down and lovingly braided her child's long, silky hair. Aiden had begged her to let it grow long, and she had never been able to deny her child anything. Aiden was the last thing she had to remember her husband by, and she would be damned if anything interrupted their happiness.

"There you go, sweetie. All done."

"Thanks, Mom," Aiden said as he turned around, giving her a wonderfully tight hug. "Can I go down to Jessica's house to play now?"

Leslie nodded, and sent him along down the street to his best friend's house. She wondered what they would do today, and how careful they would be to cover their tracks. She was sure Aiden had no idea she knew about his dressing up in Jessica's clothes while the two of them played, but Jessica's mother had made sure to let her know the first time it happened. She was fine with it, so long as he was happy, and let her friend know not to bother them about it.

While she had the time, she started on cleaning their small home. As she was putting away the laundry in her son's room, she was less than surprised to find several pairs of young girl's underwear in his bottom drawer. Smiling, she carefully hid them again and went back to her work.

Eight years old was so young. She would love her child forever, no matter what, boy or girl.

So long as Aiden was happy.