Yellow Mama E zine

Wicked Thoughts and Evil Dreams

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by Dale Scherfling

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          She found the paintings, raw and primitive, unsettling, yet studio-perfect.

          Her, beyond a doubt, in pastel strokes, Sunday dress around her waist, panties on the bedroom floor. Stockinged legs wrapped around him, pinning him closer as he thrust. Their mouths fused, filthy words painted in the kiss. Every motion faithfully rendered, her husband's hand in every line.

           She found two in his room. One she ripped to shreds, her fury loud in the tearing. But the other froze her, and minutes dragged, her pulse hammering. She hated what she saw, stung that he'd painted her like that. Yet, she lingered, circling back to her face—not her body, not the action, but her face—rendered with such care and detail it stopped her breath. He saw her.

Flushed, vivid, alive in a way the mirror had not shown in years. A vibrant woman buried within a quiet wife.

           He'd seen that. He'd painted that.

           She pressed the canvas to her chest, then shoved it away, and drew it back again. Tears blurred the image. Ashamed, she hid it deep in her panty drawer, as though burying a strange and dangerous secret.

           As she ran a bath, steam blurred her reflection in the full-length mirror. She studied herself, turning slowly, finding traces of what the canvas had revealed—glowing, alive, and almost lovely. He saw more than flesh. He saw her. She slid into the scalding water, torn between loathing the fantasy and desperately craving it.

            The craving won, and desire outweighed the shame. She touched herself, stroking to a fierce and sudden climax, gasping his name. Rising, she vowed: If that's his dream, I'll live it for him.

            And never wore panties again.

 

          Dale Scherfling is a newspaper veteran of 30 years, serving as a sportswriter, columnist, editor, and photographer and a retired Navy journalist and photographer. His work has appeared in Third Act Magazine, Does It Have Pockets Magazine, Lost Blonde Literary, All Hands Magazine, Pacific Crossroads, Daily Californian, Naval Aviation Magazine, Propeller Magazine, and Buckeye Guard Magazine. He is the recipient of three U.S. Army Front Page Journalism Awards. He is also a college lecturer and photography and music instructor.

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        Bernice Holtzman’s paintings and collages have appeared in shows at various venues in Manhattan, including the Back Fence in Greenwich Village, the Producer’s Club, the Black Door Gallery on W. 26th St., and one other place she can’t remember, but it was in a basement, and she was well received. She is the Assistant Art Director for Yellow Mama.