A bumble outside, endless whistling and blinking in vain against our unprecedented leader’s bluster and lies that seep like slime from every nook and crack. It’s a trick. His own brand of trap, you whisper, splayed out on the sofa, your leftover leaflets scattered on the floor. All this gloom. You slow-blink your ebony eyes. I want to ride those long lashes. But I hold the escape key, he grins. I flick my ash and stub my cigarette out on threadbare carpet, mesmerized by the velvet of your voice. The cacophony beyond these walls trickles to a garble. Limp as a dead man’s lipstick, I could hear my mother drawl, then turn the page of her ladies’ magazine. Dipstick? I ask the air, as Ma’s long ago shelved her verve, flown off to an apple-pie world. Returning to mine, I wonder whether your kisses would taste salty. My brain and parts triangular wiggle in anticipatory bliss. I’ve been starving for this banquet, so I slip off my ring, finagle a fling, dive in, toss you my key, show you how to unlock all my doors. After, we splinter along with the mirror. It’s only ever been optics, you assure me. First we’re here and then we’re not. Seems, looking back, I was always looking forward.

*See audio snippet (01:17) for “René Magritte. La Reproduction interdite (Not to Be Reproduced). Brussels, 1937” from the exhibition Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926–1938 at MoMA online:
https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/180/2381

Mikki Aronoff

writes tiny stories and advocates for animals. Her work has been long-listed for the Wigleaf Top 50 and nominated for Best American Short Stories, Best Microfiction, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and the Pushcart Prize. She has stories in Best Microfiction 2024 and Best Small Fictions 2024, and forthcoming in Best Small Fictions 2025.

Her writing also appears in 100 word story, Atlas and Alice, Bending Genres, The Citron Review, The Disappointed Housewife, The Dribble Drabble Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Flash Boulevard, Gone Lawn, The Mackinaw, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Midway Journal, Milk Candy Review, Mslexia, New World Writing, The Offing, Tiny Molecules, trampset, and elsewhere. She lives in New Mexico.