Shadows of the Moon, Chapter 6

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A progressive short story from the Akron Writers’ Group, Wordplay. Written Winter, 2017.

Chapter Six: Liz Flaherty

“Jason,” Tessa said. She had to concentrate on breathing again. In. Out. In. A little gasp betrayed the case of nerves that had overtaken her body. She needed that vision of water to come back. “The Tessa Study. Do you still want it?”

“Ah.”

Tessa’s heart sank. She thought that even after all this time, world famous artist Jason Edward Marleton – who used to be Jason Edwards, a day shift waiter at Applebee’s – would jump at the chance to regain ownership of the Tessa Study. It had been his first, and arguably his best, when he’d been a Raphael devotee. He’d loved – and displayed to advantage – every bump and crevice in her post-high-school body. What her father would have called “warts and all” if, God forbid, he’d known the sketches and paintings ever existed.

That had been the only blessing, that her father was already gone. The modeling had paved Alisha’s and her ways through things their parents’ life insurance hadn’t covered. Braces for Alisha. Old Navy jeans instead of Goodwill. Because of Tessa’s modeling, they could nearly always afford hamburger instead of ramen noodles like many of their student friends. They’d laughed at the time, but it had been true.

Only Jason had painted her face. And brought it to life. Everything from the chickenpox scar near her ear to the birthmark that painted a thin dark slash on her jaw. The chestnut hair that had flowed thick and lustrous down her back in those days had looked so real in the paintings that she’d reached out to touch it.

She’d stopped modeling for anyone else by the time he did the nudes. Alisha had been doing well in college, and accounting was financially kind to Tessa. It had been the expression on her face that had made her stop modeling for Jason. She’d always heard that eyes were windows into the soul, but in her case, it was her face. Anyone could have looked at the pieces and known the model loved the artist.

And that the artist burned to possess the model. Heart, soul, and body. He’d wanted to show the paintings even though she’d begged him not to. He’d slapped her hard when she’d insisted and then he’d painted an angry hand shape on her cheek in one of the profiles. The red of the handprint had bled painfully into the birthmark.

The paintings were almost as frightening as they were good. It had taken every cent she had saved to persuade Jason to sell them to her. Fortunately for her, his need for drug money had outweighed his need to possess her in any way.

It had all been years ago. Before Alisha married Ted and before Tessa met Will and discovered the real difference between love and possession. Will knew about Jason. Sort of. And he knew about Alisha’s problems. He would support Tessa in her wish to help her sister, but support and $150,000 might be two different things. All the better if he never had to know.

She looked at the clock on the kitchen wall, thinking abstractedly that it needed to have its face cleaned – it got greasy there where they hung it near the stove – and that Will should have called by now. Surely he was at the airport in Iceland by now, or perhaps the airline had already announced flight cancellations. Jupiter was on its lethal way to the east coast. She prayed his flight would be delayed a day.

“Yes.” Jason’s voice came after a heavy silence. “I still want the collection. How badly do you want to sell it?”

She hesitated. Took another deep breath. And searched for the sound of the sea. And then she answered him.

Shadows of the Moon

A chapter will be released once a month. The first chapter was released January 5, 2025.

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