Flash Fiction Friday: Consummation

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When they were both naked, she spoke:  “Make love to me.”

He pulled her to him, lips joined together, bodies locked in a fervent embrace.  After all this time, after every dream of her, it was really happening.  He had wanted this for so long.  He wondered why she changed her mind, then thought better of it.

Suddenly, voices cut through the silent darkness.  The police!

Raising his hands, he stepped away from her.  She cried out in protest, reaching for him desperately as the handcuffs caught his wrists.

“Can you believe this guy?” said one of the officers to the other. “Who breaks into Macy’s just to molest the mannequins?” (111/111)

Behind the Scenes

This week's Flash Fiction Friday prompt was provided by Ram the Sunlover in Panserbjørne's absense.  Upon first glance, the woman in the photo appeared somehow unreal.  I'm not sure why this is, exactly, but my initial impression stuck with me and when it came time to write, I considered making her an inflatable doll, a wax sculpture as in a museum, or - as was ultimately the case - a department store mannequin.

I was inspired in part by a pair of Twilight Zone episodes:  1960's The After Hours, in which Anne Francis has a curious encounter with mannequins on the ninth floor of a department store; and 1963's Miniature, in which Robert Duvall plays a young introvert who develops a romance of sorts with a miniature figurine in a dollhouse.

As sometimes happens, I made it to the end of the story and realized that I forgot to include the required phrase ("...dream of...").  As the word count was pretty tight, my final revision involved my shaving the story down in a few places in order to make it fit.

Is it me, or does the man in the picture resemble Bill O'Reilly?

Deleted Scenes

This week's challenge had a very low word budget, with only 111.  Knowing this when I plotted my story, I was able to keep my work lean.  As hinted above, some florid prose had to be trimmed.  Additionally, I excised my original opening line: She was unashamed of her nakedness.  I originally intended this line to portray the unnamed protagonist's fantasy object as completely at ease in his presence, uninhibited and ready to submit to passion, if only in his own mind.

Soundtrack

Nadia Ali's song "Fantasy" features the tempo and the desperate urgency that I had in mind when writing this story.