A (Blank) Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

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"Isn't it beautiful?"

"Stunning. I've never seen anything like it. Josifa, have you?"

The woman he called Josifa sat still, her legs crossed at the ankles. She looked at the people who sat on either side of her: the one they called David, and the one they called Agelina. From side to side her head moved. She tried to read their faces. They were serious.

"Well," murmured Josifa, "it is surprising." She stared at the blank wall and struggled to keep an earnest expression.

The one they called David leapt from his seat, his enthusiasm too much to contain in a passive posture.

"This is even better than her last one." He made a sweeping gesture with his arms and indicated the black wall to their right. The black, blank wall.

"That's her last one?" Concealing her incredulity was becoming impossible for Josifa. She fought the urge to laugh. She really did. But it came out. A loud, belly-full-of-jelly guffaw.

Angelina and David moved away from her.

"I'm sorry," she exclaimed hurriedly. "It's just that, they are so powerful. They make me feel an almost irrational urge to indulge in something spontaneous. Am I the only one who is moved to express myself so freely?"

They studied her face, and then they they relaxed.

"The pieces do have that effect. That's it, freedom! Have you read her manifesto?"

"She has a manifesto?" Josifa was in danger. It was starting again. The laugh. Rising up.

"Why yes!" David's eyes glowed as he spit out the title.

Art Without Constraint. Art Without Form. Freedom.

Josifa didn't find the situation funny anymore. She thought of The Emperor's New Clothes. Then she thought of Brave New World and of a recent political leader in her country. Then she thought of Kool-Aide. The laughter was gone.

She moved away from David and Angelina.

"You'll have to excuse me. This has been fascinating, but I really do have to go. It's too bad I'll miss the rest of the show but...I forgot about...my mother-in-law. Coming tonight. You know how it is."

They looked puzzled, not quite convinced. Josifa didn't care.

"Please, though," she adopted her most convincing tone. "Let me know when she's having another show."

They nodded in assent, but when Josifa was rounding the corner, disappearing from sight, David called out, "How do we reach you?"

Josifa heard the words, quickened her step, and ran out the exit.

The was written in response to the Freewriter's contest: A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words - 3/19/2022 by Freewritehouse.