Visions of Johanna

Johanna was tired of going on dating sites and browsing profiles, she needed something different to do when she saw this flyer about recreational art classes.  Joanna was a bisexual single woman who was the mother of an eleven-year-old daughter.  She had satisfying sex with both genders, but she was more physically attracted to men and more emotionally attracted to women.  The flyer said that this would be a great way to meet new friends while learning new skills.  She signed up thinking that learning something exciting and trying new things could be just the ticket for her.  She had already tried cooking classes, singing lessons, several different dance classes, a gardening class, interior decorating, and she learned to speak Spanish, but since this Quarantine didn’t seem like it was going away in the foreseeable future, so she needed something to occupy her time.

Johanna had these visions that conquered her mind, and they kept her up past the dawn.  A tea kettle haunted her dreams, and she knew that she had to paint it so she could repress her inner demons.  She had just come back from a trip to London, and she couldn’t understand why British people thought that putting the kettle on is going to solve everything.  She knew this was their way of showing solidarity and that it would never fix a problem, but it was an act of kindness that could lead to conversation and maybe that could help people feel better.  Johanna was gaining confidence as her brush swirled around on the canvas, and by letting her creativity flow, it was helping the unconscious aspects of her personality, which was very soothing.  She finished the painting, but the tea kettle dream was still keeping her awake at night, so she decided to destroy her work and now these visions of Johanna are all that remain.

Written for Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #191.