2011? How was this 2011? Seems like yesterday and still one of my favourite stories because I got the writing and story just as I wanted. Thinking of including it in a collection.
I also remember sshhhing the husband while putting on the final polish.
My inspiration was the title of the anthology and the ‘Green Muse’ painting by French history painter and illustrator Albert Pierre René Maignan.
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Bitter and Intoxicating
Émile beheld the rough lines of age and labour in the hand before him. The network of passing years bisected by a scar and punctuated by torn cuticles threatened to entrap him in a labyrinth of wanting. If only he could capture the essence of that hand, the person it belonged to, in a drawing.