(Page 1 of 2) Scribbled Dreams by Rob Garbin
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SUMMARY: This is for the May 2009 flash fiction contest. Theme Holes. Jerry had worked on the drawing for hours but had only become frustrated. No matter how hard he tried, he could not work his way into the center of the paper, which was only nine inches by twelve inches. Never before had this occurred. The images on the periphery seemed to flow toward the center only to turn indistinct and hazy the closer they came to the heart of the page.
Various people, children and adults, followed spiraling paths through twisting vine-laden trees full of animal faces. Here a fox peeked from behind a log. There an Owl swooped across the page skillfully avoiding the spiral of white in the center. In the upper portions of the drawing creatures with more exotic features seemed to flow in a direction counter to the more natural beings in the lower half. Jerry was surprised the most by the fact that he had drawn several figures in both sections looking out at the viewer, their looks expectant.
When he started drawing this morning, his only intention was to draw a lone figure walking down a wide alley of autumn trees to exercise the feelings he got from this glorious fall day. The first tree he drew had been shorter and more twisted than he had intended but; somehow, seemed more interesting. Soon he had added leafy vines crawling along the ground and twinning thickly about the tree. Jerry decided to place a young man sitting at the base, which he followed with a pair of squirrels furtively watching him.
A soft breeze stirred fallen leaves into a dervish distracting his eyes from the paper. Returning to his drawing, Jerry began work on the right side with saplings and scrub brush dominated by a dead twisted tree. At this point, the central void had not become an issue. For some reason he decided to create a deeper shadowy section of woods across the top of the page. In a sun-streaked section, he placed an elfin maiden with long hair full of leaves. Jerry wasn't sure where that idea had come from but continued the theme with a variety of fairy folk skillfully hidden among the woods. For all his detailed work; however, the center of the page remained obstinately blank.
He began to feel a vague sense of annoyance. By now, he would have at least needed to erase errant pencil smudges, but the center was pristine white. He chose to continue working. In the top left corner, he used his blending stick and eraser to create a mist between the fairy woods and the human trees. He worked hard to extend the mist into the white blight but found only a withered tendril had appeared.
Now the artist's full attention was on the white stain. From the right side of the drawing, he tried working some brush into the center only to see it turn into thin thorny branches, which faded well short of the center.
"What the hell is going on?" Jerry grumbled.
He started pushing the path at the bottom upward. Again, well short of the center, it became sparse and diffuse. Finally, out of anger, Jerry scratched a line from the bottom left to the top right. He could not believe what he saw.
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