What Would You Give?
TTST21 Silken Skin
What Would You Give? belongs to the following groups:
Twisted TalesThe mother held her child close, the new child, the youngest one, as she wandered through the close market. The noise surrounded her like waves washing, rocking back and forth.
“Lettuce, one dollar for a pound!” screamed the voices. “Hey there lovely lady, two dollars for this bag of broad beans!”
The mother smiled as she wandered, her hip jutting out with the child positioned just so. Testing the pineapple and smelling the mango. Broad beans for dinner? she thought, squeezing the old man beans in their flannelette pyjama cases.
“What wouldn’t you give…?” said a quiet murmuring voice. “What wouldn’t you give for silken skin like this?”
The woman looked up with her gentle questioning eyes towards the voice. The voice was from an older woman of indeterminate age, leaning into the baby, stroking the wrist of the mother’s child with the hands of experience. The mother smiled again, used to and expecting the compliments, settled into the reassurance of motherhood.
“Such skin, such skin,” the older woman murmured again, caressing the line where the arm of the child met the hand. No wrist as yet, just a line of yum, delectable and smooth. The child did not stir.
“But what would you give?” said the older woman again. This time she looked at the mother. “What would you give to have skin which doesn’t pucker and stretch, hands which never show the march of time with their pock marks and sag? What would you give to never see your breasts lose their shape and your hips disappear?”
The mother was intrigued. This was a question, a question bigger and brighter than any sales pitch in a chemist or at a cosmetic counter. What would she give?
The older woman opened her bag and showed the mother the container of cream – impossible youth, never grow old, stay just as you are, stay just there. The mother held the container on her hand, it was heavy and silver and shining with promise.
“What would you give?”
The mother handed over her child, and took the cream. It seemed a fair exchange.
lightsmith
LOLOL. A gorgeous twist indeed.
Matthew Dalton
I should have seen it coming but I didn’t. Great read Anya.
Paul Rees-Jones
Loved the flow of this piece and the twist.
Micky McGuinness
A great tale with a lovely twist on the theme… the lure of eternal youth
henrybones
The skin’s the thing! A well-imagined piece, with life and detail in so few words. Plus, of course, the tail.
jcmontgomery
What one would pay indeed….many things, but I never expected this. Well written as always Anya.
KMFalcon
Oh what a twist..chilling. Well done.
Banalheed
Oh what a brutal ending…but so beautifully written.
yt sumner
This is one of those things I wish I had written.
Zolton
Wonderful writing! The twist got me. Big smiles.
Mark Bateman
WOoooaoaoaaa! What a twist – and your writing leads to the final twist so beautifully..
Jeannette Sheehy
Congratulations on 2nd place in the October Star Twister finals with your other piece of writing. I love the way you write! :)
boydhao
Wow such a twist and even chilling ending…
greatly written :)
nataliajoukoff
Wow. The ending gave me chills for a moment and I couldn’t believe what I just read. Awesome twist!
TheWanderingBoo
Fantstic piece of writing…Such a brutal and chilling ending…Brilliant!!!
bpoetry
nice job, like the exchange, and disliked the old woman for the offering, nasty business when we think and look, and feel ourselves changing without our permission
mferg
what a price to pay for youthfulness – great read, well done!
anya replied
(bowing and smiling) thank you mferg. Nice of you to say!
Heinz
Where is this market?
Are they open on Sundays too?
I have enjoyed this.
Narcissus17
head held high saw it coming.
anya replied
sigh… oh dear Narcissus. Sorry about that. I’ll try harder next time.
ArcadiaTempest
AHHH…...the ending was so blunt. Cut the quick…....clever! Chills. You have intrigued me. Will be looking out for more. :)
anya replied
Thanks Arcadia – didn’t mean for it to be quite as nasty as it seems, as I thought it was a fairly reasonable exchange…
ArcadiaTempest
NO nasty here at all…..just good writing!
exposedbutloved
wow what an end
NoeleneThompson
Really did NOT expect that ending! Beautiful writing.
KarenKSmith
Great story!
anya replied
thank you Karen. I’m really chuffed everyone thinks so
mistletoes
I think I knew the ending as soon as I started reading, but the horror of it still slapped me so hard I gasped. You know of course that you’ve really written an awesome metaphor for life, for the way we trade the things that really matter for “baubles, bangles, and bright shining beads”.
Raindrops
very macabre LOL LOL