Lady Peace struts her stuff when times are good. When the Gross Domestic Product is rising; industry, bustling; exports outpacing imports. Lady Peace knows how to dance when the music plays gaily. She dresses jaunty and wears enticing lipstick. Kisses for everyone!
Lady Peace champions the rights of the People. Good times only beget more good times. And the music plays on.
But Lady Peace dances to a lie.
Under every euphonic melody is an insidious fugue, waiting to rise to discordant prominence. Behind every dance of jubilation is a suitor looking to cut in, spoil the harmony, steal a kiss, and smear her lipstick.
With the kiss of death.
Lady Peace thinks all is well when all is quiet. History has shown, however, that absence of trouble is a seductive vacuum. Somewhere it is brewing, where the Gross Domestic Product is falling; where industry is idle; where imports outpace exports; where opportunity is a blind means to an end. Lady Peace has no idea she has a disgruntled claimant to the throne.
In Sarajevo it was the bullet that felled Archduke Franz Ferdinand. In the Pacific it was a sortie of Mitsubishi Zeros. In Europe it was the appeasing naïveté of Lord Chamberlain. Examining yesteryear is a walk of terror, yet Lady Peace is a debutante, oblivious —
— until her lipstick is smudged and the kiss of death stains her lips for a generation. It happens still. It's happening now.
Inspired from Novel Allen's top story, Eucalipstick https://vocal.media/fiction/eucalipstic#comment-16e9e1f4-824d-401e-b931-bb0c6b697468
About the Creator
Gerard DiLeo
Retired, not tired. In Life Phase II: Living and writing from a decommissioned church in Hull, MA. (Phase I was New Orleans and everything that entails. Hippocampus, behave!
https://www.amazon.com/Gerard-DiLeo/e/B00JE6LL2W/
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More stories from Gerard DiLeo and writers in Fiction and other communities.
Roulette
I spied on him through the glass. I could see how unhappy he was. How utterly depressed he was. I could see his hopelessness. I know that look, I thought. How it felt when your body seems to be doing things at the direction of some deeper, more primitive desperation. I found his despair fascinating.
By Gerard DiLeo7 months ago in Fiction
Comments (3)
Awesome!!! Both word and story were fabulous!!!
Totally agree that it still happens and it's happening now! This was such a fantastic story. I loved your word!
I swear we are in the time of eucalypstick right now Gerald. Kisses are spreading rapidly. I sure hope everyone hides from those lips. A really fun word here. Thanks for the shoutout.