Music Meets Prose: Vixen (Part 1)

Music Meets Prose is our weekly bite-size prose feature on fictional stories inspired by real life behind-the-scenes events in the music industry. 

Our prose this week is entitled Vixen - a three-part short story. Look out for our prose features every Friday.

Vixen

Written by Bemi

Abstract artwork by Zaahira

Part 1 

It was a new dawn, a new era, or at least a second chance to turn her life around. Lina looked at the reflection in the mirror, without any makeup, she was unrecognizable. The years of heavy drinking, coupled with botox injections had altered a once pretty face. Now that she couldn’t afford botox anymore, gravity had taken its natural course on her face. Lina was in her late thirties and pushing forty, but looked more like a day shy of her fiftieth birthday.

The daily ritual proceeded: Layers of concealers, followed by foundation and thirty minutes later, the red lipstick completed the routine. The image in the mirror was more appealing now – the gods of beauty had been appeased. A few wrinkles lined her neck, they were in sharp contrast to the near-perfect face. She got dressed and headed out of the apartment.

A bus pulled by the bus stop as Lina got to the pavement, she hopped on and paid the fare. She hadn’t been on a bus in over twenty years. It was strange getting on a bus and sitting next to commuters in a rough neighbourhood – suddenly, it all felt surreal. A month ago she had a home – a lovely condo.  Here she was, homeless, moving from one friend’s home to another, sleeping on a different couch every night.

A month ago Lina had a condo; however, it was paid for by a married man. Unfortunately, after he passed away, his family evicted her from the condo has it was never legally in her name. Neither was the Range Rover which was hauled away after the missed payments.

At the age of 18, straight out of high school, she relocated to Los Angeles. Lina wanted to be a video vixen – she had the look and wanted to work in the music industry. In the early days of her career, she got top paying video jobs and extra income from private parties. The private parties paid a lot – she had to do a lot more in the bedroom for the cheques, but the pay was good. There were parties on private jets, yachts and the best hotels around the world – that was the good life. 


Many thanks to our volunteer abstract artist Zaahira. Lookout for Part-2 next Friday (Oct 31).