Moonlight

by Wilson Koewing

Blakelock sat alone by the window, painting what he could see of the moon over the wall that surrounded the asylum on a piece of cardboard. It was the summer of 1916. He’d fashioned a brush from trimmings of his own hair. Evans wandered by, twitching and babbling to himself. The other patients on the ward slept the heavy sleep of those well-dosed.

“Painting another masterpiece are you, Blakelock?” Evans said with a laugh.

An orderly named Johnson joined in the prodding.

“Yes, remind us Blakelock,” Johnson said. “What was the name of the record-setting painting, the one that sold for … how much was it?”

Blakelock sighed and set down his brush.

“Moonlight, you fools,” Blakelock said. “Must we go through this every evening?”

“And how much did it sell for?” Johnson asked.

“Twenty thousand dollars.”

“But you didn’t see a red cent?”

“It sold at auction,” Blakelock said. “I parted with the painting long ago.”

“You hear that Evans?” Johnson said slapping his knee. “Blakelock should be one of the richest men in New York State, but he’s stuck here with you.”

After a moment, Evans began to laugh somewhat maniacally, though it was unclear if he understood why.

Blakelock shook his head and picked up the brush. On the cardboard canvas, a yellow black sky melted behind the bars on the windows of the asylum, a silver moon sliced out of the darkest black in the upper righthand corner, and the impression of soft moonlight rose from the ink and seemed to hang above the scene in a third dimension.

Blakelock flicked his hand over the painting like he was removing eraser remnants and the illusion disappeared. Enraged, he scratched at the cardboard with the handle of the brush until it started to tear. Off in the distance, through the window and the bars, beyond the wall that surrounded the asylum, heat lightning flashed silently across the sky.

About the author

Wilson Koewing is a writer from South Carolina. His work has recently appeared in JMWW, Bending Genres, Trampset, New World Writing and Ghost Parachute.

About the artwork

The illustration is Moonlight by Ralph Albert Blakelock, oil painting ca. 1883-1889. In the collection of High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. In the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.