Her nose bent slightly left, but the tip followed her cheek down and back to the right. He wondered if the woman, who was seated at the next table, was born that way or had once been punched. Wearing dark sunglasses allowed him to study people unobserved, so it was worth the aggravation of being followed by mall security who suspected that he shoplifted. He sketched her nose into the half-finished drawing in his notebook. It fit perfectly above the pouting lips of the girl at the coffee counter, and the acne-scarred cheeks of the janitor pushing a mop nearby.

Louella Lester

is a Winnipeg (Canada) writer and photographer. Her writing has appeared in journals such as New Flash Fiction, Blink-Ink, Flash Flood, Potato Soup, Cleaver, The Odd Magazine, Litro, Five Minutes, SoFloPoJo, The Dribble Drabble Review, and a variety of other journals and anthologies. Her book Glass Bricks (At Bay Press, April 2021), written in flash and micro, is a quirky look at her work life.

Author’s blog: Through Camera & Pen