At last, after one thousand, two hundred and eighty-eight miles, Regine arrives at the esplanade in her gorgeous green Bugatti. Hood down, eyes bright, Besamé red lipstick immaculately applied, she breathes in the Mediterranean sea, the pastel pink façades of the hotels, the swaying palm trees. On the last leg from Paris, she drove all night, as fast as she could to stay awake, around the hairpin bends, over the jagged passes of the Esterel Mountains.

From the glass revolving doors of the Hôtel Métropole, a couple of girls, both in frothing white dresses, spill out onto the shimmering pavement. Ten o’clock in the morning and the girls are zozzled. Regine laughs. She thinks back to three nights ago, at the Brâncuşi salon. Supper, with glass after glass of fizzing champagne served in Bohemian crystal flutes; singing, poetry, laughter. Soft lamplight, bare arms, and the downy kiss-point on the nape of the Countess’s neck.

Regine turns left off the esplanade, into a ramshackle garage. The name on the rickety sign reads Garage des Orchidées. A faintly handsome mechanic tops up the gas. “Bonne chance, Madame! May you win first place in the Rally!” He steals an admiring glance at Regine and taps the Bugatti’s bonnet. If only my husband were like that, she thinks.

On her lap, Regine spreads out a dog-eared map. The names of the villages and hills along the route trip off her tongue—La Cime du Mas, Saint-Agrève, Col de Turini. She adjusts the leather strap of her helmet, hesitates for a mere moment, then pulls divorce papers from the glove compartment. After carefully signing in green ink, she pulls on her driving gloves, blasts the horn twice, then roars off in a swirling cloud of dust.

*Publisher’s Notes:

Autoportrait (Self-Portrait in a Green Bugatti) (oil on panel, 1928) was painted by Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) in Paris. The German fashion magazine Die Dame commissioned the portrait for the cover of the magazine (published on 1 July 1929), to celebrate the independence of women. Autoportrait is among the best-known examples of Art Deco portrait painting.

The original work is held in a private collection. Image above was downloaded from Wikipedia.

See also this article by Isabella Hill in Daily Art Magazine (22 July 2022): Masterpiece Story: Tamara de Lempicka’s Autoportrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti).

Links were retrieved on 27 August 2023.

Jane Salmons

is from Stourbridge in the UK. Her first poetry pamphlet, Enter GHOST, was published by dancing girl press in 2022. Her debut poetry collection, The Quiet Spy, was published by Pindrop Press, also in 2022.

Jane has micro and flash fiction stories published with MacQueen’s Quinterly, The Ekphrastic Review, Ink Sweat & Tears, and in the Ad Hoc Fiction anthologies Dandelion Years and Flash Fiction Festival Five; and forthcoming in The Dribble Drabble Review. Her work has been shortlisted for the Bath Flash Fiction Award, and nominated for Best Microfiction 2023 and Best of the Net 2024. Her story Miracle Grow won the Pokrass Prize at the Bath Flash Fiction Festival held in 2022.

Author’s website: https://www.janesalmonspoetry.co.uk

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ The Weightlessness of Love, ekphrastic microfiction by Jane Salmons in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 12, March 2022); nominated by MacQ for the Best Microfiction 2023 anthology.

⚡ Passengers, ekphrastic microfiction by Jane Salmons, in Starry, Starry Night: An ekphrastic anthology inspired by Van Gogh’s masterpiece, published by The Ekphrastic Review (25 February 2022)