The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Pareidolia
by Alina Măciucă

“What’s that behind uncle Florian’s head? That red spot there, to the right.” She sat in the Deco chair with her feet tucked under her body and a Mai Tai in her left hand.

“It’s been ages since someone last used this thing. These slides could be damaged.” He opened a bag of lentil chips and stuck five of them in his mouth. 

“You’re ruining my family moment with all that munching.” 

The projector displayed the next slide with a clicking sound. She took another sip of her drink and he folded the bag of chips away.

Uncle Florian wore an unbuttoned shirt and a pair of blue shorts. His nipples pointed to his socks, he sat with his varicose legs crossed. Unflattering. 

“Think that’s mold or something? You can barely see his face in this one.”

“I snatched all these from your folks’ attic.”

Click. Uncle Florian had cake on his face and grinned for the camera. The smallest of the three preschoolers put her tongue out at the photograph.

“That’s me, right there,” she said. “One, two, three, four, who does that face belong to?”

“What face, dear?” 

“Oh, come on. There’s a second face between Florian’s head and the cabinets.”

“I thought we agreed that’s just dirt.”

“Sure. Scornful dirt. Can’t you see the way it’s looking at me?”

The slide projector switched to the next photo. Uncle Florian held his hands in the air and the kids did the Macarena. 

“If you don’t see that huge head biting at my face, then you really need a new pair of glasses.”

“Calm down, sweetie. There’s no head. It’s like when you’re a kid and you look at the sky and see giraffes in the clouds.”

She put her leather slippers back on, hunched over the projector and reached for one of the slides inside. It stopped buzzing and the room went dark. 

“Do something, my fingers are stuck.” 

“You can’t stick your fingers in a slide projector, sweetie. It’s impossible.”

“Move it, it hurts.” Her arm slided in, her shoulder was next. Her head followed, then the rest of her body. 

He shoved a handful of lentil chips in his mouth and gulped down the Mai Tai. At least, now they both knew where that head came from.

Fiction © Copyright Alina Măciucă
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More about Alina Măciucă:

Alina Măciucă enjoys reading, writing, buying odd trinkets, and taking photos of beautifully decaying buildings. She has formally studied religion and hermeneutics at the University of Bucharest, and really has a thing for the Greco-Roman mysteries and Gnosticism, as well as for Renaissance magic. She lives in Bucharest with her very supportive boyfriend, their two cats, and an ever-expanding vinyl and book collection.