Into Slumber

Back in 2007 I was a member of a blogging site called Journalspace, and a friend I’d made there posted a vignette in her blog called White Ribbon . I found it captivating, and asked her what the story behind it was, but she said it was simply an image that had sprung into her head. She knew neither what had happened before its beginning nor what was to happen after its ending. She pressed me several times to expand it into a short story myself, but sadly, despite repeated attempts, I failed to satisfy her demands. However, in 2020, almost 13 years later, I decided to have a go at illustrating it. Here are both her vignette (reproduced with her permission) and my painting. It is highly stylised, and does not entirely match the text, but it was the best I could manage. I felt I had made at least some step towards compensating for my earlier inadequacy, though the idea of writing a complete story still haunts me. White ribbons hang carelessly from the ceiling. Three are strung tightly.