Profile of an older man with feathers in hair

Realism · Black and grey · Flash

A realistic drawing of an older man in left-facing profile, with deep lines on his forehead, cheek and mouth. Three feathers hang from a bound lock of hair at the back of his head, with chevron markings and dark tips. The soft, graded shading is done in black and grey on a white background, with strong highlights on the face and feathers.

Realism Portrait Man Profile Feather Hair

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The fare gets out at quarter to three, outside the chip shop on Hollis Road, and you watch the rain pick out his shape under the streetlamp before you pull away. He has left a haze of tobacco smoke in the back and, on the seat, three long feathers bound at the quill with a strip of faded red wool. You nearly call after him. Instead you hang them from the mirror, where they swing every time you brake for the lights on Calder Street.

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Over the next week the feathers collect stories. A nurse coming off a double shift asks where you got them, and you say a fare, which is true. A student tells you the markings look like arrows pointing back the way you came. You stop trusting the arrows after that, but you keep the feathers where they are, because the wool is fraying and you don't want to be the one who lets it go.

On Thursday the wool finally splits, and the feathers slide off the mirror onto the passenger seat. You pull over by the Lock Bridge, where the canal is black and still, and find a folded receipt tucked into the top quill. The writing is cramped and careful, and it says only to take them where the lights run slow.

You tie them back together with a bootlace, hang them up again, and pull out into the empty street, taking the long way past every red light you can find.