Writing Prompt 4: Ceiling Lamp
We’ve Been Here Before
How do you feel about the changing rooms in clothing stores? The lighting, the tight space with only a curtain for privacy. Or does this photograph remind you of somewhere else? A prison, a fashionable bar, a phone booth perhaps.
Place yourself, here in this picture, and write from there.
The shop assistant counts out the items I’ve slung over my forearm.
One, two, three, four, five. Five dresses.
Here we go. The Humiliation.
The shop's interior is fashionably dark and warm, the fitting rooms individually placed around a large round sofa. Curtains hang across each cubicle. I drag the heavy fabric across the pole, which sits way above my head. and give the last few centimetres a sharp tug. An obstinate gap hangs open down the right-hand side. I tuck the fabric by the wall thinking somehow it might stick. It falls back open again.
I look around for a hook or a rail or something to hang my coat. There isn't one. Instead, I take off my coat and fold it up, placing it on a low stool in the corner. It promptly slides off into a pile on the floor.
The light hangs above my head on a thick chain. Christ. The mirror, the top-down lighting, and the dark paint on the walls make my face look full of unflattering shadows. I pull my hair back into a rough ponytail. Not any better. I sigh as I pull my sweatshirt over my head and unbutton my jeans. I push the denim down my legs. My knees from a recent fall are still bruised and grazed. I brush my fingertips over them. Tender pain prickles my skin.
I pull a tight dress over my head, pulling and pushing my arms through the sleeves, pulling the fabric down over the rest of my body. I feel like a sausage. The neckline sits lower than I thought it would. I push my breasts to create some cleavage. There’s barely anything there at all. The light falls across the top of my head highlighting my grey hair. I wonder, in silence, as I look in the mirror, where all the years have gone.
First posted November 2020 // Photo: James Chaytor 2020
