In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

embracing on the bed.
"What?"
"The name. You know: Madonna, Bjork, Beyoncé," Penny said,
yawning.
Max was immobile except for his eyes that were looping along
the plaster swirls of the ceiling. "Lose my gun! Lose my name! What
else do you want from me, huh, Penny Bell?" he chanted with a gleam
in his eye.
"Maia. MAIA! Mah-yaah!" Maia repeated in different voices,
her eyes also dancing on the ceiling.
Wiped out, Penny got up and went to the door.
"Yeah, well, it's a really cool plan! Sorry, guys, gotta get some
z's."
Penny woke to sunshine, shimmering through the voile curtains
that framed the windows, reflecting ghost-like in the tarnished mirror.
Over her head the mermaids splashed with the sea dragons in the clear
frothy sea and the winged babies fluttered about more like butterflies
than seagulls, their pink satin sash billowing behind them in the wind.
Her Palm Pilot on the bedside table said a quarter to eleven.
She dashed into the marble bathroom and turned on the
shower, then speed dressed and ran downstairs.
A different maid, chubby, but in the same crisp white apron
and tiara ushered her with a big smile into a sun drenched breakfast
room overlooking the garden, where a round table glittered with cutlery
and porcelain and starched fairytale hat napkins.
At one end of the large room, next to a potted tree dotted with
tiny oranges, was a grand piano, the hood raised, layers of well
thumbed music sheets on the stand. The maid brought in steaming pots
of coffee and tea.
After her peaceful breakfast of coffee and croissants and jams
to get her out of her hashish fuzz, she sat down at the piano.
In the garden frail yellow leaves trembled in the breeze.
Chopin, Schubert, Schumann. She played through the torn
pages of Chopin's nocturne in C sharp minor, opus 27, number 1. An
old favorite.
Then she tried the Schubert impromptu No. 4 in F Minor.
Penny looked behind her to find Signora standing in the doorway. She
entered with clapping flashes of red.
"Bravissima! But you capture the essence of Schubert absolutely
with that light, poetic touch! Do you also know the Grand Sonata,
95