Annabelle (PHP Shorts)

Annabelle’s mother desires only to serve and love her self-immersed, narcissistic artist husband who paints her suggestively in the nude. She does this at the expense of having a loving relationship with her own daughter Annabelle.

From a dark corner, the child Annabelle discreetly observes this sensual artistic dance as she drifts into a world in which her desperate need to be loved mixes with erogenous feelings for her father, producing lasting confusion and unresolved remorse.

As Annabelle spills out her failed childhood with a therapist, erotic fantasies emerge, confused and confabulated by time. Annabelle interprets one particular event, both fearsome and stimulating. Sitting atop her fragile psyche is a powerful sensual connection to a time when her father painted her nude at a tender age.

Annabelle sifts through the cobwebs of her repentance, floating through a cloud of unresolved guilt. When she most required love and attention as a child, her self-absorbed parents pushed her away. She became a child lost in confused, unrequited love and chaotic feelings for her father.

Nancy Christie adroitly describes a remarkable journey through the mind of a woman lost between desire and guilt, unable to formulate a pathway through life that adequately resolves love and sexual desire.

This spellbinding short story will mesmerize the reader with powerful character development and a tale sadly familiar to many women. It’s hard to imagine anyone who will not read this excellent book through on the first attempt.