Drama-box

The footlights flickered back on, one by one.

Lena wasn’t amused. Art people were strange, but this was suspicious. She cut the wax with a box cutter and lifted the lid. drama-box

Inside, nestled in black velvet, was a single object: a miniature wooden stage, no larger than a shoebox, complete with crimson curtains and brass footlights. And on that stage stood two tiny mannequins—a man in a pinstripe suit, a woman in a floral dress—posed mid-argument, their wooden faces frozen in expressions of exaggerated grief. The footlights flickered back on, one by one