She came to a screeching halt at the red light. Mason glanced to his left and caught a glimpse of her flaming red hair flowing in the wind as she puffed on a vape. The trail of smoke consumed the small vehicle and obscured her face.
For some reason, he felt an immediate twinge. He didn't know her from any other female he'd seen that afternoon on the way home from work. But somehow, he sensed he did. From another time and place perhaps. Strong, self-assured, and beautiful. And she was exactly the type of woman he admired from the comics. The kind of woman that he pictured himself with as a lifelong crime-fighting duo.
She can be my fantasy any day, he smiled. If she wasn't in such a rush to beat that yellow light a block back, I wouldn't have met my future partner.
A ten woman with a ten man. The stuff superheroes were made of.
I'm not too bad-looking if I say so myself, he mused. A bit shy, I must admit; a typical business guy who just happened to enjoy and collect comic books in his spare time. I wonder if she's a connoisseur.
He smiled broadly, knowing he hadn't allotted free time for himself to meet real-life females. The ones portrayed in the comics were more exciting. Attempting to remember which comic series they'd fit perfectly in, he didn't notice the antics in the back seat of her car.
Mason lingered so long on this fantasy that he didn't hear honking behind him.
Another block. If she didn't turn left, he'd follow her. However, since he always traveled in the safe lane, he'd not be able to switch quickly to keep up.
Just my luck, he thought, a bit reckless, as she quickly pivoted into the right lane without activating a lane change signal, then immediately turned into the service station. All this right in front of him. Exciting!
Clicking his turn signal with haste, he followed her into the service station. Although other pumps were open, he pulled up behind her and waited.
She stepped out of the vehicle and surveyed her surroundings.
Immediately, his dream shattered. She wasn't five-foot ten, with a sleek figure molded to a super heroine, tailored skin suit. Her face wasn't that of a contestant in a beauty pageant.
Instantly, a voice penetrated his crushed delusion. "Mom, I need to go to the bathroom." Another shill sound erupted from the car. "I'm hungry. Are we there yet? I want McNuggets!
Mason shook his head violently as reality surfaced. Sitting behind the woman of his comic book fantasy, he cursed beneath his breath. Stupid. Stupid.
His hand shot out and gripped the gear stick, shifting in reverse. He exited the station as quickly as oncoming traffic allowed.
The woman stood with one hand on her hip, the other hand pumping her gas nozzle, simultaneously screaming at the unruly children in the backseat of her car.
As she watched Mason speed off, she reached deep into her daisy duke's back pocket.
"Hey," she replied. "Around the corner getting gas. What ya need? Yeah, I can do that."
She paused, then remembered.
"What a crappy day I woke up to. Then, when I finally got those kids out the door and on the road, some weird dude followed me into the gas station. He was acting suspicious. Don't know what was up with him? Probably no good; one step ahead of the law. I know one thing; he'd have one surprise to find out I was packin' and would bust a cap in his ass before he could get out of his car. Glad I didn't get caught up in whatever fantasy he was going through. I've enough problems with these damn kids."
She flipped the phone shut, slid it back down into her shorts, took a drag from her vape, then finished pumping gas.
For my current freestyle collage, I wanted to combine different art, fiction and a digital design. My theme entails young man who's captivated by superheroes. I hope my short story fiction embodies the collage design. My style of collage is a Freestyle. Although I'm not required to utilize any contest photo in my design, I sometimes do. However, if you'd like to join in visit: LMAC Community.
To assist the collage design, my inspiration for the micro story came from a prompt in the Freewriters Community 28 July 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3178: be my fantasy.
In preparing my theme, I discovered a cute tom cat dressed in a man's suit. A shadow in the background was perfect for my theme. All I had to do was to detach his head from his shoulders and blend the other images. The cloudy, gray background image was a free background from Canva available to me through my pro subscription.
To accomplish the blending, I utilized Canva to blend the different type images. Below are my steps in which I began with a blank, white canvas, then added layers of elements, removing backgrounds, resizing, duplicating, detaching elements from their backgrounds, colorizing, and repositioning items as needed incorporating the tools at my disposal in my Annual Pro Membership Subscription.
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The images I included to complete my theme are listed below.
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| Item | Contributor | Source |
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| Cat in a suit sitting in a chair | Pixabay | Link |
| Superman Logo | PurePNG | Link |
| Brain on gold strings background | Pixabay | Link |
| Delicate wildflower seed dispersal on prickly lettuce | Contributed to #LIL by @m1alsan | Link |
Below is my completed collage design:
Thanks for your visit. I appreciate it. I hope you like my freestyle collage theme.
CONTEST RULES
#####IMPORTANT NOTICE:
It is imperative that you read the post LMAC School - Public Domain Picture sources (Free Materials for creating collages) by @quantumg, which discusses public domain issues. The post offers valuable information on images for commercial use. Links are included to sources that offer public domain images and other images that are free for commercial uses. Using public domain pictures and free pictures for commercial use are requirements for all collages that are submitted as entries in the LMAC contest and the LMAC Image Library (LIL).
| What is Let's Make a Collage? | It is a photography and collage contest where entries can be submitted. |
|---|---|
| Who created the contest? | @quantumg is the contest owner. |
| What type of contest is it? | This Contest utilizes a single photo provided by the contest owner as the basis for you to create your own photo collages by adding to the photo provided. |
| What are the rules? | 1. Use as your starting point for your collage the photography provided by the contest owner. It is located on the contest owner's post for free use without any copyright protection. |
| 2. Entries are required to be posted to the LMAC community and must contain a link to the contest post. | |
| 3. Entries need to set the LMAC account (@lmac) as 20% beneficiary to be eligible for the dynamic component of the prize pool.; | |
| 4. Extra support with the LMAC trail to all collages where LIL assets have been included AND the respective LIL-contributors set as 2% beneficiaries; | |
| 5. By submitting your contribution you agree that your artwork remains public domain and that it can be copied, modified and distributed, even for commercial purposes, without requiring further permission. | |
| 6. Any graphical element that is added to the photography either needs to be your own original work (e.g. own artwork or photography) OR needs to derive from sites whitelisted by LMAC. | |
| 7. IMPORTANT: Indicate the source of all materials used in your accompanying post. Otherwise your entry can NOT be put up for the final vote. | |
| 8. All sort of editing, modification and/or manipulation is allowed as long as no copyright is affected. | |
| What do you win? | Prizes listed on the contest owner's post. |
Good luck everyone with whatever your endeavors.
SUPPORTS THESE COMMUNITIES:
SOURCES: a) JustClickindiva's Footer created in Canva utilizing its free background and images used with permission from discord admins. b) Unless otherwise noted, all photos taken by me with my (i) Samsung Galaxy 10" Tablet, (ii) Samsung Phone, & (iii) FUJI FinePix S3380 - 14 Mega Pixels Digital Camera c) Purple Butterfly part of purchased set of Spiritual Clip Art for my Personal Use d) All Community logos, banners, page dividers used with permission of Discord Channel admins. e) Ladies of Hive banner used with permission of and in accordance with the admin's guidelines f) Thumbnail Image created by me in Canva. g) "Flames." What is Apophysis 2.09. https://flam3.com/
English is my native language. If translation included, I use DeepL to assist my readers. Thanks for your patience an understanding.
