Something's Missing

This is a contest entry for "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge"  (as a part of the Writer's League Challenge) using the following prompt:

Write a story that includes a sketchbook, a hat, and a lucky object.

300 words

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         “Hold still,” Samantha ordered. “I can’t draw you while you’re moving.”

         “Sorry,” Tyler apologized, fighting the urge to scratch his nose.

         Samantha laughed at his impatience. “Remind me why I’m drawing you again?” she joked.

         “Because your little lucky rabbit foot can’t get you into that fancy French arts school,” Tyler replied, grinning as Samantha’s head snapped up from her sketchpad.

         “That was a rhetorical question. I wasn’t expecting an answer,” she informed him, trying not to smile. “And there’s nothing wrong with my lucky rabbit foot!” she added.

         “Actually, you’re drawing me because my good looks could make any sketch a masterpiece,” Tyler said seriously.

         Samantha snorted. “That may be so, but a tree would have been so much easier. Not to mention trees don’t talk.” She looked back down to continue drawing, but something wasn’t right.

         “What’s wrong?” Tyler asked anxiously, leaning forward.

         “I’m not sure…something’s missing,” she said slowly, looking first at Tyler and then at her sketchbook.

         The picture was definitely amazing. She had tried to recreate the view of a handsome Frenchman dining at a restaurant along the Seine. The Seine in her picture was really the muddy Mississippi, and Tyler was the Frenchman.

         “Hmmm….” Samantha wondered. She drummed her fingers on the sketchpad and gnawed on her pencil. She pictured France in her mind. Adorning the head of almost every Frenchman was . . . “That’s it!” Samantha exclaimed, hitting her head. “How could I have been so stupid?” She stood up suddenly. “Tyler, we have to go back to town!”

         “Why?”

         “To get a beret, of course,” she explained.

         “I am NOT wearing one of those ugly things!” Tyler exclaimed defiantly.

         “Please?” Samantha begged.

         “Nope. Sorry. But I will go get your lucky rabbit’s foot…turns out you might be needing it after all!”

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