Picture perfect

A short story by Rosie Nixon

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It was an unseasonably cold and rainy April morning on West Wittering beach.

With the hardened stoicism of a local who would walk whatever the weather, Leni was taking her regular early Sunday morning stroll. Dressed in stout walking boots, jeans and a faded anorak that had seen better years, she was following her usual route, one that took exactly 45 minutes, meaning she would be home in time for Desert Island Discs.

Today, feeling a little more thoughtful than usual, something made her stop. From a safe distance beneath the peak of a grass-topped sand dune, Leni paused to watch with bemused interest an unusual sight: a team of people tending to a scantily-clad figure wearing an inappropriate dress for a morning this crisp, perched on top of the dune.

Unbeknownst to Leni - for what would a pushing 70-year-old woman who hadn't bought a new lipstick in 10 years, let alone opened an Instagram account, know? - the subject of their fussed attention was Mandy Sykes: influencer, YouTuber and one of the biggest things to have hit the internet since Rihanna's surprise baby bump.

Following her bunion operation last year, Mandy's right foot gained the highest ever number of likes of a foot on Instagram and spawned its own TikTok account, which swiftly paved the way to an eponymous range of bunion correctors to "Cheat feet into wearing the heels you deserve!" Heels by Mandy Sykes, of course. All of this was lost on Leni.