Grace’s Trouble
Murder stained Grace’s hands red, but blood was her least problem. She had to dispose of the body of a six-foot-tall man. Her deceased husband was too heavy to transport from the upstairs bedroom, where she’d stabbed him, out to the car, too heavy to shove in the attic from the ladder. A winch? No pulley.
She rolled him in a blanket and pulled him down the stairs by his ankles. A crowbar worked for prying the floorboards in the living room. She stuffed in the body and threw the rug back.
The doorbell rang. Her in-laws, come to chat. She’d say anything. She only needed a day to drain the accounts and buy a flight. She heard Argentina was the place to vanish.
A fly appeared. Grace waved it away. It landed on the carpet. Another fly circled her father-in-law’s head and joined the first.
She killed both flies with a rolled magazine, scooped them up, and threw them away in the kitchen. By the time she returned, twenty flies buzzed in a knot above the carpet, and her father-in-law was on his knees, wondering out loud about the insects.
Now where would she put two more bodies?
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The Meta-Story: This is one of two flash fiction pieces I wrote for this story. I wasn’t satisfied with either. Here’s the link to the other, Chilly Reception.
Sunday Photo Fiction: 200-word stories
photo prompt: A Mixed Bag
May 1, 2017 at 9:17 am
It helps to ‘meditate’ on why you’re unsatisfied with a piece and then correct the problems you’ve identified. Is it the flow? Sentence structure? Is something missing? I haven’t read Chilly Reception yet but this isn’t too bad, though I could tell where you might’ve struggled a bit. But, think on it and then come back to it. I’d be interested to see the changes. 🙂
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May 1, 2017 at 9:21 am
I most definitely will. I plan to work on other things in the meanwhile and will probably come back to this to make changes. That’s the beauty of WordPress. It’s not set in ink on solid paper. Thank you for reading and commenting. 🙂
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May 1, 2017 at 10:29 am
Oh dear, where will she hide two more bodies? She’ll have to quit answering the door I suspect, or at the very least meet her guests out on the front porch. Those darn flies do not know how to keep a secret.
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May 1, 2017 at 10:32 am
Hehe, yes. Thank you again, Mandie.
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May 1, 2017 at 3:48 pm
Loved your flash. That fly was drawn to your keyboard!
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May 1, 2017 at 3:59 pm
Thank you.
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May 1, 2017 at 10:34 pm
Does she like barbecue?
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May 2, 2017 at 7:38 am
Haha! That’s a lot of ribs!
Thanks for commenting, crow.
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May 6, 2017 at 5:43 am
I wonder where those extra bodies will go. Maybe all together.
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May 6, 2017 at 7:08 am
She needs to hurry before the stench gets really bad. Thanks for reading and commenting.
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May 7, 2017 at 9:19 am
What she needs to do now is find some random woman, kill her and add her to the pile, and then burn the house down. The police will think it’s her for a few days, buying her some more time.
That is, unless they think to check those drained bank accounts first!
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May 7, 2017 at 9:21 am
I see you’ve been thinking along these lines before…
Thanks for reading, Finn!
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May 7, 2017 at 2:08 pm
Body disposal is one of those areas where an author truly has a chance to shine. It’s not up there with plot or dialogue, but for complications to overcome….it’s a doozy.
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