THE DEAD ZONE

The corpse lies here in the silent house, reproaching me with its presence. The exact time of its demise so hard to pinpoint. Its death throes seemed to last forever. “I died from neglect.” It accuses me wordlessly. And though I know that I was not the only one to blame I can’t help wondering if I could have done more to prevent the final, irrevocable outcome.

NO! I did my best! I nursed the ailing patient until my bones ached and my heart grew weary from the effort, performing the kiss of life, as best I could, on numerous occasions; fighting to breathe animation into the doomed and dying creature.; refusing to recognize that its feeble movements and lackluster response mocked the futility of my efforts.

It has been here now for much too long. A pale accusation, pointing judgemental fingers at my beleagured soul. The albatross of my marriage bears me to the ground. Its deadweight threatening to crush my soul.

I am imprisoned by the bars of my wedding vows but just lately the stench of decay, filling my nostrils and stinging my eyes with tears of remorse, has become unbearable.

The burial is long overdue.

Time to call in the undertakers.

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ALMOST APOCALYPSE

The four horsemen of the apocalypse rode out into the sunshine of another summer’s day. Three of them were girls. They would start their tour of destruction in the back garden.

But first there were daisy chains to be made and butterflies to be chased. The boy dangled his toes in the water of the stream which bubbled along at the bottom of the hill. There would be hell to pay when mother found out but demonic angels were accustomed to adversity and later was a long time in the future.

The youngest girl interrupted her butterfly chase to scrunch her eyes shut as a bee flew by too close for comfort. “A pestilence on all bees!” she announced to the indifferent blue sky. She wasn’t sure what a pestilence was but it sounded like a good way of avoiding bee stings.

The eldest girl tried hard to avoid the rumblings of her stomach as she concentrated on making a flower necklace for pestilence, who was fond of such fripperies. She wished that she had eaten some breakfast though it didn’t seem like an appropriate way to bring about famine and anyway she was on a diet. Daddy didn’t like fat girls.

War was having similar thoughts as she attacked the crisps, which she had smuggled out of the kitchen along with a bottle of pop. What daddy didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, she thought as she battled to unscrew the top from the lemonade bottle.

The morning stretched out in front of them, an endless panorama of possibilities. It would be a shame to bring the world to an end before they had explored some of them. The four gathered under a great oak tree to discuss the situation in the cool of its tranquil shade. A unanimous decision was reached to delay the apocalypse until after lunch, which was a lifetime away.

War mustered her forces, cunningly disguised as trees, she shouted commands to the sentinel bodies of the attentive forest and pestilence ran away from a huge spider wishing heartily that all insects would get sick so that they would have to stay in bed. Famine pondered the problem of what if anything she should eat for lunch as she tied off the daisy chain and set about making a matching bracelet. The boy, otherwise known as death wandered away on his own, he had some time to kill…..

FAMILY SECRETS

She was hiding a dirty secret and I was going to get it out of her. Susan would have to come clean, or else! I dragged her up the stairs, she was unable to resist or defend herself against my manic determination. .Pushing open the door to the utilities room I bundled her inside, I didn’t want the rest of the family to know what I was doing. I was sure they would try to stop me. Susan slumped dejectedly in the corner staring up at me. There was no fear in her unblinking gaze, she was oblivious to the danger.

I got to work, I soon realized that using my hands was not going to be sufficient, I would have to take drastic steps to accomplish my task. I didn’t hang around to witness the effect of my actions, there would be plenty of time later to observe the results.

Time to pick the children up from school. The important thing was to act normally, they must suspect nothing, of course they noticed her absence but I kept my cool, feigning ignorance of her whereabouts. The rest of the day passed with agonizing slowness, every minute felt like an hour. Eventually the girls’ bedtime arrived. Once I was sure that they were settled in for the night and there was no danger of being followed I climbed the stairs once again to finish off my business.

Gazing down at her wretched form I was shocked by the extent of damage that my ministrations had caused, the mess was unbelievable. There was a terrible gash across her belly and her insides spilled out in an untidy heap across the floor. A similar wound across her neck had left her head hanging limply to one side as if she were asking a silent question.

Overwhelmed with remorse I sank into a nearby chair wondering how I could explain it to the children. They had been so fond of this creature, lavishing affection on her. She had never criticized for her shortcomings as I so often was, despite this I was filled with sadness by her demise.

Some teddy bears just couldn’t take the rough and tumble of a machine wash