Month: August 2018

Rubie’s Search

The policia said they’d wait for the autopsy report before concluding on the victim’s identity.

The mound of earth on the open plain had unmistakable traces of having been seared. Was it by lightning? Rubie now understood why that possibility had occurred to the authorities. She did a slow 360-degree turn and saw mirages dancing on the horizon where the sun was sinking softly. Reddish clouds hung low on the opposite side. There was nothing to attract lightning for miles around. Except, perhaps a body as loaded with metal implants as she knew her father’s was.

The media had reported that the victim’s remains looked like overcooked meat, giving off an unbearable stench. The policia said they’d wait for the autopsy report before concluding on the victim’s identify.

“Come back Tuesday”, they’d instructed, as nobody there worked weekends while Monday was reserved for catching up on paperwork. Continue reading “Rubie’s Search”

The Thing Bugging Mrs. Watanabe-Watts

Mrs. Watanabe-Watts was not a fussy person. But this evening, something was playing on her mind and she just couldn’t let it go.

The lady kicked off her garden sandals and stood barefoot, finding the coolness of the rock surface soothing. A particular image was clouding her thoughts. It was the picture of the birch-coloured wooden knife holder on her kitchen countertop. Her hand had reached out, grasped and pulled the black handle of the largest knife there. With the whole knife extracted, it’s serrated edges appeared dirtied by ruby red streaks. Blood. She was certain of it.

Mrs. Watanabe-Watts stepped back from the brink, with no recollection of what the knife might have been used for. For what purpose, or on whom. Her husband of thirty-five years, Morley Watts PhD, as far as she could recall, was safely asleep upstairs in their bed. She did not remember using the knife on him. Continue reading “The Thing Bugging Mrs. Watanabe-Watts”