| General Flash Fiction posted July 19, 2020 |
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Misjudging appearances. (498 words)
Jumping To Confusions
by LisaMay
I’d been under pressure at my workplace and looking after the kids since David had walked out, so Mum had decided to surprise me with a visit.
She’d let herself in through the back door to my house, probably tut-tutting over the leaf-strewn path and the accumulation of shoes, gardening equipment, and sports paraphernalia cluttering the porch, and thinking to herself: This is EXACTLY what I can help with.
It was a Wednesday, and she knew that my two boys were away at baseball til 5.30pm, then I’d be collecting them and returning home. We’d be tired and hungry. Mum generously thought it’d be nice for me to come home to a tidy house and a hot meal ready for the family.
Stepping into the kitchen, Mum was aghast at the mess she discovered and no doubt felt a momentary pang of disappointment that I’d become so utterly lacking in housekeeping standards.
But wait – this was no ordinary mess. Mum told me later that her scalp had prickled with a terrible premonition. Fearfully, she dared to look in the lounge room. It was obvious the house had been ransacked and vandalised. Things had been pulled off shelves and left in disarray on the floor, with some breakages. It appeared the burglar had even had the effrontery to eat some food left on the kitchen bench and then throw the rest on the floor.
Mum’s fear level heightened when she realised the offender could still be nearby. There’s some drug-crazed, murderering psychopath loose in my daughter’s home flashed through her mind as she fled out the front door, ran around the side path to her car, locked herself in, then with trembling fingers phoned the police.
* * *
Because of my new responsibility, I’d decided to come home earlier than usual and put my feet up for a while before collecting the boys. Letting myself in the back door, when I saw the mess in the kitchen all I could do was laugh hysterically.
Before I’d had a chance to catch my breath, I heard the front door rattling with the sound of a key turning in the lock.
If that’s bloody David… I fumed to myself, but to my astonishment when the door opened it was a policeman! Mum was there too, peeping around him.
“What are you doing here?” Mum and I blurted simultaneously.
Just as the bewildered policeman was listening to Mum’s garbled account and wondering if he was there to investigate a robbery, the destructive burglar ran out of the bathroom into the hallway. He froze in his tracks, looking guilty, with one end of the toilet paper roll in his mouth. I scooped him up and introduced him to Mum and her nice young policeman.
“This is our new kitten, Dynamo. He’s rather lively. David was allergic to cats, but we got one when he left.”
Mum looked embarrassed. The police officer chuckled and rubbed Dynamo’s head. “Hello, you naughty cat burglar.”
Flash Fiction Writing Contest contest entry
I’d been under pressure at my workplace and looking after the kids since David had walked out, so Mum had decided to surprise me with a visit.
She’d let herself in through the back door to my house, probably tut-tutting over the leaf-strewn path and the accumulation of shoes, gardening equipment, and sports paraphernalia cluttering the porch, and thinking to herself: This is EXACTLY what I can help with.
It was a Wednesday, and she knew that my two boys were away at baseball til 5.30pm, then I’d be collecting them and returning home. We’d be tired and hungry. Mum generously thought it’d be nice for me to come home to a tidy house and a hot meal ready for the family.
Stepping into the kitchen, Mum was aghast at the mess she discovered and no doubt felt a momentary pang of disappointment that I’d become so utterly lacking in housekeeping standards.
But wait – this was no ordinary mess. Mum told me later that her scalp had prickled with a terrible premonition. Fearfully, she dared to look in the lounge room. It was obvious the house had been ransacked and vandalised. Things had been pulled off shelves and left in disarray on the floor, with some breakages. It appeared the burglar had even had the effrontery to eat some food left on the kitchen bench and then throw the rest on the floor.
Mum’s fear level heightened when she realised the offender could still be nearby. There’s some drug-crazed, murderering psychopath loose in my daughter’s home flashed through her mind as she fled out the front door, ran around the side path to her car, locked herself in, then with trembling fingers phoned the police.
* * *
Because of my new responsibility, I’d decided to come home earlier than usual and put my feet up for a while before collecting the boys. Letting myself in the back door, when I saw the mess in the kitchen all I could do was laugh hysterically.
Before I’d had a chance to catch my breath, I heard the front door rattling with the sound of a key turning in the lock.
If that’s bloody David… I fumed to myself, but to my astonishment when the door opened it was a policeman! Mum was there too, peeping around him.
“What are you doing here?” Mum and I blurted simultaneously.
Just as the bewildered policeman was listening to Mum’s garbled account and wondering if he was there to investigate a robbery, the destructive burglar ran out of the bathroom into the hallway. He froze in his tracks, looking guilty, with one end of the toilet paper roll in his mouth. I scooped him up and introduced him to Mum and her nice young policeman.
“This is our new kitten, Dynamo. He’s rather lively. David was allergic to cats, but we got one when he left.”
Mum looked embarrassed. The police officer chuckled and rubbed Dynamo’s head. “Hello, you naughty cat burglar.”
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