“And the
cardboard toy theatre and the case of curiosities had been removed as had the
ivory table.” The Great
complication by Allen Kurkweil was the
trigger for this piece of flash fiction done in a ten minute free write along
with another writer.
And the cardboard
toy theatre and the case of curiosities had been removed as has the ivory table.
Megan
bombed thru the library to the kitchen.
It wasn’t until she dropped her car keys in the hold-all drawer that she
realised something was different.
“Son of
bitch!” Had Thomas still been living there he would have told her to lower her voice.
That he
was the guilty party for the missing items was without alternative. He loved
those items as she had when they first acquired them. Funny how the same thing
could trigger such diverse memories.
They’d
bought the theatre at a flea market on a grey November day arguing the seller
down to $5 from ten. When they came home they drank hot tea in bed before
making love. Only on the next Monday had she learned he was sleeping with Clare.
The
curiosity case had been put out on the sidewalk in front of a brownstone
apartment building and was under a lilac tree in full bloom. It was down the
street from her best frenemy Angela who was another in his string of lovers.
The
ivory table was bought in New Delhi, a second honeymoon or a last attempt to
save the marriage. They had held hands as they wandered the bizarre and
never tired of the curries and other food. It might
have worked had Thomas not kept going out to call Rene.
She
should have changed the locks.
Tomorrow.
As she
moved a red leather chair into the hole left by the case she vowed that
whatever she found to replace the missing items would carry only good memories.
