For Writetober Flash Fiction:
Under a Sheet by Maria L. Berg
My alarm didn’t go off on that morning.
Or maybe it did and I didn’t hear it.
Or maybe it did go off and I don’t remember it going off because it doesn’t seem very important anymore.
I jumped out of bed that morning because my bedroom was filled with blue flashing lights- not red flashing lights but blue.
I don’t know how it works in your neighborhood, but blue flashing lights in my neighborhood means that the police are paying you a visit and given that my room was lit up like a roller disco, I assumed that there was more then one car out there.
Then I heard a dog barking and I heard my husband’s voice and I heard him shout my name.
” Tabby! Tabby! Damn it Tabby! ”
My lip curled, as it always did when he said my name.
I sailed to the window from my bed- that’s what it felt like. Like I was skating or floating to the window.
I pushed the curtains aside, I pressed my face against the glass.
There he was my husband, he was looking up at me and shaking his head and then I looked down and I saw the body under the sheet and the little yellow numbered flags and the blue lights flashed and clicked on and on and my dog would not stop barking.
I called to Tris and I heard him race up the stairs and I heard his nails skidding along the wooden floor and when I turned around he wasn’t there. I could hear him barking and then I heard Cal shout for Tris to shut the hell up.
How dare he, I thought to myself. How dare he talk that way to the only creature in my life that- what I thought. What? It didn’t matter I started to pound on the window. ” Don’t you yell at my dog like that! Don’t you dare!”
” I’m going to twist that mutt’s head right off of his neck if he doesn’t SHUT THE HELL UP!” my husband roared.
I saw three Officers surround my husband. I saw them reach out for him. I could see them trying to calm him down.
Good luck with that, I thought.
” It’s that damn dog of hers! I told her she needed to stop it from all of that barking or else I was going to-”
They turned my husband around. I saw one of them cuff him.
Then he turned back and looked up at me in the window.
His face was pale, he was saying ” I told you! Look. She’s right there. Look! Look there she is! That’s not her. I told you. Look up there in the window! There she is with her freaking DOG.”
“His name is Tristan you bottom feeding jerk.” I roared back.
Nobody looked up at me except for my husband.
When I was sure he could actually see me, I raised my hand. Then I flipped him off. Then I waved good bye.
My dog sat next to me. I could hear his tail swishing from side to side and for the first time in a long time-
I smiled.
My alarm didn’t go off on that morning.
Or maybe it did and I didn’t hear it.
Or maybe it did go off and I don’t remember it going off because it doesn’t seem very important anymore.
