Southend U3A

Writing for Fun

July 2019

Julia - Maxine OBrien

Julia placed the cutlery exactly 8 inches apart on both place settings, ensuring the salt and pepper pots were dead in the centre of the highly polished table.

The alluring smell of the chicken casserole warmed the pristine kitchen.

A slight breeze from the open window sent the shopping receipts fluttering to the floor, which had been so carefully lined up, in order of shops visited that day ready for his inspection.

Her mobile phone lay next to the receipts so that all call history could be checked. She wasn’t allowed to text or use any form of social media.

The dinner had to be on the table for 6pm, no earlier, no later.

The casserole now had another half an hour before it was ready but she reached across and turned the oven off, trampling across the strewn receipts.

As she mounted the stairs, she noticed a stain on the usually spotless carpet.

The bedroom door was open, and his body lay across the bed, blood pooling beneath him from the large wound, the knife still embedded in his chest.

That blood will be murder to get out of the bedspread she thought but it really didn’t matter anymore.