By Prospero Dae
“Not now, Pumpkin, I’m busy.”
Bemused, the blue-eyed girl continues to play pretend with her dolls, holding up one in particular.
“I’ll fix your doll later.” The whetstone slips from his hands. “Shocking how her head just came off like that.”
She sighs.
“Daddy will be back in a minute.”
He leaves, she pouts.
A few scarlet moments elapse, and he is favoring his right hand.
“Okay you’ve got my full attention. I’m ready to look at your doll.”
“Where’s Mommy?
He wipes gouts of blood from his hand. “I don’t know, but Mommy will never look at the postman again.”
Lovely use of language but no matter how many times I read it, I still don’t understand. The postman broke the doll. He offers to mend it whilst sharpening some form of blade? The child says daddy will return soon so the postman leaves. The father turns up having killed the postman because he thinks the wife is having an affair?
Good crime story, Prospero. Kind of chilling, in a family like setting. A very “final” way to put a stop to the wife’s (alleged) infidelity with the postman–or anyone else. This one is a Winner!
So beautifully, tersely precise.
The postman needn’t ring….not even twice.
Love this story! Very subtle dark humour, fantastic!
How can one lick a stamp without a head?
Dark with a hint of humor and twist at the end – great imagery weaved in.
this is great and darkly funny
actually, I’m still chuckling… 🙂