• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

101 Words

101 Word Short Stories

  • Subscribe
  • About
  • Submissions
  • Volunteer

Ready

April 24, 2018 11 Comments

Ready
Share4
Tweet
Email
More
4 Shares

The show was about to begin, the assistant imagined. He had to work fast.

Under fluorescent lights, he combed her dry hair and situated her gown. He brushed foundation on her cheeks to give her more color, and he curled her eyelashes. He applied lip liner and then ruby lipstick. Using his fingertips, he drew her mouth to a smile.

The assistant heard footsteps approaching the room. He straightened, and he slipped the makeup and curler into his jacket pocket. He stood by her side and waited for the instruction to lay out tools.

The cadaver was ready for her dissection.

By Michael Carter

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. rauthor68 says

    April 24, 2018 at 11:03 am

    I guess love, or weirdness, knows no bounds.

    Reply
  2. Ellen says

    April 24, 2018 at 3:38 pm

    I like the oddness of this story.

    Reply
  3. Scott Dukette says

    April 26, 2018 at 10:13 am

    Nice!

    Reply
  4. Michael Carter says

    April 27, 2018 at 4:52 pm

    Thank you to all who read my story.

    Reply
  5. Mira says

    April 28, 2018 at 2:30 am

    Ah! That last line punched my guts. Great work.

    Reply
    • Michael Carter says

      May 2, 2018 at 11:13 am

      Thank you, Mira, for reading. My intention was a gut-punch, so I’m glad I was able to achieve that with some readers.

      Reply
  6. Perry McDaid says

    May 2, 2018 at 10:20 am

    Myneh – research…. or common sense (though that seems to be on the wane). The beautician stage of funeral homes is done after autopsies (not dissection) and not before. The body is actually washed down beforehand. And it’s a very poor use of the word “situate”. Arranged would be better – if it applied at all. Ignorance mistaken for weirdness, from what I see.

    Reply
    • Michael Carter says

      May 2, 2018 at 11:52 am

      Thank you for the lovely review, Perry. Who said this was about the beautician stage at a funeral home? Research or the dictionary will tell you that the word “cadaver” especially references a body intended for “dissection.” So I pictured this more as a twisted prank by a med student, or just a creepy assistant who likes to manipulate bodies, before a med school dissection (not an autopsy).

      But, of course, at 101 words a lot is left open to interpretation.

      I don’t expect all or even most people to like my stories. I don’t like many I read myself, but I don’t think I would ever go out of my way to refer to another writer’s work as ignorant.

      Reply
  7. Christina Dalcher says

    May 2, 2018 at 12:32 pm

    Excellent creepy-factor, Michael (as usual). Don’t let the bastards grind you down!

    Reply
    • Perry McDaid says

      May 4, 2018 at 3:13 am

      Bastard or no, on triple check I do take Michael’s point about the word “cadaver” being especially relevant to med school dissection and admit that the ignorance was mine, and apologize accordingly.
      As to Christina, I’m sure the doctorate in linguistics can afford her some insight into the vernacular description an Irish man will have of the pig-ignorant appellation..

      Reply
  8. S.E. Casey says

    May 4, 2018 at 1:22 pm

    Nice story, Michael! The story’s creepiness is certainly not on the wane.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search Stories

The end.