By Darren Bourget
Mum called. She was going away for the weekend. Could I come home to look after the parrot?
I’d been home most weekends since the funeral, but this was the first time I’d be alone. I panicked slightly.
The house was an hour’s train ride away.
Turning the front door key, the caged approximation of my father’s voice reached me from the living room.
“A cup of tea please, dear.”
I left the TV on all night with the volume down low.
That night, a satellite fell headlong from the sky.
Nobody died, but it was all over the breakfast news.
This was poignantly effective until the last two lines, which I thought unnecessary and distracting. Perhaps a little more of the parrot’s mimicry, and then ending with “I left the TV…”
But genuine rueful charm here.
Wow! This is one powerful little story packed into 101 Words. What an emotional effect it must have had on the girl, hearing a simulation of her father’s voice in the house alone with both parents not there.
Just the right amount of chills. Well done.