Flash Entries

Karma (Writer's Cramp Winner)

The police investigate a strange smell coming from a house and find an elderly woman passed out on the floor, surrounded by the corpses of her closest relatives.

Karma

“I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up,” Grandma Suzie cried. She’d been saying it for weeks as she sat in her favorite rocking chair. She thought she was the actress from the television commercial. Who knew how long this little delusion would last. “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up,” with every commercial break. “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up,” repeated hour after hour.

“I can’t take it anymore. Sidney, if you don’t get your mom in a home soon, I’m going to be the one in a home. One with padded walls, arts and crafts, basket weaving, and group therapy,” Martha fussed.
Poor Sidney, he just didn’t know what to do. He’d promised his dad, he would take care of his mom. Raising five kids had been a walk in the park compared to this. If he had known what was in store for him, he would have never made the promise. He loved his wife. She was a great mother, but not a great caretaker for an elderly woman with advanced Alzheimer’s. He loved his mom, even though she didn’t know him most of the time. This whole situation was tearing him apart. So, he did what he did best, he went to the woodshed to work.
He was working on a box for his mother’s memories. Something she could hold, and put special things in to help her remember. He was just finishing up the hardware, when he heard a crash. He flew out of the woodshed, up the back stairs and crashed through the door. “Mom!”
“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” came from the living room. He walked in. His loving wife was there prone on the floor at his mother’s feet. She had her cane in her hand, dripping his wife’s blood on the floor. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Mom! What have you done?”
“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
Sidney walked over his wife, to the phone. He stood looking out the front window. He couldn’t believe his mom had killed his wife. He dialed 911. Before they could answer, he felt a whisper of a breeze. Wham, the end of his mother’s cane came crashing down again. Sidney, turned looking at his mother and slowly fell to the floor, in front of his wife.
“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” and Grandma Suzie got up and closed the window shades. “Honey, I’m so sorry, my grandson dialed 911 by mistake.”
The 911 operator did her spiel about not letting children waste their time, and proceeded to hang up.
Grandma Suzie walked over the bodies of her son and daughter-in-law on her way to the kitchen. She fixed herself a bowl of popcorn and sat down in her chair to watch a movie on the television. “I’ve told you not to get between me and the TV. How many times did I tell you ‘Don’t get between me and the TV?’ She fussed at the two dead bodies.
Suzie enjoyed the peace and quiet of the house. Not that she was very lucid at any particular point in time. She did remember enough to manage for a few days on her own. The house however, wasn’t cold enough to keep two decomposing bodies from ripening fully.
The neighbors were the first to notice the smell. They hadn’t seen Martha or Sidney in days and Grandma Suzie hadn’t sat on the porch all week. Tina asked her husband if they should go check on them. Sam wasn’t too keen on that idea. He didn’t want to be accused of being the nosy neighbor, a gossip or a busybody.
Tina wasn’t convinced. She strode out of the house frustrated with Sam’s attitude. She knocked on the back door. She heard the TV blaring. She assumed Grandma Suzie must be by herself since the volume all the way up. She walked around to the front the house. Everything was locked up tight. All the draperies were pulled shut. The smell on the front porch was even worse than in the back of the house. She rang the bell and called out for Grandma Suzie, Martha or Sidney. That funny commercial must be on, “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up,” was all she heard.
Tina went back home, grabbed the phone, and dialed 911. “Yes, my name is Tina Waters, I live at 201 Linwood Road…. Yes, there is a problem next door. I don’t know what is going on. I haven’t seen anyone in days and the stench from the house is horrible.”
“No, I tried to get someone to come to the door. Yes, I tried calling. What?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Martha and Sidney Snipes and his mother Suzie Snipes, you know the people that live next door, where the awful smell is. Oh! Their address, I’m sorry, I’m usually not so scatter-brained. It’s 203 Linwood Road.”
“No, I haven’t seen anyone go in or out. All of the doors are locked up tight. Didn’t I tell you that already?”
“OK, I understand, you’re going to send the police. OK, my husband and I will be in our house, we’ll wait here.”
“Thank you so much,” she hung up the phone.
Tina and Sam met the police as they drove up the driveway to 203 Linwood. Tina told them everything she knew. The officers thanked the Waters and asked them to wait at home.
Officer Huggins went to the front door. Of course, he knew the smell at once. He crashed through the front door to find the crime scene. Sidney was on the floor in front of the TV. His wife was between him and the rocking chair, and in between the two of them was Grandma Suzie with a bloody cane. Huggins checked Grandma Suzie for a pulse. She looked up at him and whispered, “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.”
kph 7/6/10
Word Count: 991