Clever Girl

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.


The prompts: This story must include the words: trouble, mind and candy


Clever Girl


Trouble was her middle name.

Six-year-old Kimberly surveyed the damage; her mind turning over a wide variety of possible options. She knew her mom was extraordinarily clever at getting to the bottom of such things. Mom would surely place the little girl square in the middle of the battle zone previously known as “the kitchen”.

Kimberly had to think fast. Mom’s afternoon nap would be over anytime now. In an effort to gain a stay-of-execution, she went into the living room and turned down the volume on the television. The judge, jury and executioner could possibly stay asleep on the couch indefinitely if the house were quiet enough.

Step two would normally involve Rags, the family dog. He was her most reliable patsy but even Kimberly knew that he could not take the blame for the mess that had boiled over on the stove top.

Like all of her calamities, and there were a lot of them, it had started off with only the best intentions. How hard could it be to make candy? One part chocolate, one part sugar, one part Rice Krispies and one part frying pan had all seemed like a good idea at the time. Cooking it all together on the stove had been a stroke of genius.

Letting it cook unattended for the better part of an hour was the problem.

Kimberly turned slowly in the center of the kitchen, marveling at how thoroughly the little black Krispie-dots covered the walls and ceiling.

She was either going to have to run away from home until this all blew over; or she was going to have to get busy cleaning up.

She was a big girl, too big to run away. With a proud feeling of responsibility, she went outside to get the hose.

Word count 299