Wait 'til...300 word Flash Fiction.

“Ali,” Officer Gage said. “Why did you wait so long?”

Shrug.

“Ali, you need to say something. We need to know what happened.”

Another dejected shrug.

“Please Ali,” Gage pleaded, leaning closer to Ali, elbows resting on the hard oak desk.

Alison McNichol was being questioned. She sat in an enormous oak chair, across from Officer Gage. The desk separating the two was barren of items, but loaded with the scars of past interrogations.  Ali looked at the dollar store clock on the wall; seven eighteen. It was the same seven eighteen it held from an hour ago. Time seemed to flow like a slinky falling down uneven stairs; sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but never evenly.

“Wanna know what happened? Why I didn't call?” she mumbled softly.

“Yes. Please.”

"Fine."

“It was early. Maybe eight thirty, quarter of nine, tops. I was watching the tube. Some show on Discovery was playing. Mom got up and went to the bathroom. Her room is upstairs. I forgot I left my dirty clothes on the floor, and just knew she'd dig into me.

"Alison!" she yells, mimicking her mother in that generic, old lady voice. "Ali! That's the third time this week you left your clothes on the floor. You just wait, young lady! Wait 'til your father comes home!"

“That's when I hear her fall,” she recites, dreamlike. “Musta slipped. From downstairs I could hear her head crack on those marble tiles. Could almost smell the blood pooling. I looked up after awhile and saw a few drops form on the ceiling. She must have hit pretty hard. I hated her. She beat me ya know. Daily. So I did what she said to do. I waited 'til my father came home.