Shallow Grave

“Pick your glass,” Miss Anna said. “There’s three, all alike.”

“Oh, no ma’am. We trust you,” Trevor said quickly.

Miss Anna laughed. No music in her voice, but no needles, either. “No you don’t” she said. “Nor would I in your shoes. Pick. But don’t drink. Not yet.”

“Did you really hex Mark for what he did to those cats?” asked Paul.

Miss Anna didn’t laugh this time. Just shook her head.

“But you could have,” Paul continued. It wasn’t a question.

Miss Anna nodded.

The choice in beverages suddenly seemed very important indeed. Trevor closed his eyes and picked blind, then Paul did the same. Then, Miss Anna said, “Now, which one of you saw it?”

And Trevor said, “Me,” without hesitation. They weren’t talking cats now.

“Shut up!” said Paul.

“It’s all right,” said Miss Anna. “I won’t call the police. We all know that stepfather of yours would have your mother dead before they’d finished digging up the grave, and he’d do it if she was at work and if work was a hundred miles away.”

Miss Anna had just repeated exactly what Randy said to Paul and Trevor’s mother after she and he came back to the trailer from burying the yellow haired man. Paul sucked in a breath and looked at Trevor. Miss Anna lived too far away to have overheard.

“Me,” Trevor repeated. “I saw. Do you need me to tell you?”

“No.” The old woman shook her head. “Now’s when we drink, by the way.” They did, and Miss Anna continued, “I saw it, too, but I don’t have any personal enmity in the matter. This must be done by someone who saw the thing, and who carries it with anger, and maybe a little bit of hatred in his heart. Is that you Trevor? Go deep now, before you answer me.”

Finally, Trevor said, “Yes’m.” Just the one word, but it satisfied the woman.

“Good,” she said. “Then we’ve something to discuss.”

___________________________________________________

Part two of this story is now up here.

We’re going deep this week over at Trifecta, where we’ve been tasked with using the third definition of ‘deep’ from the Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary in a story of between 33 and 333 words.

About jesterqueen:
Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.

Comments

Shallow Grave — 29 Comments

  1. Pingback: Cruel Summer | Jester Queen

    • Actually, there is more. This one is part 1 of a 2 part story, with part 2 to follow (hopefully, depending on kids and therapies etc.) later today.

  2. Oops. Reading out of order today. I think this story has legs, Jessie. After two episodes, I am really into these characters. With brevity, you've cemented their relationships and personalities.

    • I actually am glad that the story worked out of order for you! Since I did it for two separate prompts, the two pieces need to stand alone!

    • Thanks, Kelly! How's everybody in Medford? I would have never imagined I could get engrossed in small town Ohio life!!

    • Thanks! I was worried that the whole reason for them choosing a glass wouldn't be clear.

    • Probably not, though I suspect Miss Anna got involved in time for the cats to walk, limp, or hobble away from it.

    • I'm glad you liked it! I didn't expect to get two prompts in there, either! I started with the bananarama and Zombies part, but then I had this part worked into it and messing everything up. I realized it made a story of its own AND that it could be deep! Bonus!

    • I'm delighted that it reached out and grabbed you by the throat. ;P

      Thanks for stopping by.

      Jessie

    • Thanks for visiting! I just LOVE Trifecta. Purely aside from the meme itself, I can't believe the other awesome writers I'm connecting with.

  3. Thanks for joining up with us again. I like this a lot. So much so, that I had to click on to the second part. Your dialogue is great and the way you build characters so quickly is also excellent. Will there be more in this series. Join us for the weekend challenge!

    • That's the ultimate compliment! So far, these are all, but who knows what will strike me later. I'm kind of enjoying that blog writing allows me to serialize or not or change my mind and come back to something

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