I attempt to pass but she catches me.
“The rent is due,” she shouts. “Pay or get out!”
I’m going to collect more dirt to put on her doorstep so she’ll once more forget.
Friday Flash Fiction |
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My hand gropes the newel buffed with polish. The landlady’s mad; every day she waits with a cloth to wipe the bannister clean. Her name is Schmutz, dirt in German – nomen est omen. Husband’s cheating on her with her sister while she dusts her way down the stairs to brass plates, door knob gleaming in the sun, which she too rubs while he’s screwing away.
I attempt to pass but she catches me. “The rent is due,” she shouts. “Pay or get out!” I’m going to collect more dirt to put on her doorstep so she’ll once more forget.
Pamela Kennedy
19/11/2021 08:23:07 am
Ha! What a dirty trick...
Lynn Messing
19/11/2021 12:06:15 pm
Interesting, Pam. My reaction was the opposite of yours. Dirty? Literally, yes. Trick? Not as I see it. My interpretation is that the narrator has sympathy for the landlady and is trying to distract her from thinking about her failed marriage and the misery she is in because of it.
Sue Clayton
20/11/2021 01:43:04 am
I too thought he was being kind in wiping out her memories, with the added benefit of also forgetting his rent was due. Comments are closed.
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"Classic"
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