Nuts To You!

Prompt: "You wake up to find a dead body on the floor – and a bloody knife in your hands. You can’t remember exactly what happened, so you piece together the clues."



Erica stood stalk still for a solid minute screaming her head off. When her vision began to sway she bent over leaning on her knees trying to breathe slowly in order to prevent another fall. Her apron was covered in blood and the large knife she held in her hand was crimson as well.

"Breathe, breathe," she commanded herself. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut as if that would block out the image of the heavy older woman laying motionless on her carpet.

Erica straightened up and opened one eye peering through her lashes hoping that her foggy head was playing tricks on her. But as the dismal realization dawned, that it indeed was not, she allowed her other eye to focus on the scene as well.

Her head was pounding, no doubt from the rather large bump that gave her the sensation of being a bobble-head. She glanced around. No one else seemed to be in the apartment. She couldn’t remember who this woman was or why she was here, or why it would seem, that she had killed her.

She looked into the next room and spied her little dining table. Wincing, she stepped over the woman, whose color was eerily close to matching that of the blue diamond patterns in her throw rug. She walked into the dining room and stared hard at the table. There were four place settings instead of the customary two. She quickly moved to the window and peered out at Bill’s parking spot. Their car was gone but in its place was another car she didn’t recognize.

She turned and slowly walked closer to the body and stood over it.

"I swear she’s changing colors," she mumbled, sure that the bump on her head was sending her into shock. But none of this made sense.

"I am not a murderer!" She whined out loud stomping her foot. And then she stopped as a thought suddenly hit her.

"Or am I? Ooooh, I knew those Junior High days would give me severe emotional trauma!"

Through her hair she rubbed at the growing tennis ball of a lump and decided she should get some ice on it. She turned the corner into the kitchen. Reaching for the freezer door Erica noticed the bloody knife still in her hand. She whirled around and dropped it next to the cutting board. She ran to the sink and frantically tried to wash the blood from her hands.

Erica froze mid scrub and peered at the bits of flesh and splatters of blood which covered the stainless steel bowl. She felt her stomach do a pop wheelie as the reality that she had just murdered and begun to carve this mysterious woman hit her! Her eyes went hazy and her weight tripled as her legs began to crumble beneath her.

Somewhere in the distance of her conscious mind she heard Bill’s voice announcing that he and his father were back from the store. His father? That’s right! Erica remembered. She was cooking dinner for Bill’s father and mother tonight. Blackness.

Voices. Smell of alcohol. Bright light. Heaven? No. Paramedics.

"Erica, can you hear me!?"

Erica opened her eyes slowly and peered past Bill’s shoulder as he hugged her. She heard someone say something about an anaphylactic allergic reaction and it being too late. Turning her head she saw a lavender sheet (her favorite silk one) covering the body. She bolted up only to have Bill catch her as everything swung around in circles like a merry-go-round.

Once it stopped and let her off, she remembered the pot roast. She had been cutting it when she heard the gasping noises squeaking out of her mother-in- law like a mouse stuck in a trap. She remembered trying to do the Heimlich maneuver and being unable to get her arms around the large woman.

She remembered her mother-in-law’s heavy panicked blow to her head which threw her off like a leaf fighting windshield wipers.

The almonds!

She remembered the almonds she had put in the hors d'oeuvres! The almonds she had cut up so carefully so they couldn’t be detected!

She buried her smile into Bill’s chest.

She remembered the constant criticism.

Yes, she remembered now.