Ernie

by Gloria F. Watts

It turned out to be one of those days. It started when I went into the garage. What for? I’m not sure now, but the sight of the cap lying on the floor turned my stomach and I didn’t find the body.

Whose body, you may well ask. It had to be Ernie’s body, because it was his cap lying there, the new one I’d bought him the day before I got the phone call.

I didn’t recognise the voice, no, not at all. Kind of slimy it was, and blurred, but I could make out it was a man’s voice.

‘Say goodbye,’ it said. ‘Say goodbye to Ernie, you won’t be seeing him again.’

Shivers ran down my spine, I could hardly breathe as I banged the receiver back down.

Ernie was away up North and had been for a fortnight. I wasn’t expecting him home until the following afternoon. He usually called me to say he was on his way, but this time he hadn’t. I gradually got very jittery and spent most of the day and the following morning wondering and wishing I knew where my Ernie was.

What made me go into the garage? Just a feeling. It came over me as a strange churning inside, as if all my innards were quivering. I guess the garage is where Ernie loved to live, always in there working on his car or doing some odd job. I felt I wanted to be near him, and after I’d finished my fifth cup of tea I went into the garage.

The cap looked so forlorn, just lying there. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. To be honest, the man with the slimy voice didn’t know what he’d done. Set me free, that’s what, free as a bird. No more Ernie. I’d been plotting and planning the job for ages, just didn’t know how to get it done. Knew I’d be the first to be suspected.

Oh well... It wasn’t as if I hadn’t loved him, of course; he’d been the apple of my eye... But... sometimes love fades... And now the old bounder was dead. I had to smile. Wouldn’t you?

to Challenge 402...