The Woman Who Grew Another
Woman
She went to bed with a lump on
her shoulder. Her husband wanted her to accompany him to a business dinner the next evening and
didn’t want to leave a mark where it would show. The next morning the lump was
gone, and there was another woman in bed with the couple.
The husband told his wife she was imagining things when he kissed the woman and said he was in the mood for bacon and eggs.
While the wife was sizzling, she heard moans from the bedroom, then water in the shower. The new woman entered the kitchen and whispered to the wife.
A few minutes later, the husband entered the kitchen, and the new woman shouted Now! The wife flipped hot grease into the husband’s face and smashed him with the frying pan. He crumpled to the floor.
The wife and new woman waited until dark and buried the husband in the garden.
After a few days, when the husband didn’t show up for work, detectives arrested the woman for killing the husband. But they had to release her because the fingerprints on the frying pan weren’t hers.
When she got home from the police station, the woman watered the rosebush she planted when she buried the wife.
David Henson
David Henson and his
wife have lived in Brussels and Hong Kong and now reside in Illinois. His
work has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes, Best of the Net and two Best
Small Fictions and has appeared in various journals including Ariel Chart,
Literally Stories, Pithead Chapel, Gone Lawn and Moonpark Review. His Twitter
is @annalou8.