HE SLAMMED THE DOOR - (flash fiction)

(This is what is called flash fiction - less than 500 words)

HE SLAMMED THE DOOR

by  Troy Lynn Pritt

Stuart woke up and looked at the clock. It was 7:15 am! He had to be at work by 8:00 am. On the way to the bathroom, he yelled down the stairs,

 “Sue, why didn’t you come upstairs and wake me? My alarm didn’t go off. Now I am going to be late for work.”

“I have been busy getting the children ready for school. Their school bus will be here in about ten minutes.”

Stuart didn’t hear much of what she said because, as he went into the bathroom, he slammed the door. He came back out several minutes later grumbling about what a mess the children left in the bathroom. When he went back into the bedroom, he slammed the door.

He had troubling buttoning his shirt. The tie was frayed and he had to find another one. One of the socks had a hole in it; he had to go back to the dresser for another pair. Finally, he was dressed. To emphasize his frustration with all the obstacles he had getting dressed for work, he slammed the door as he left the bedroom.

Sue was at the outside door waving goodbye and blowing kisses to their two small children as they boarded the school bus.

“Where is my breakfast? Didn’t I tell you that I was going to be late for work? What would we do if I lost my job?”

“I didn’t think you would have time to eat breakfast. Anyhow, I was busy getting the children ready for school. I thought that you could take a granola bar and a cereal bar with you and eat them in the car on the way to work. I’ve already poured a cup of coffee for you into a foam cup.”

Stuart took the cup and two breakfast bars from her without a thank you. He put them all into one hand so that he could slam the outside door as his parting gesture.

When he got into the car, he slammed the car door. In his car and driving, he was eating the granola bar, drinking coffee, cursing every animate object along the way. He was going much too fast on the main street through their subdivision. Ahead there was a STOP sign. Yet another nuisance! There were never any cars on that cross street.

He slowed down, looked both ways hurriedly, and sped into the intersection. Half way through he saw a green car that had come out of nowhere. He slammed the door of that car with his car’s front end. The impact threw him against the steering wheel and triggered the air bag.

When he extricated himself from the air bag, he walked around to the other car. He could tell at a glance that the other driver was dead. There was blood everywhere. He called the police and ambulance from his cell phone. Then he walked back to his own car and slammed the door.