The prize of being well preserved

· by · in flashfiction, Friday Fictioneers. ·

Conserved and shrinkwrapped, Amanda bowed her head and sighed.

“So I inherit everything?”, the solicitor kept silent.

“Is it a lot?”

The solicitor smiled and showed her a paper with the sum. She already had every penny of Christopher’s counted, and intended to invest them well. She craved plastic surgery. She needed the youth that Chris had stolen.

Shocked, she realized the amount was only half of what she had expected.

But she suppressed her anger, trilling:

“That’s a lot, and I’m the sole benefactor?”

The solicitor shook his head, weighing every word:

“I believe you have a younger sister?”

This week I decided to use the image as a metaphor. With those two well preserved cars I imagine a widow who are in for a surprise. I hope it worked.

Friday Fictioneers is a wonderful community of bloggers under the inspired leadership of Rochelle Wisoff Fields, go to her place and take the opportunity to learn more about her authorship and books.

If you are interested in getting a free digital copy of Keyhole stories (where I have written one of fifteen stories) in return for a review send me an email on brudberg@gmail.com. Unfortunately we only have giveaway copies on iTunes, so you have to have an Apple device to read it.
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February 24, 2016

65 responses to “The prize of being well preserved”

  1. Dear Björn,

    I got so caught up in your story I didn’t even think about its link to the prompt. I see the metaphor. Younger sister, indeed. Well done.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

  8. Nice twist at the end. I can only imagine what the family Christmas dinner will be like this year for Amanda.
    Ω

  11. I read it as if Chris were her father, who had been abusing her. So she deserved that money. I think she had been protecting her younger sister from being abused. Or maybe she didn’t know there was a sister, being that he was such a shady guy.

    My other interpretation is that the two (or more) girls were kidnapped and used as this guy’s property. So when he finally died, the #1 “daughter” assumed she’d finally be free, and have a little cash with which to reclaim her life.

    OR … what if they’re polygamists? She is the only legal wife, so she assumed she’d get all the money. But no so, apparently.

  12. It’s bad enough that he was cheating on her…but with her sister? Yowza… Mind you, she does sound like a perfect b****, so maybe she deserved it…

  14. Looks like that all the characters in your story have a bit of a villian in them. Even solicitor seems to take unusual pleasure in Amanda’s situation.

    Good one.

  18. I don’t think these two will remain on sisterly terms for long. I’m sorry for her though. The guy did steal her youth and then he cheats with her younger sister. Lovely people all around.

  28. Yep, it worked. As soon as the solicitor said “You have a sister” I immediately connected it to the two cars (though, I knew the picture well because I just wrote about it). Great story!

  32. Very clever metaphor, Bjorn. The older sister is going to have to share, which will most likely cut into her selfish plans. Great dialogue here. I could really hear her inner thoughts with your word choices.

  33. Not a nice surprise for the widow. This takes sibling rivalry to new heights. Great story – most enjoyable, and the surprise ending works brilliantly.

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