SHORT STORY CORNER: Closely Guarded Secrets.

Model: Actress Gloria Huweiler

This blog is for me to keep writing, right? I'm introducing short story time on here. I gotta thank my Mama for raising us on stories. This is a short I wrote back in 2012. An oldie but a good start.




Nikki entered the warm corridor of her house. A pool of water forming around her feet. Her clothes were dripping wet. She removed the plastic bag over her head and flung it into the corner.

"You're late again"

She needed no reaction to the voice. She knew it was her husband, Kwame. And, she did not have to look at him to know the position in which he sat. Hunched in the chair that had become his closet associate for the past two years. She began to shed her clothes.

"Can you hear the rain?" Her voice was cold.

"You have a car."

"I have a piece of junk, Kwame. Not a car. It died again."

"I'm sorry."

"Have you eaten?"

"I'm not hungry."

"I'll fix you something."

Nikki gathered her wet clothes and walked naked past her husband. True. Kwame sat hunched in his wheel chair. His feet oddly propped up on the pedals.

He observed his wife's naked body as she swayed past him into the bedroom. He ran his hands over his crippled legs. A loud breath escaped him.

The rain continued to pelt the roof with a driving force. Kwame wheeled his chair to the dinning table as Nikkie entered from the kitchen with a tray of food. She set the food before him and sat in a chair across from him with another plate. She started to eat hungrily. Kwame stared at his food.

"Are you not hungry?" Nikki noticed his reluctance to eat.

"I need to do something Nikki.' Kwame raised tired eyes to her. "I can't continue staying at home and feeling helpless."

"You are in a wheelchair. What can you do?"

"I've got my hands! I can work!" Kwames' voice was raised.

"No need to yell!" Nikki's fork clattered to her plate in anger. "I did not put you in that chair! Don't let your frustrations out on me."

"You are my wife. If I cannot share my frustration with you, who will I share it with?"

"I'm very tired, Kwame. I had a long day. You want a job? You want to work? Fine, go out there tomorrow and look for a job! We need the money." She picked up her plate and made to leave the room.

"Are you seeing someone else?" Kwames' gentle question stopped her in her tracks. She turned to face him.

"Is that a stupid question?"

"It's a question Nikki. Are you seeing someone else?" Kwame stayed his eyes on her. His lips trembled as he waited for an answer from his wife.

"What makes you think I am seeing someone?"

"I know you Nikki. 10 years of marriage. I know the woman I married. And this is not her. You're touchy, you're different. And we have not had sex since the accident."

Nikki's tense body relaxed. "Ah. So this is about sex. What do you think, Kwame? Am I seeing someone?"

"Are you?"

"I'm not going to answer that question. and, for the record...you are not the same man I married either." Nikki abandoned Kwame alone at the table. He run the tip of his finger along the rim of the plate in front of him.

CRASH! The plate fell to the hard floor. His eyes bored through the fragments.

The sun blazed hot sending heat waves into the quiet air. Nikki hurried along the alley clutching her purse. Her eyes darted around the area quickly and she rushed up the short steps of the quaint little house at the end of the alley. She reached into her purse and out came a bunch of keys. Quickly, she unlocked the door and entered the house.

"James!" she called gaily from the doorway. "James darling..."

She looked round the unkempt, small living room. Smiling mischievously, she headed for the bedroom.

"James... are you hiding?" She swung open the bedroom door. "You know I have to go back to work and..."

"I don't think he can hear you Nikki." Kwame responded from his wheelchair.

"Oh my God." A frightened gasp escaped Nikki!

Kwame rolled the chair back and forth. Positioned at the foot of the bed. A shocked Nikki stayed frozen in the doorway.

kwame smiled. "Oh my God" Mimicking her frightened vociferation. "I know. Same thing I say when I see you screw the bastard". Kwame rubbed bloody hands over his eyes. The blood smearing his face. Nikki observed a trail of blood traveling across the hardwood floor. kwame gazed at a framed photograph of a smiling Nikki on the bedroom wall, as he chewed on his bottom lip.

"Where is James? what have you done to him?" her voice was filled with fear.

"What have I done to him? Shouldn't it be what has he done to us?!"

"How long have you known?"

"Oh Nikki. My sweet little Nikki. I have always known. I knew when you met him, when you plotted to run me over with the car. At least he succeeded in crippling me." kwame's voice was full with hate. " ' All you had to do, was ask for a divorce"

"You wouldn't have given me one! We fell out of love Kwame. I wanted children, you did not..."

Bitterness escapes Kwame. "So you'd rather kill me? for this piece of filth!" He rocked the chair faster.

"You murdered him..." Nikki was immobilized at the revelations.

"In self defense Nikki. I am but a poor cripple." Kwame stroked the gun on his lap. A sinister look on his face.

"Are you going to Kill me too?" She eyed the gun.

Kwame considered the question. He run the gun through his fingers and aimed it at her. She glide to the ground with tightly shut eyes waiting for the bullet to run through her brain.

CLICK. Her eyes snapped open because Kwame's mirthless laughter filled the room.

"I fired the last bullet my dear wife."

Nikkis' eyes brimmed with tears. Kwame noticed the tear fall.

"I haven't seen you cry in a long time...." His voice had a certain tenderness to it.

Suddenly he threw the gun to Nikki who caught it on impulse with a scream! Her hands trembled around the cold, hard metal.

"You killed him Nikki. You killed your lover" Kwame eyes were accusing. The meaming dawned on Nikki.

"What?"

"You killed your lover, I know your little secret'

"I did not kill him! You shot him!" Nikki let go of the gun hurriedly.

"Who will they believe? You or a cripple?"

Kwame wheeled his chair backwards to reveal the dead body sprawled on the cold floor. Blood oozed from the hole in his forehead.

He once was a handsome man - James.













All the characters depicted in here are fictional and any semblance to real life persons is a pure coincidence.

Written by Leila Djansi.