I try to kill my father. Again. He deserved more than that one fatal stab my mother delivered. I mean, she should have used that knife to chop his remains to bits. Father was a beast and should have been treated as such. Every evening he retuned home drunk and descended on her like she was someone he forgot to brawl at the bar. Mother only defended herself that one time.
I steal into my mother's room - toes down, and heels up - to get father's remains. In the bathroom the water is running. Mother is taking an evening shower. She doesn't hear me pull out the bottom wardrobe drawer, and search for the pair of gray shoes. In the drawer is a load of rubbish and abandoned things, like the gray shoes - father's favourites. It's all that's left of him. Probably. Mother has been giving his things out to God knows whom. I take the shoes and leave.
Outside my father's gray shoes dangle from the wire. Who cares if there's a spark. I see him in them, squirming and dying again. I smile. I've always wanted to see my father hang.
CN Ndubuisi's flash fiction, "I Try To Kill My Father" was chosen from our 3rd #WriterPrompt. He answered a few questions for SSDA on how he sees his writing.
SSDA: How do you view your roll as a storyteller?
CN: Simply put, it's to let people see life and 'the other sides' of it.
SSDA: Any writing projects currently cluttering your desk?
CN: Yes. But not on a desk [unless] you don't mind me referring to my phone as one cause that's where I do my writings. For now. Maybe. I still haven't gotten the full picture of what kind of short story "Waterflection" [my entry for the #Water contest] will turn out to be.
SSDA: What writing advice do you wish you knew earlier?
CN: "Don't sacrifice story for theme"- Ellah Wakatama Allfrey
SSDA: What author makes you think, "I'd kill to write like that?"
CN: Anton Chekhov ( a little game). Am a fan of short fiction.
SSDA: What is your biggest writer fantasy (aside from earning a decent paycheck for your art)? A cabin in the woods to hide and write?
CN: Well, maybe all writers dream that way or maybe you reach a point in your skill and you start having those dreams. For someone like me, I dream of becoming a colonist.
Yes. [I do mean to colonise.]
Not necessarily like the big and small country stuff, but in depriving [the reader] of your emotional sovereignty, make you starve, and drive you on long without sleep. There're writers whose work do exactly that, you know. I dream of becoming one of such. That's priority. Luxuries, and decent paycheck should naturally follow.
SSDA: What have you been reading, lately?
CN: Lots of short stories, and techniques [on writing short stories]. SSDA's FB page gives me loads [to read].
SSDA: Give us your editing tips!
CN: Eliminate all redundant adverbs and repetitive words. Read it out [loud] to myself.
These are basics, and of course, I can always get more sophisticated stuff from [SSDA]. I also try to get someone else to read my work.
CN Ndubuisi is a young Nigerian aspiring writer. Currently, he is studying English Language at a college of Education. He loves short stories, and loves to write them