Suspense Short Story – Gone With The Wind
Photo credit: NinoAndonis from morguefile.com
Laughing and shouting they were walking towards the bridge. The little girl and her mother were out for a morning a walk. The sky was all clear and the happy birds were playing with each other warming up themselves for the day’s work. It wasn’t their usual habit to go for a morning walk. For the first time both of them were out in the morning with the birds.
Eventually they reached the bridge and seated themselves on a bench from where they had a great view of the fast flowing river. The bridge was all clear, no one to be seen there. Suddenly the little girl remembered something her mother said to her.
“The one who killed your father, after being freed from the jail jumped from that bridge in that fast flowing water. You know why, because that’s what the scoundrel was worthy of ”.
Her mother had not told her who he was. And she wasn’t so courageous as to ask her about him.
Summing up all his courage this time she moved a little bit more closer to her mother and placing her hand on her mother’s shoulder she asked “who was he……the one who……killed my father?”.
“Let’s go home” said her mother taking the hand off her shoulder.
She did as she was ordered. Both of them started for their home. When they had reached the end of the bridge an ambulance came from nowhere blowing the horn. Both of them trying to get away from the middle of the road fell down and the little girl lost hold on the key. The key went down tumbling and tossing and finally rested peacefully on a boulder near the shore of the river. No one was injured. The ambulance with the horn blowing continuously made its way towards the hospital with incredible velocity. It seemed that a patient was in a serious condition.
“Can you see the key?” asked her mother after getting up and cursing the driver.
“Yes, there it is, on that boulder” replied the girl.
“It’s your fault, go get it what are you waiting for.”
The helpless girl went down and fetched the key. She had also found a sheet of paper with some words scribbled on it.
“What’s this?” asked her mother on seeing the sheet of paper in her hand.
“I found it down there in the bushes” she replied.
“Haven’t I told you that it’s a bad habit to pick up those dirty things from the ground?” taking the paper from her hand she threw it away.
“Don’t you ever again pi………”she stopped suddenly on seeing the name written on that sheet of paper. It was the name which she once loved the most. That name was once the most precious gift, God had bestowed her with.
She went near that paper and unfolded it with trembling hands. Then sitting down in the middle of the road she started to read it.
It went as……..
Anyone who finds it, make sure that this message reaches my mother. Here is the address WALL ALLEY, HOUSE NO. 8J.
Dear mother you never believed me. How would you even think that I will kill my own father. That day father came home drunk. That’s the truth he was drunk and wasn’t in his sensed. I was alone in the house. I was scared. Suddenly he grabbed a knife and said that he would kill himself. I tried my best to stop him but he pushed me aside and then pushed the knife into his heart. I removed the knife from his chest. He was alive then. I can’t help but cry over his body. In a minute he was dead. Then you came in and saw me with the blood covered knife in hand and the dead body of the father. Believe it or not but that’s the truth.
Now that I am freed from jail I know that I am the one you hate most in this world. So, what’s the use of my life? I am going to jump from this bridge. And I hope that my body will not be found.
At the end of the page was the name of her son, her son whom she once loved the most. Now she believed that her son was innocent. He sat there weeping but it was too late then. They say it’s better late than never. Somehow I don’t see any use of it here. Her son had gone somewhere with the wind. And now it was too late for her to weep over her son’s innocence. The little girl stood still some distance from her mother watching her with wet eyes.
“I saw a dream today” said the little girl.
“What?” asked her mother after controlling her feelings.
“I saw that I had a brother. He was sitting right here on this bridge writing something on a sheet of paper in the night. Suddenly he lost grip on that sheet of paper and ran to catch it. Trying to catch that paper he slipped and fell into the river and drowned”.
Her mother tried her best not to cry but was unsuccessful in suppressing her real feelings.
“Mommy, am I your only child or do you had a son too?” asked the little girl curiously.
“Come he………….” another ambulance came faster than the first one out of nowhere blowing the horn. The little girl and her mother tried to get away from the middle of the road but were unsuccessful. The driver unable to control the vehicle crushed both of them. The sheet of paper flew away with the wind. Everyone got out of the ambulance and tried to recognize the corpses.
“Oh my God!” exclaimed one of them.
“Do you know who they are?” asked the others.
“Yes, this is the mother of the boy whom we just found in the river and this is his sister” he said.
And that’s how the family ended. No one will ever know the whole story because the sheet of paper had gone with the wind.
__END__
