The Kiwi Takes Flight
Response to Medium Magic Prompt what to do when you find a dead body in the house.
“You’re sure it will be okay?” Melissa was worried. Not about the marriage. She’d known from the second she set eyes on Luka that he was the one she was destined to spend her life with. He’d immediately asked if she wanted to go out for a cup of coffee. She’d told her assistant she’d be gone for the rest of the day and they walked down the block to the nearby coffee shop,got two latte’s and then walked back past the shop to the beach about a half a block down.
They’d talked about everything and four hours later he’d proposed and she’d accepted.
Luka was a journalist, living mostly in New York and part time in England, where he’d been raised. He was visiting Chicago for an assignment. He was due to leave the next day for England, for a couple of weeks, to help out his Aunt.
Luka’s parents had been killed years before in a freak accident and since then he’d taken care of his Aunt Matilda, his father’s older sister. He had two uncles and 7 cousins on his father’s side but they’d all moved to New Zealand so he was the only one to look after her.
“Aunt Matilda might not take our engagement well, at least at first,” he’d explained. “She’s very independent for the most part, she runs her own store with homemade beauty products. But she became very dependent on me, I think because the rest of her family moved so far away.”
“And they don’t visit?” Melissa asked.
“No. I’ve never understood it. My father was such a family man. He was always the one who took care of my Aunt, even lived with her until he married my mom.”
“Did your aunt like your mother?”
“She seemed to. I think sometimes she wanted more of my dad’s attention than he could give her but mom also spent a lot of time helping her. She helped out in the store, making products labeling and packaging. Then I came along and mother didn’t have as much time.”
She didn’t want to ask about his parents because it must have been painful losing them.
“Do you think maybe you should tell her by phone tonight before you get there? So she has some time to get used to the idea?”
“That might not be such a bad idea,” Luka said. “She can get, well possessive, and a bit controlling when she feels like someone is taking my attention away from her.”
Melissa wasn’t sure she liked that sound of that. “Though I guess it’s understandable when no one else in the family will even visit her.”
Melissa waited downstairs while Luka called his aunt from his room. He was gone for over half an hour and Melissa began to worry. He was white when he came down.
“Is everything all right?” she asked.
“It’s fine. My aunt, well, like I said. She’s possessive. Gets a bit histrionic when she feel like she’s being upstaged.”
“Upstaged? But I’m not even going with you. She’ll have your undivided attention.”
“I know. Come on, let’s have a nice dinner. I hate having to leave tomorrow morning. If I could put the trip off. . .”
“Don’t be silly. She’s got no one else. She’s allowed to be a bit . . . possessive.”
“You know, I’ll probably only be tied up for a few days. Why don’t you come over at the end of the week? We could spend some time together there, I could show you all my old stomping grounds.”
“But if your aunt is reacting the way she is with me this far away, she’s bound to have far more trouble if she knows I’m coming over there.”
“So we won’t tell her.”
Melissa wasn’t certain it was the best idea, but she wanted to see where he grew up. She agreed.
After dinner, they went back to his hotel room and sat up talking all night. It was the most wonderful night she’d ever had . Somehow between when they got back and when he left the next morning, they’d set a wedding date for the following Tuesday, in England, a week after they’d met.
“It’ll be perfect. We’ll have the ceremony just the two of us any way you want it. Then we can do a bigger wedding for friends and family.
For Aunt Matilda, Melissa thought. No, she wasn’t concerned about whether she’d made the right decision, she was worried about Luka’s Aunt.
— — —
Luka hadn’t wanted to tell Melissa just how possessive and controlling his Aunt was. She had a way of getting him to do what she wanted. And she’d made it very clear. She did not want him marrying some “American gold digging hussy.” She felt he was naive about women and so if he married it would be to someone of her choosing. She’s only set him up with one woman so far, a mousy little thing, afraid of her own shadow.
If his aunt had known of all the dating he’d done in America she’d be scandalized. But those days were over. Melissa was the one. Whether Aunt Matilda liked it or not. He’d actually stood up to her for the first time ever when she had attempted to forbid him from marrying Melissa.
“Aunt Matilda. You know I love you and that I will always make sure you’re looked after. But I am going to marry Melissa and if you want me in your life as opposed to someone I hire, you’ll need to accept that.”
She’d gone dead silent for several minutes. He’d waited her out.
“We’ll talk about this when you arrive. I think it’s best if you stay with me this trip.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. I’ll be perfectly comfortable at my cottage.”
“It’s too far from London.”
“It’s an hour and a half tops.” Luka knew her opposition had more to do with the fact that the cottage had belonged to his mother before she’d married his father. She’d always wanted him to sell it.”
“We’ll talk when you arrive. At my house.”
“I’m happy to stop at your house before going to Southampton. It would be silly to go home first since I’ll be landing in London.”
There was more silence. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you Luka but I don’t like it.”
“I’m sorry about that Aunt Matilda. But I’m a grown man and you have to let me make my own decisions without bullying me.” Where had that come from?
Before they hung up, he thought he heard his aunt mumble something. “Just an overeager imagination from confronting her for the first time.”
But on the plane when he started to doze off he heard the words again. “I haven’t started to bully you yet.” He was up for the remainder of the flight despite being exhausted.
When he rang his aunt’s doorbell, it was opened by a new girl. No. It was that mousy woman his aunt had tried to set him up with. What, marry her into the family or make a servant of her, no difference? Why had he never seen how well, unusual — or oh admit it- disturbed his aunt was before.
The girl, Dora wasn’t it? Mumbled something he thought might have been about his coat. He handed it to her, feeling uncomfortable. She seemed very nervous as she showed him into his Aunt’s sitting room. He kissed his Aunt’s cheek, poured himself a drink and sat down.
When Dora left the room, he said, “You fixed me up with her then when I didn’t marry her you hired her? Isn’t that a bit, well, odd?”
“Don’t second guess my choice of staff, Luka. She is a good, loyal, member of my household, who does what I say and doesn’t talk back.”
“Because you pay her to do so,” he said settling back.
“Luka, this woman is clearly a bad influence on you, and you’ll not marry her.”
He laughed. “Aunt Matilda, I only just met her so she has nothing to do with me sticking up for myself, and I’ll marry whomever I choose.”
“Really? Well, I think we’d better settle this right away.”
She got up and began walking towards the back door which led to her large walled garden.
“Dora, we’ll be out by the shed,” she called. “I’ll let you know what’s to be done.”
Something wasn’t right here. “Why are we going to the shed, exactly?”
His aunt didn’t answer. It looked like there was a new lock on the door which she carefully removed. She opened it and motioned him in before shutting the door and turning on the light.
It was a large shed, but not large enough to miss what was there. It was a man, and from the amount of blood around him and the caved in side of his face, he was clearly dead.
Luka stood in shock for a few seconds them forced himself past his aunt and into the garden where he threw up. He was wiping his mouth when she came out and secured the lock. “Come back in when you’re feeling better,” was all she said.
He walked back into the house in a daze.
“This was Dora’s first murder, so she made a bit of a mess of it, but no matter. It’ll serve its purpose.”
It not he. “Which is?”
“You’ll break it off with that floozy or the constable will be finding the teacher who went missing this morning.”
“So leave the woman I intend to marry or you’ll send me to jail? And if I agree, what happens to . . . him?”
“I’ve been training Dora in making my beauty products for the shop. She’s gotten quite proficient at it. Especially the soaps. In fact I have a whole vat of lye downstairs in the basement for her to practice on.”
Luka felt sick again.
“And as for sending you to jail, don’t be silly. I’d never send my own flesh and blood to jail. Dora though is a different story. Her fingerprints are all over the murder weapon. I don’t think she’d fare very well in prison, do you?”
Oh my God. And she’d do it. He knew she’d do it. There was something though she didn’t know. She thought he’d never abandon her, that his sense of family was too strong, that she’d always have control over him. She really didn’t know him at all. She didn’t understand that sometimes you just pushed someone too far.
“Alright. Seeing I have no other choice.”
“Oh, there’s always a choice, Luka.”
“Not if it means sending someone to jail and likely her death because you manipulated her into killing someone.”
“Then you made your choice. You can call that girl and break it off with her while Dora takes care of our friend.”
So he made the call. But his aunt knew almost nothing about technology or cell phones and didn’t realize the phone wasn’t on. It never crossed her mind he’d lie to her.
“I think I’ve had quite enough for one day. If you don’t mind, I’ll head home and come back first thing in the morning.”
“Of course, Luka. I wish you’d stay for dinner, but I understand that you’re tired.” She was sweet as sugar now that she’d gotten her way. Or at least thought she had.
He forced himself to kiss her on the cheek though he couldn’t imagine anything he wanted to do less. Other than join Dora in the basement. He shivered.
He drove off but instead of heading towards Southampton he headed in the opposite direction as he dialed the phone.
“Melissa? Hi, it’s Luka. There’s been a change of plans. I’m heading to the airport now to come back to the States . . . No, I thought Chicago, actually, if it would be okay with you. . . Yeah? Okay, great. I can’t wait to see you. . . Oh, and Melissa? How do you feel about New Zealand?”
Natalie Frank (Taye Carrol) has had work featured in Haunted Waters Press, Weirdbook Magazine, Siren’s Call Publications, Lycan Valley Press and Zero Fiction among others. Her poetry has been featured a several anthologies. She is the Managing Editor for Novellas and Serials at LVP Publications.
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