Good morning and Happy Hump Day! If it's Wednesday, then it must be time for more flash fiction from the Wednesday Briefers! We're a group of authors who bring you our finest flash fiction every week, 500 to 1000 words, inspired by one of our prompts.
Things took an ugly turn when Ethan's obnoxious brother was served with divorce papers while they were all at breakfast. Can things get worse? See what's going on in this week's chapter of Bad Karma and the Family Plan. Don't forget to stop by and visit the other Briefers, see what's going on with them. Their links follow my tale! Enjoy!
Once the process server had put us in her rearview
mirror and gone on her merry way, Joey sat looking rather stupidly at the
documents in his hand in what I imagine was stunned disbelief. Nobody said
anything. Probably because nobody wanted to kick a man when he was down. At
least we had some kind of explanation for Heather’s disappearance. Nothing
sinister, or even really surprising. She’d left his dumb ass and filed for
divorce. Who could blame her? Although I still suspected that the minister’s
new leaf he’d so recently turned had something to do with that too.
Moments later, the parents returned and took their
seats at the table once more.
“Who was that lady I saw standing here?” Joseph
Senior asked. “She didn’t stay very long did she?”
“Just long enough to serve Joey with papers and get
Troy’s autograph,” Sarah supplied with a grin she didn’t bother to conceal.
The father turned his piercing gaze upon his older
son, who was squirming uncomfortably in his seat. I suspected he would have
hightailed it out of there except for the fact he’d ridden with his parents and
didn’t have the keys to their car, or money for a cab. So he was enforced to
endure whatever his dad chose to dish out.
We were all staring at the minister by now, probably
wondering how he would handle the news. It occurred to me, perhaps belatedly,
that if there really were something between him and his daughter-in-law, this
could be the cue for even more heartache. If he had a thing for her, or if
they’d ever had a thing, maybe he would leave his wife for her? Or something
like that.
Or perhaps I’d seen too many soap operas.
The waitress arrived with the check at that moment.
Reverend Thorne handed her his credit card. Once she’d walked away, he looked
at his son. “At least now you know,” was all he said. Within minutes,
everything was paid for, and everyone had shuffled off to the parking lot.
I felt guilty when I saw our tails sitting in their
cars, keeping an eye on us. I remembered having to endure such tedious duty,
and being unable to eat anything other than the crap we brought with us. The
least I could have done was order them something. Seeing my consternation,
Ethan leaned in to me and murmured for my ear only, “I arranged to have
something sent out while we were eating.”
He’s always so thoughtful. That alleviated my guilt.
We all got into our respective vehicles and headed back toward the Thorne
residence. However, when we got to the highway, we found ourselves a bored
highway worker with a sign that said Detour,
and we were forced to get off onto a smaller road with a lower speed limit. Oh
well, that would give us a little extra time without Joey’s company.
“Isn’t Joey’s wife the one who works for Joe?” Uncle
Benny asked from the back seat of our rental car. Once again, Troy had offered
to chauffeur Sarah and little Alex, and Ethan’s sister hadn’t hesitated to take
him up on his offer.
“She did, but I don’t think she does now,” Ethan
said.
“What’s their relationship?”
Ethan’s uncle was very observant, much like his
nephew. Ethan, that is, not Joey. I doubted Maureen had said anything to her
brother on the subject, probably would have considered it disloyal. But some
things couldn’t be ignored.
“Dad and Heather?” Ethan shrugged. “I think she fed
his ego. Made him feel young again or something like that. I’d call it the
seven year itch, but he and Mom have been married a lot longer than that.”
“Is she a pretty girl?” Benny wondered.
Ethan glanced toward me. Now it was my turn to
shrug. “Not my type,” I commented, producing a snort from Benny and a smile
from Ethan.
“I’d be worried if she were,” Ethan quipped.
“Honestly, though, I remember the first time I saw her, I did think she was
pretty, and I wondered why she was with Joey. Especially when he didn’t seem
overly excited about her. But then I got to know her better, and I saw how ugly
her personality really was. I always had the feeling Dad had somehow arranged
their marriage, but I can’t prove it.”
Benny whistled softly. “Wow, what a tangled web.”
Ethan and I both nodded our agreement.
“You know I’m very grateful that your parents have
agreed to our staying there,” Benny said after a moment of silence. “Especially
Joe. He’s certainly come around, and for that I thank—”
A sudden loud pop
caught our attention. We were traveling behind Troy’s car, and he was following
Ethan’s parents, with our tail bringing up the rear. But now I saw the minister
swerving of the road. Then another loud pop
as Troy followed suit.
And then I saw what the problem was as we too ran
over the metal spikes that lay across the road and veered off the highway into
the grass with a jarring thud.
to be continued
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