Entry #30

One Last Time
by Betty Gordon


I gripped the edge of the kitchen sink—cold, hard stainless steel as I looked out the window straining to see a dark figure I knew would be there. He’d hate the dishes in the sink, he’d hate the half filled wine bottle, he’d hate a lot of things. I stared at the remaining fruit of the grape—all I wanted to do was curl up with it, forget the dishes, forget cans of opened food ripening and filling my nostrils with their stench, forget staring out the window.

I finally saw him moving between shadows. Minutes later he kicked in the door filling it with his muscular frame, arms struggling to free themselves from binding cloth. I grabbed the curtain rod—it collapsed. His hands circled my neck as we plummeted to the floor.

He was on top of me diminishing any force I could muster, slashing at my face with shards from a broken saucer. His torrid breath blanketed me with loathing. My knee caught him in the groin while my hands clawed the floor until I found a piece of metal crudely sliced from a can of beans. The serrated edge chewed my fingers. He started to say something, but before he could get the words out, I thrust my salvation into his neck severing his carotid. His startled eyes rewarded me.

I lay for a few minutes before forcing myself to stand. I grasped the wine bottle and raised it high—“One last time.”


(Betty Gordon’s debut mystery, MURDER IN THE THIRD PERSON, published by L&L Dreamspell, is scheduled for release September 1, 2007. Betty is a native Texan who works on her craft through membership in Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Writers’ League of Texas, and Bay Area Writers’ League.)