Too Bad! Too Late!

Laura did not want to get up this morning, and something inside told her to cover her head back up and deal with calling in sick later. Her pain was dissipating, however, and she had already missed three days of work.

Feeling guilty, since she was the sole person to do her particular work and she didn’t want anyone to have to wait on her longer than necessary, Laura threw the covers from her head and sat up.

Deciding on whether to dress in a pants suit or jeans, Laura walked to the closet to see if anything suited her fancy. She flipped through the various colored suits and dresses, until her fingers scraped across something hard and knobby.

Taken aback, Laura quickly pulled her hand away and retreated from the closet. She inched closer and slowly lifted a hand in between the clothing where she had hit against the solid form. Her hand disappeared between the items, but did not feel anything out of the ordinary. Pulling her hand back, however, it hit on something hard and smooth, like a stick or “a bone; a rib bone,” she said out loud.

Holding back a scream, she spread apart the clothing. To her disbelief, facing her and seeming to glare at her was a full-on skeleton. Laura looked closer, her head straining to get nearer while her body remained sufficiently away from the closet. Recognition then hit her and she laughed with a full-body guffaw. Still laughing, she sauntered backward and fell on her bed, peering between teary blinks at the skeleton.

“You damned fool, Luis!” Laura fought to take control of her laughter, stood and walked over to the skeleton. “I told you, you can not come back here! You’re gone and you’re gone for good. Keep trying your voodoo stuff and you’ll be left in no-man’s land for eternity.”

She quickly got dressed in jeans and a blouse. She yanked the skeleton down, breaking the tie connecting the skeleton’s head to the clothing pole, and carried the skeleton to the trunk of her car. It wasn’t too heavy, being that Luis was only 5’6”.

Before closing the trunk she said, “I told you too many times that I’d get the best of you if you didn’t stop harassing me, Luis. I gave you so many chances, but you never believed me. It took only one black eye from you and I knew exactly where to go. Anita told me that you might try and come back, and that if you do to take you to the dump. Luckily, as you know, that’s on the way to my job. I know you didn’t believe in black magic before, but I see you do now. Too bad, too late. The incinerator will be the end of you!”

Slamming the trunk shut, she said while driving away, “Guess it was good for me to get out of bed today.”

--This was another Writer's Digest writing prompt of no more than 500 words: Finding a real skeleton in your closet.