WW16 - Mother in Law

“Ethel? Is that you?”

“Of course, Edward. You didn’t think I would leave you all alone here did you?”

“No, of course, I… But, where? Where is here? Where are we?”

“Don’t you recognise it, dear? This is our home, the first place we ever lived together. See? This is the fireplace we sat around every night, listening to the wireless, cup of tea on our side tables. Oh and here’s the doily my mam made us. Do you remember? she used to make us all kinds of crocheted things, she loved to crochet. Course she hated that you smoked that awful pipe and got the reek of tobacco on it all.”

“She didn’t much like anything I did, if I remember right. She’d deny me my bottle of ale of a Sunday too. ‘Shouldn’t be drinking that muck of a lords day’ she’d say ‘You want to be getting yourself away down to the church, not sitting here boozing and listening to the football.’. My one day off, my one day not toiling down a deep, dark hole and she made me wish I was back down there with her nagging.”

“Now, Edward, that isn’t very kind! What a horrid thing to say. She’ll be so glad your here and there you are wishing you were down a hole rather than see her.”

“Don’t be daft, Ethel. She’s gone, hen.”

“Gone? No, she’s out in the kitchen waiting for you with a cuppa.”

“Ethel, hen, she died years ago. Are you okay?”

“Well, of course she did, silly! Fancy thinking I didn’t know that. But I’m dead too, and… Well Edward, so are you, now.”

“What? No! But… But how?”

“In your bed Edward, in your sleep.” She smiled at him warmly. “I hoped you would die this way.”
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​(c) Madelaine Taylor