Word Splash

husband

whiskey

slippers

giggled
freezer
a favor

six o’clock

detective

oven

leg of lamb



steps to the cellar



it’s Thursday


At six o’clock, Gwendolyn descended down the stairs, her favorite pair of slippers on her feet. She walked toward the kitchen, a big smile on her face. She saw her wonderful children playing near the roaring fire, happily smiling and laughing and tossing around a bright, red ball. Her youngest daughter, Kaitlin, looked at her mother and giggled.

Gwendolyn whispered to herself, “Silly girl,” and turned to walk into the kitchen, the smile still upon her face.

She looked at the calendar nailed to the wall and squealed with excitement. “It’s Thursday!” she squealed cheerfully. Then she turned to the door and called out, “Come in here, girls!”

One by one, all three of her daughters skipped into the kitchen. In unison, they responded, “Yes, mother?”

Gwendolyn looked down at her daughters and excitedly told them, “Today is Thursday, girls. I was thinking of cooking a leg of lamb. What do you think?”

“Lamb! Lamb!” they exclaimed, smiles appearing on all of their faces.

“I knew you would want that!” she responded, smiling down at them. “Do you want to help me?” she asked, grabbing a bottle of whiskey for dinner out of the cabinet.

“Yes!!!!” they cried, jumping up and down.

“Alright! Marie, can you turn on the oven?”

“Yes, mother!” Marie said.

“Joan, can you check the freezer for any sign of vegetables?”

“Yes, mother!” Joan said.

“Mommy,” Kaitlin said, busying herself by taking out a pan from the cupboard. “Is Daddy going to be home today?”

“I’m afraid not, sweetie,” Gwendolyn replied to her daughter. “He’s still working on that major case in the big city.

Gwendolyn’s husband was a detective who worked in the city, solving cold-case murders. He had left a week ago, and hadn’t returned yet. The girls asked everyday for their father, but it was always the same response: he was working.

“Oh,” Kaitlin sighed, putting the pan on the counter.

“It’s ok sweetie,” Gwendolyn told her daughter, gently laying an arm on her shoulder. “He’ll be home soon. I promise.”

Gwendolyn then told her daughters, “Thank you very much, girls, for doing me a favor. Now go wash up for dinner.”

“Yes, mother,” they told her, running out the doorway and up the stairs.

“Now,” she told herself. “Time to get the lamb.”

She climbed down the steps to the cellar, grabbing a butcher’s knife on her way out of the kitchen.

She walked to the back of the cellar until she reached a locked door. She entered the combination and swung the door open. A muffled sort of sound echoed off the walls of the room, and there was a sound of clanking chains against metal. Gwendolyn flicked on a light switch and stared at the man chained against the wall. It was someone she knew so dearly, and someone her daughters loved. It was her husband, John.

“Hello, John,” Gwendolyn whispered to her tied and gagged husband. “I’ve been waiting for this day for three years, John.”

“MMMMMMM!!!!!!! MMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!” John tried to scream out, but the piece of cloth wrapped tightly over his mouth muffled the sound.

“Ssh, ssh, ssh,” Gwendolyn whispered to her husband, a sinister smile on her face, an evil gleam in her eyes. “No one can hear you. So it’s useless trying.” She spoke in a sweet voice, as if coaxing her husband to try.

Again, he tried to scream out, but the cloth muffled his voice. Gwendolyn continued by saying, “I’ve been waiting for this moment for three years now, John. The day I found out you cheated on me with that cheap floozy from the next town over, I knew that you could not possibly live with the guilt. So I planned this entire scheme out, waiting for the perfect, opportune moment to knock you out and drag you in here. It’s about time you woke up, too.”

She moved in closer to him, and smiled at him with a purely evil expression. She leaned down to him, removed the cloth from his mouth, and planted a kiss on his dry, cakey lips. She finished kissing him and stood upright.

“Gwen, please don’t do this,” John pleaded to his wife. “I made a terrible mistake. Please don’t do this to me. I swear on my life I’ll never cheat again.”

“Oh, I know you’re never going to cheat again,” Gwendolyn replied, a sinister smile on her face.

She leaned in closer to her husband and said, “Goodbye, John. Sweet dreams. I must go bring your children their lamb.”

And with that, she brought the butcher’s knife down upon his head with a menacing cackle as the knife came down on his quivering skull.