“I Took the Fall,” by Pamela Schloesser Canepa, (c) 2017. I hereby declared Tuesdays to be Short Tales Tuesday, wherein I will post a new or a past short story or flash fiction I have written. Enjoy!
I headed back to the yard with my garden hoe. I hate killing living things, but this bugger looked poisonous. He was further back in the brush.
“Sure, you keep your distance now.” I sat on the ground, sweating.
“You would too, Missssssssss.” His tongue darted out.
I jumped. “What?”
“Yesssss. It’ssss me. Come on, I am alwaysss judged by my outer cover, my ssscales sssso to sssspeak. It’sss not fair. All because of Hisssstory, mythology, the Bible, whatever.”
“I’m sorry.” I looked at him through new eyes. It had to be a he, though who could tell?
“Yessss. Imagine what it’sss like. Way back when, Armadillo sslipped up. You know he’s a good candidate to stand for evil. But no, I defended him. I took the fall for him.”
He actually looked sad.
It seemed he’d started to trust me. He’d slithered out from the bush. The garden hoe was resting next to me, forgotten.
Suddenly, he sprang at me, and I was overcome, knocked down.
“S-ssssucker!”
I took the fall.
~The end~
(c) Pamela Schloesser Canepa. A re-post I originally posted in 2017 as a response to the Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers blog challenge.
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