Story Prompt

During the night last night I woke up with this running through my head, “It’s hard to plead self-defense when you’ve shot a man in the back.”

By the time I finished taking my shower this morning I had mentally written this very short story.

Self Defense

I never expected to find myself in a courtroom let alone being the defendant in a murder trial. When the judge asked me how I pled I said, “Not guilty because it was self defense.”

He replied,  “It’s hard to plead self-defense when you’ve shot a man in the back. How did that come about?”

So I told him. “When I met the now deceased he was a bit of a dandy and I was impressed. By the time he asked me to marry him I’d gotten to know him a bit better and there were hints of things I didn’t like so I turned him down. The next night he kidnapped me. When I tried to resist he beat me so badly I could hardly move. Then he took me to his cabin, tore off my clothes, and threw me on the bed. He then took off his gun belt and laid it on a table near the bed, and began undressing. As I said, he was a bit of a dandy so he turned his back to hang his clothes on a chair. When he did I grabbed his gun and shot him.”

You can imagine how that trial turned out.

TTYL,

Linda