Phoenix Anthology - Volume 4

Songs selected by Charee Grover and Monique Pattillo. Fictional narrative by Genia Wright.

She looked around the small room at the people waiting to listen to her story: her over-caffeinated attorney, a uniformed police officer that could probably use some caffeine, and a police detective in a brown suit. The space was very well-lit, almost annoyingly bright like a spotlight. She thought, I just want it to be over.

Her reverie was interrupted by the abrasive detective. "Do you need me to repeat the question? What did you do after work on Tuesday?"

"Oh…sorry. I was exhausted because I had just worked a double shift – the third one in a row - and I'd left too late to get on the bus. I tried to call my husband, but he didn't answer the phone, and I couldn't afford a cab, so I had to walk. It took about an hour.

"When I got home, I saw envelopes sticking out of the mailbox – I knew my husband hadn't left the house all day. He's been unemployed for nine months. He says he's been looking but…well…the mail is usually waiting for me in the box.

"I opened the door and headed straight upstairs to grab the laundry basket. I remember thinking, please let there be one collared shirt in the hamper, just one. I walked into our bedroom, and I'll be damned if he wasn't lying on the bed, watching television, eating potato chips, and scratching himself…Then he turned to me, with a smile on his face, and said, 'I have a taste for chicken and rice.'

"Now, I'm not the Doctor, but I think something psychological happened. The entire room went red, my hands were shaking, and my mouth tasted like gun powder and lead. My chest felt tight, and I couldn't breathe. I knew I had to leave him – or I was going to die of anxiety and bitterness. I started packing. I called my brother Tyrone. He came and picked me up, and I've been staying with him ever since."

The abrasive man leaned closer to her and asked, "are you aware that someone fatally stabbed your husband 37 times, sometime Tuesday night?"

"Of course, I am aware of my husband's murder. I was arrested today. My brother had to pay bail."

"Are you aware that we have a witness that heard a woman yell, 'life would be so much easier if you died! You make me sick!"

"Yes, it's so sad," she said. "It's also a shame the police haven't been able to identify the source of that voice or find the murder weapon. If I'd been at home instead of at my brother's house at the estimated time of the murder, I might have been there to save him."

Click here to check out Phoenix Anthology - Volume One, Volume Two, and Volume Three and look forward to Volume Five in November!