{"id":2720,"date":"2014-11-08T05:23:04","date_gmt":"2014-11-08T05:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=2720"},"modified":"2014-11-08T05:23:04","modified_gmt":"2014-11-08T05:23:04","slug":"confession-lorna-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/confession-lorna-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Confession by Lorna Wood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rest\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Confession<\/h1>\n

by Lorna Wood<\/p>\n

The Agency hired me so if anything went wrong they could claim I was acting on my own hook. We\u2019d only just opened up diplomatic relations with Dokpur, and things were still delicate.<\/p>\n

I observed her shuttling between the workers\u2019 dormitory and the government buildings she cleaned. I figured I\u2019d do it on her half-day off, in the city, make it look like a street crime.<\/p>\n

Following her to a photographer\u2019s, I watched through a window as she peeled out of her government jumpsuit and posed in a filmy green neglig\u00e9e, like a butterfly just out of a cocoon. I started to doubt, even though I knew better. Maybe she was just trying to escape\u2014and who could blame her, I thought, looking around and breathing the filthy air.<\/p>\n

The photographer was demanding payment. My Dok is not great, but I could tell he wanted more than she had. When he started to suggest, none too subtly, an alternative form of payment, I threw all my experience out the window and intervened.<\/p>\n

We went to a caf\u00e9. Engulfed in the grey jumpsuit again, but with her hair still loose, she looked across the table at me with a breathless admiration that filled my head with escape plans and other air castles.<\/p>\n

She was trying to be a mail order bride, she said, showing me a letter and a photo from an American man. They\u2019d made a mistake about her, I thought. It wouldn\u2019t be the first time.<\/p>\n

I looked down at the photo and felt a jolt. It\u2019s a small world. Not two years ago, I\u2019d offed that guy\u2019s wife. I had to stop this.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until we were in my hotel room and she pulled the gun that I realized it was a set-up.
\n###<\/p>\n

I am a violinist and writer in Auburn, Alabama. I have published fiction in Blue Monday Review and poetry in Untitled, with Passengers. I have a Ph. D. from Yale University and have also published articles on children\u2019s literature and the American Renaissance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Agency hired me so if anything went wrong they could claim I was acting on my own hook. We\u2019d only just opened up diplomatic relations with Dokpur, and things were still delicate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[168],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flash-fiction"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t