Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

I can feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck; I sense danger…but from where? Off to the right I see a red Audi coming at me at a high rate of speed. I jump back, landing in the lilac bush in front of my least favorite neighbor’s house. The car speeds off before I can get the plate number. Ralph, previously-mentioned neighbor, hurries over; he’s always looking to stir up trouble.

“Who did you piss off, Arnie?”

“Very funny.” I get up and brush myself off. “I’ve no idea what that was all about!”

“Maybe Jill wants to collect on the insurance money.”

My wife, Jill, left me and says she wants a divorce; it’s been three months and she has not served me with papers. Leave it to Ralph to plant that sinister seed in my head.

“Don’t you have something you have to be doing other than harassing me?”

“Seriously? You’re the one that destroyed my lilac bush. How about I bill you for it?”

“You know my address,” I say and limp toward my mailbox.

The usual junk mail greets me: sale flyers, store coupons, a brake-alignment brochure… At least there is no manila envelope containing divorce papers.

I pour myself a glass of wine, and sort through the pile. Why has Jill not filed? Is Ralph on to something?

I am working on the second bottle when I hear the doorbell; I peek through the peep hole in the front door. It’s Jill!

“Can I come in?”

We drink wine and talk. She has decided she wants to call off the divorce; she still loves me and wants to ‘work things out’.

The red Audi?

Don’t know. Don’t care. Too busy ‘working things out’ with Jill.