Deep Thoughts

Holmes and Watson have a falling out. 300 words

Deep Thoughts

“I have to study,” he said. She looked at him.
“You’re long years out of school of any kind. What’s there to study?”
“There is always something to study for a life-long learner, but in this case, I mean another meaning of the word.”
She widened her hazel eyes at him winningly.
“I have to think, not just briefly, but deeply. I have a problem that needs solving.”
“As long as it’s not me.”
He smiled slowly at her. She returned the smile, winningly.
“Do you want me to leave you alone for a bit?” she asked.
“Please, it is a complicated problem that needs silence and privacy.”
She bristled. “Are you saying I talk too much?”
He didn’t answer, so she left the room in a huff, not forgetting to slam the door. He winced but soon relaxed.
“I don’t know whatever possessed me!” he said to himself.
He ruminated a little more.
“She is beautiful, but so vacuous, limp-brained and clinging,” he said.
“I have to do it, or she will drive me mad! I am a man who is best living a solitary life, with friends that come and go as I choose to see them.”
He reached in his desk drawer, pulled out a vial. Pouring two glasses of rich Madeira, he added some of the liquid from the vial to one of the glasses.
He stood up and carried both glasses to the door. He summoned her with honeyed tones. When she came, he offered a toast and they clinked glasses.
Minutes later, he was gasping his last as he writhed on the floor. When he was no more, she emptied both glasses and washed them.
“He was somewhat boring, was Mr. Sherlock Holmes. I am better off without him,” Johanna Watson mused.