Holiday Planning

Millie knows just what to do. 300-word flash

Holiday Planning

Millie picked up the insistent shrill of her phone.
“How was your Christmas?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she replied.
“What’s on for New Year’s Eve?”
“I won’t do anything that night either,” she told the caller.
“You are a stick in the mud!” the caller said. Millie knew it was her off-and on-again best friend, Ora.
“I suppose you have plans,” Millie said.
“Not yet, but I plan to.”
“Really? Need a partner in crime?”
The line went silent. Millie waited. Still no reply.
Millie hung up the phone, puzzlement in her face.
“That was odd, when I say something like that, Ora laughs it off. I wonder…”
She didn’t have long to wait to find out what Ora had planned for New Year’s Eve. Just as she was settling down with her one cocktail to toast midnight and a range of snacks to see her through the marathons she was planning to watch on the tube, Millie’s doorbell rang.
Reluctant to leave her cozy nest, she nevertheless got up to answer it.
She was astonished to see that it was Ora. After inviting her in Millie watched her drag in a heavy looking plastic bag.
“What’s this?” Millie asked.
“What’s left of my no-good, cheating fiancée,” Ora said shortly. Millie gulped.
“I assume he’s dead. Why is he dead?”
“Empty broken promises, if you must know.”
“What will you do with him now?”
“I was hoping you’d help me hide the body,” Ora replied.
“Me? I didn’t even know the guy!”
“That means you will have no scruples.”
Millie stared unseeingly ahead.
“Let’s take him out to the Plaza Hotel fountain,” she said finally.
“What? Why?”
“In the last few years, it’s been the site of several suicides at this time of year. He’ll be one more.”