another girl in the closet

another girl in the closet

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

Melvin awoke hating the thought of recording another music video requiring him to pretend to play his guitar. It was the hardest part of being a famous musician. Looking ecstatic while frantically pretending to strum and play a buzzing throbbing electric guitar usually ended up with Melvin looking foolish, something he hated. Melvin had to record at four this afternoon.

Waking in his old farm house in the Country Melvin knew he had slept late into the morning. That was a nice thing about being rich, he could get up whenever he wanted. He didn't live back in Missouri anymore on the cattle ranch with his parents.

The sun was warm through the east window curtains and for a long while Melvin kept the blankets pulled up to his chin and looked at the blue sky through the sunny window. At length the traffic over on the distant  highway began to annoy him and Melvin decided to get up out of his warm bed. The old house was cold this bright winter morning.

Turning his head toward the bedroom door Melvin discovered how bad his morning headache was today. He had been drinking last night but this was no ordinary hangover headache. Looking toward the open closet door Melvin saw why his headache was unusual today.

There was a blond girl laying on the floor of the closet. For a brief moment Melvin hoped she was alive. Then  knowing his history and remembering last night he began to plan what to do with the body this cold winter day. He had to record at 4pm today so he had to get busy.

Melvin laid a blanket over the dead girl. He covered the face. It was a pretty face, young with blond hair. She looked peaceful laying folded like that in the closet among his recording costumes. On a whim he put a small pillow under her head to lift her head off the floor. He moved his paired shoes a little to the right to get them out of her face.

It was hard to move about for it was usual for Melvin to have a terrible headache after he had murdered. Marvin searched the entire house. He had killed no other women.

Melvin wrapped the body in the green tarp and used the large wheelbarrow to move the stiffening corpse back to the horse barn. As usual the horses raced to the back pasture. They always knew what he was up to. The green tarp was a little too small, he would have to buy more later, he had been cutting tarp and burying dead girls a lot lately. As he became more famous and in demand Melvin needed to kill more and more girls who came home with him to see his farm.

Finally the burying was done, breakfast was finished, the closet was cleaned up and Melvin had to pick his costume for today's recording session. Melvin hated it when he had to pretend to play his guitar in a music video. He always managed to look stupid jumping about frantically pounding at his electric guitar.