The Death of Karma

by T.F. Torrey

She was the kind of person who, when looking through her closet for used clothes to donate to the women's shelter, inevitably came out with an armful of new blouses, unable to consider giving someone else less than what she kept for herself. She was the kind of woman who would give her change to a coworker if he looked hungry and the vending machine wasn't taking dollar bills. One time I saw her give her lunch to a man with a "homeless veteran" sign at the exit ramp on her way to work, because the genuine hunger she saw in his gaunt features plucked at the strings of her heart. This is what I am thinking of when the casket is lowered into the ground and her children drop handfuls of dirt into the hole. They say the good things you do will come back to you in the end. This is what I am thinking of as we turn to go, and the sky is gray and flat as the bottom of an iron, and great drops of cold rain begin to fall in dark splotches on the bright autumn leaves.

6S

T.F. Torrey is a struggling author working to become an accomplished author. His novel of suspense in the Arizona desert, The Desert King, is new from Samhain Publishing. He lives and works in beautiful downtown Phoenix, Arizona, and his work can be found online here.