“What you like for lunch?!” Julia shouted from the kitchen.

When he never move, she muttered a curse about him being her stone deaf husband. She couldn’t understand why Bob was lying there, in the middle of the day, on the couch when there was so much to be done.

Their Pearl City house near the gulch was already old and in need of repair, which was fairly ironic considering Bob used to be a maintenance man. Today for some reason, it seemed as if so many things in the house were unexpectedly falling apart. Typically, gadgets would follow the natural law of electronics and die in groups of three. But today, with so many things on the fritz, Julia wondered if there was something else going on. North Korean EM pulse? Alien probe? Maybe they were testing that Giant Golf Ball at Pearl Harbor? Who knows, right?

She wanted for get Bob’s opinion on this strange phenomenon, and it annoyed her that she couldn’t. She never know why she was so down on him, but. He was a good husband. Loyal and obedient. In many ways like a dog, but more yappy.

Because of all the home invasions on the news, for make her feel safer, Julia had submitted a work order for her husband to install those motion sensors on all the lights inside of the house. She knew Bob would be reluctant because they had recently acquired a dog for that very same reason. So he complained a little, but in the end he completed the project before her deadline and he came in under budget.

Since their retirement, they had gotten an Akita and named him Chibi. Bob thought they should give him a stronger name like Koa if they wanted him for be their watchdog. But Julia’s name choice prevailed, even though Chibi meant little and the dog was actually more akin to a small llama. Julia had secretly wanted for call the dog Bob. She thought it was humorous that when she yelled Bob, both her husband and the dog would come running, probably because in canine thinking Bob means, Get over here now! Smart dog.

For awhile the fancy lights from Sears worked perfectly. As Julia entered the living room, she never need pio the kitchen light—it would turn off automatically. Julia knew Bob never care much for the safety aspect, but rather he could appreciate the saving money aspect. If you leave all the lights open, bumbye poho electric.

For prevent would-be burglers from stealing tools from the garage, Bob suggested the security lights should be installed on the outside. But Julia had denied the request. She told him she was more worried about the “murglers,” the people who’d break in, then murder and burglarize them. She reasoned that if those guys were for enter the house while they were sleeping, the murglers would be instantaneously scared off when the lights came on. But for some reason, today, no matter how much she fanned her arms or twirled around, she couldn’t get any of it to activate.

Julia looked out her kitchen window. She found it strange that even Chibi was quiet today. Usually he’d be clamoring for attention. Since Bob never answer what he wanted for lunch, Julia decided to just make kamaboko and mayonnaise sandwiches. His favorite. A treat before he’d have to do their home repairs.

However, when she tried for open the refrigerator she found the handles were oddly quite slippery. To help her grip she thought she should get a hand towel from the clothesline. That’s when she noticed the kitchen door was ajar and there was broken glass scattered across the tile. Stumbling, she ran to Bob for tell him what she had found. And that’s when she discovered there, lying on the floor in front of the couch, was another body. Her own.

Image by Toa Heftiba.