My Nephew

I stood up after hearing a gun shot; I looked at my murderer, to know that he was my nephew.

I looked at my dead body, to see that he shot me in my forehead, and realize that I am a ghost.  He removed the racket of the table tennis from my left hand. I was holding the red ball of the table tennis in my right hand, but he didn’t notice. He grabbed the chair found in the room and shattered the window with it. Glass scattered everywhere outside. He left the room, changed his clothes and went to his mother Victoria.

I looked around and found out that I am in Ladies locker room, of a nursing home. I worked there as a nurse, after I was released from prison. Nobody knew my history especially the staff, or else I would not be working there.

I needed to find someone to discover the body, I wanted justice. I went outside to see, if anyone could help. No one was able to see me except for a man who kept on starring at me. I didn’t know who he is; I went to him, to see what he could do. The man made a gesture with his hand, to follow him. I followed him to the garden. It was a rainy day; it kept raining for 6 hours, so the soil was still wet, when we went out. He started with introducing himself; he said that his name is Carl, and he worked as a detective and he can see ghosts. I said “considering the circumstances, I do need a detective… My body is in the ladies locker room. Help me”. Carl looked confused.

“You know who killed you?”

“Yes, Ivan did.” I answered

I explained that Ivan was my nephew.

Carl asked “why would he kill you?”

I told Carl everything about my past, I told him that I was young when I married the man I love Rouhan in secret. Rouhan’s brother didn’t know that I am married, he came on to me, when my husband saw him, he couldn’t bear someone else touching me, so he killed his brother, with a pistol. When I saw that my husband is going to go to prison for murder, I decided to take his place, I told him to run away. I removed his finger prints from the pistol and put mine, Rouhan was coward, so he allowed me take his place. I stood there till the police came; I admitted that I am the one who killed him. I went to prison and was sentenced for 25 years, but I came out after 20 years for good behavior.

Carl asked me about what happened before Ivan shot me, I told him that Ivan wanted to have some fun and I was not on my shift, so he asked me to play table tennis with him. So we went there played for nearly two hours. We were tired, and sweating, so we decided to quit and change our clothes. I went to the ladies locker room for the staff members; he came after me, and said something, while I was turning to look at him he shot me. I was still holding the racket, in my left hand and the ball in my right. I dropped dead, and saw him switch the racket, with a gun, that was as far a as I can remember.

Carl called the police after; he went to the ladies’ locker room and found my dead body. The police came in and investigated. There was something unexplained to me. They said that I died five hours ago, but the truth is I was dead for 2 hours. The gun was in my hand, the police looked at it as a suicide, so they didn’t really bother. They just concluded that, I came in when I was angry or depressed, shattered the window, and shot myself. Carl looked at the body and found out that my fore finger is not on the trigger, and it looked like I was holding something like a racket. He informed the police. For the police it was enough evidence to consider it murder. I informed Carl about the red ball in my hand, it was a table tennis ball. The officer concluded that I was playing table tennis before I was murdered. The detective went to see all the records of those who played table tennis that day, and there it was

“Ivan and Katrina at 8:00 pm, I remember they took the red ball, not the white one, because the white one was completely damaged.” The man on the counter said. 

The time of death estimated was before the 8:00 pm. I thought of it for along time then finally, I told Carl “I know how he did it!”

I ordered Carl to tell the police my conclusion to solve the case. I started out with, my history then mentioned that Victoria, wanted revenge for her husband, she fed her son Ivan with all the hatred needed to kill Katrina, the hatred increased when Katrina came out from prison. Ivan knew that she was working in here, so he submitted his mother Victoria, to keep an eye on me. He decided to make me exhausted, before he kill me so that he can fake the time of death, but he made a mistake, he wasn’t fast enough in switching the racket for the gun, my body was harder to change at that moment. He shattered the window, to sound like whoever murdered me has ran away, since it was raining, the footsteps were considered banished by the rain. Carl was asked for evidence by Ivan.

Carl simply said “your clothes are still in the locker room, it should have something on it.”

Ivan admitted after the police found his clothes in the locker room, with my DNA on it. I saw the light while saying “justice served”





Word count: 999 words