Novel Punishment
Suganthy dropped her satchel noisily onto the ground and quickly emptied it. Then she started writing something furiously in each of her books. Sivapalan, sitting silently on the sofa, guilt written all over his face, got to his feet and peered over Suganthy’s shoulder at what she was doing. He stood aghast at the sight of her beloved daughter’s handiwork and almost fainted. Suganthy was crossing out her father’s name and substituting her mother’s name instead, altering her full name to read Suganthy Suganya.
The noise of the falling satchel distracted the attention of Suganthy’s mother who was lying in her bed with swollen lips and her face fear-stained. She left the room noiselessly and stood watching them both utterly bereft of words.
V. Thillainathan,
Trincomalee
This is an extremely powerful piece of short fiction which touches on the theme of domestic abuse and its devastating impact on children who have to witness it. A very slight incident is picked here – but it is very powerful. Please send in yoiur works of flash fiction to the following email address
mirrormagazinehundredwords@gmail.com or Madhubhashini Disanayaka Ratnayake, C/O the Sunday Times, No. 8 Hunupitiya Cross Road, Colombo 02.
Note: Rodney Jayasuriya was the author of the Flash Fiction piece “At Traffic Lights” published in the last issue.