Smack Head (Trifecta Challenge, Week 62)

CarbonNYC / Art Photos / CC BY

The man dropped from the sky, hitting the ground only yards away.  Who knew that a body could make so much noise impacting with the pavement?  I tried to scream but no sound emerged, and I was literally frozen to the spot.  People bumped into me from behind, then carried on walking unperturbed, some of them adjusting their stride to step over the obstruction ahead.

The man struggled to his feet, brushing down his suit.  Catching my eye, he collected his bowler hat which had landed nearby and raised it gallantly to me, before disappearing into the crowd.

Was I going mad?

I hurried after him, catching him up on Oxford St.  As I reached out, he stepped off the pavement into the path of a lorry.  No one around me noticed and the lorry trundled on down the road.   I glimpsed his face flickering in and out of view beneath the chassis, caught in the back axle. Still smiling.

Sweat broke out on my forehead; my legs felt weak.  I decided to skip the office and go home.  I was obviously ill, hallucinating.

Shivering on the platform at Regent St underground station I saw him again, up near the tunnel entrance.  As the train emerged from the gaping mouth of the tunnel he smiled at me, before jumping into its path.  The crowd seemed oblivious; this was crazy.  Was I dreaming?

I got on the train.  Minutes later I looked up, and there he was sitting opposite me. He raised his hat again.  I ignored him.

He followed me off the train, dogging my footsteps.  I turned and he stopped dead, inches away from me, still smiling.

So I smacked him across the face, and his head fell off.

I smiled; it was very satisfying.  After all, he wasn’t real.

But now there are all these people screaming and running around.  The police have put me in handcuffs, and there’s a white sheet, soaked with blood on the platform.

This is madness.

**O**

This was an entry for the weekly Trifecta Challenge, rules below.

MOUTH

1a : the natural opening through which food passes into the body of an animal and which in vertebrates is typically bounded externally by the lips and internally by the pharynx and encloses the tongue, gums, and teeth
b : grimace <made a mouth>
c : an individual requiring food <had too many mouths to feed>
2a : voice, speech
b : mouthpiece
3: something that resembles a mouth especially in affording entrance or exit: as

  a : the place where a stream enters a larger body of water

  b : the surface opening of an underground cavity

  c : the opening of a container

  d : an opening in the side of an organ flue pipe

Please remember:

• Your response must be between 33 and 333 words.

• You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.

• The word itself needs to be included in your response.

• You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above.

• Only one entry per writer.
• Trifecta is open to everyone.  Please join us.