The Short Story Series #1 (General Fiction)
'What Lies Behind Why'
I’ve been writing more short stories recently and thought I would share some of the ones that sounded half decent. I will share the prompt and then the outcome. Some are longer than others, but I’ve started with a shorter one.
The Prompt
A reputable man’s lies come back to haunt him, after someone discovers this lie to get to the top. A story takes place during a high stakes conference when he is confronted by a ghost from his past.
The Outcome - ‘What Lies Behind Why?’
It had been five years to the day that Brodie Mackenzie framed his ex with fraud and abuse. And it had been five years to the day since he had restarted his life. Gone were the days that he allowed his head to control what was classed as a good day and what days could be struck off all together. That’s why he was here, in London, in front of all these people. It wasn’t to apologise for the mistakes he had made but to celebrate them. For if it wasn’t for his deceit and lies he wouldn’t have helped all the people he had, the people that had suffered just like him. But the person stood before him in this conference hall. Their question had silenced the whole room.
Why did you do this to me?
Why had he done this? Well the simple, short answer was he had been broke. Unable to deal with the consequences he had made in his life. But the real answer was more complicated. The truth was he had been drowning. Stuck in a hole that had been dug by his trauma and this woman in front of him had been a casualty of trying to get back to the surface. Did that make him a bad person? For many years, Brodie had convinced himself that he wasn’t the enemy to this story. Within a month of this particular break up he had found someone new. Someone who spoke his same language, someone who understood exactly what was going on under the surface. She had lived through similar experiences to him and for the first time in a long time he didn’t have to explain himself or have an excuse. He had fallen in love with that simplicity. He never thought twice about how that may look to the outside world. What it might look like to her. Because for her, all she saw was the broken man, a man who couldn’t bring himself to wash, to make himself dinner or find a way out of the shit hole he had created.
Brodie gripped the sides of the podium aware of all the eyes upon him. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. The spotlights fiercely shining above him were partly to blame. The odd flash of a camera went off in his parafoveal. He had escaped Scotland because of this, to live his life away from his mistake. But how could he fully escape a lie no matter the size of web he had wove to protect himself.
But why had he done this to her? It was a question in the whole five years he had never once asked himself. They had never worked out, that was true but their separation had been more down to their paths crossing at the wrong time. Or least that was what they both told themselves. For she hadn’t been a bad partner. Far from it actually, she had been there for him when no one else had been. She made the two hour long journeys to be with him when he asked, she accompanied him to appointments when the front door loomed like a shadow from his nightmares and she made sure that he took care of himself. So why punish her so greatly, years after the separation? Maybe it was because he failed to appreciate what she had given him before it was too late? And that wasn’t just in the context of the thousands of pounds that he owed her, but the things that she had done for him without judgement.
The days spent in the court room had been a blur, of course they had been. Everything had been polished to near perfection that they had become almost unbelievable. To this day it still surprised him that they had got as far as they had. Something had always stuck with him from those days, something he had managed to lock away in the depths of his mind, until today, until he saw her. She had spoken about her own trauma and her own suffering, and how everyday was a battle for her until someone had told her the answers she needed. How later in life she had to change how she evaluates her life and approach to the world. Exactly how things had played out in Brodie’s history.
It was the challenges he faced later in life that had inspired him to start his charity to help those that had experienced the same hardships as himself. To be their voice when they felt like they had lost their own. Standing on this stage looking down on her, he realised he was the fraud in more ways than one. He had turned his back on someone that he preaches to help. He turned his back on the kindness he had received and he had turned his back on the consequences of his decisions and gave them to someone else to deal with. Someone that didn’t deserve it. Standing here he realised for the first time that this woman hadn’t seen a broken man, she had seen someone that understood the difficulties that life threw at you. She understood the cruelty in this world and how easy it was for people not to listen. But more importantly she had shown him within the time she had asked the question and this realisation that he was just as bad as the rest of the people in this world. Brodie had chose to be blind to her need for help. It took him back to the day of his diagnosis and how his world had changed forever. He knew now what he needed to do, but first he had to start with the one thing he always refused to do in his life.
Brodie looked straight into the woman’s glassy eyes as the words left his mouth.
I’m sorry.
Would love to hear people’s thoughts. I’m new to sharing my work, writing has always been very personal to me. But I am determined to write a novel and for me this is part of the process. So any feedback would be very much appreciated.