10 Minute Stories

Weapon

There are many things that can be used as weapons. I heard stories where even the most unlikely object was used a weapon. Like the story about the man, who had killed his wife with a toothpick. It was a gruesome story. The man had broken the toothpick into two and mixed the pieces into her porridge. She was always a fast eater and swallowed one of the pieces whole. I guess she must have died painfully when it lodged into her throat.

Another story I remember was about the boy who killed the great grizzly bear with a piece of string. Well, at first I didn’t believe it could be done, but the explanation was quite reasonable. The bear had been chasing the boy for quite some time and it looked as though he was a goner, when he had run to the edge of a cliff. He had nowhere to go and the bear was running toward him. Luckily a piece of string was strung across the path. The string caught the grizzly’s foot tripping it. The bear unable to recover its balance in time plunged over the cliff. I questioned the storyteller about how the string could have been strong enough to do this. The storyteller told me that the string was the strong thick kind which was used to mark park paths and that boy had been lucky that he hadn’t tripped over the string as well. These were unusual weapons, but there are practical weapons as well like guns, knives, clubs, and so forth. We have all heard stories where these had been used to kill. We all know how effective these weapons are at killing.

Well, the time had come I had to think. There must be something that couldn’t be used as a weapon. I had done many bad things for which I now regret. I’ve killed many people, many ways. Now it was my turn to die. The court decided that I could choose the weapon which would cause my death. In the room there was silence as everyone witnessing the trial awaited my answer. I could think of nothing... “That’s it! Nothing!” I said out loud. “I choose nothing”, I said with confidence. “So be it” the judge said firmly “the court sentences you to die by nothing.” I smiled. I had won. I continued to smile, until I was taken to a small room that was empty, completely devoid of weapons. Except one that is, nothing was there and without something, air, I quickly died.

posted by reguy @ 6:12 PM