Fiction: Off to See the Commander

By Kjetil Jansen

"Relax Ma, they are warning shots!" Suzie laughed as her t-shirt got a red dot that could have been a laser dot but it wasn`t. Phoebe watched it spread as her daughter fell to the ground, still clutching her phone as she rolled from the green into a sand pit.

Two black suited men with sunglasses and white corkscrew wires connected to their ears crabcrept closer.

"Not a weapon," said the one on the right.

"No weapon, affirmative," said the other one.

A shout. Derek. Phoebe pushed their hands away. "My husband!"

She ran the slope. Derek was flat on the ground, feet broken. A golf cart was coming round for a second go. It drove right across his chest. The driver swung the cart and glided past looking at them both, his eyes slits in a face made of stone. He didn`t speed, he didn`t slow down. He drove away, and he was gone.

"Did you see that?" Derek asked, his breath turning rapid as his ribs punctured his lungs. He was dying.

"Yes, Derek. He is so strong. A Commander needs to be."

"Trespassing," Derek whispered. Phoebe held his head.

"You`re right. What were we thinking? This was no way to visit. This was trespassing. Stupid. Stupid! The Commander did right, and one day he will be the Commander again, and he will clean it all up and make things right."

"Tell Suzie I love her."

"Yeah Suzie. Right. I will."

Across the green a golf cart got closer, the return of the Commander, coming to take her away and to give her a place in the world. She was never one of those vile women, she would sit humbly by his side as he reclaimed the power and the glory.

It was a caddie, retrieving a lost club.

Kjetil Jansen is from Bergen, Norway. He is a licensed pet polar bear walker, a walrus whisperer, and he conducts the northern lights every other Tuesday. He has been featured in Bewildering Stories, Bear Creek Gazette, and Bending Genres.