Demolition

Flash Fiction by Steve Saulsbury

Stanley told me about doing the demolition, as a charity project. To the community, as a way of healing. Unusual, yes, but the house stood as a reminder of what had happened.

“Very heartbreaking,” Stanley barked, stepping up onto his excavator.

Winter weather hadn’t deterred a small crowd from gathering. Young girls from the drug rehab came out in solidarity for lost friends. Zoned out teens gathered for the demolition, unaware of the murders.

After the machinery warmed up, Stanley and his men went to work, tasked with removing the house where a young man had killed three girls, troubled ones who became his victims – including Stanley’s niece Brenda – found in the abandoned building, discarded like trash, girls who couldn’t fight back, targeted when they were using.

Beneath the aluminum siding, the house was covered in dead brown shingles. Claws on the excavator bucket tore in, revealing rooms. Debris floated down like ash. Even though I was a cop, I flinched when a burst of stuffed animals tumbled from one cavity. Feeling the fear of the victims, a thrumming, like a sprung wire.

Grunting loudly now, Stanley raged at the controls, ripping out a bathroom.

How surreal, seeing a toilet hanging in midair.

I called out, “You need a water?”

“Just let’s get this done,” Stanley hissed.

Kill it, one of the teens cried, meaning the house.

Looking back, Stanley told me, he should have saved Brenda. Made her go to rehab, but that wasn’t how it worked.

Now, as a large section of the house crashed flat, Stanley started to cry behind his safety goggles. Only I noticed, recognizing his crinkled nose and quivering lip.

Piles of splintered wreckage were bulldozed. Quickly, to erase any further sight of the place.

Reaching for Stanley’s hand, I helped him down and watched as he retrieved a stuffed bear, and stroked its dirty fur, before giving it to one of the rehab girls.

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Bio: Since 2020, Steve Saulsbury’s flash fiction has appeared in many online journals. His award-winning story, “Driftwood Days,” was published in Beach Secrets (Cat and Mouse Press, 2021), and more recently, “Proving Ground,” was included in the Live and Learn anthology (The Writer’s Journal, 2024) He lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Cover Photo by pexels/Jørgen Larsen

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