Infidelity

The DVD of children’s rhymes was playing on the screen as the woman picked up her towel and walked into the living room where her daughter was sat singing along with the telly. “Stephy, sweetheart I’m going to have a shower okay?”

            “Kay.” The seven year old girl said sweetly, not taking her eyes off of the TV.

“Good girl.” The mother said absentmindedly as she left the living room and walked up the stairs to the bathroom. She turned the taps on full blast and the sounds of the water hitting the plastic floor echoed around the room.

The rhyme currently on screen reached its finale as the key sounded in the front door. A tall man with dirty blond hair stepped into the house and locked the door behind him. He walked through the kitchen, his heavy boots thudding rhythmically against the wooden floor. “Hey Stephy.” he said as he affectionately ruffled her hair.

“Hello Daddy.” She replied turning to look at him before the next rhyme started.

“Can you do me a favour?” He asked and the little girl nodded enthusiastically, proud to be treated like a big girl. “Can you vacuum the living room for me please darling? The Hoover’s not too big for you is it?”

The small girl shook her head, “Of course not.” She said slightly offended that he might consider her too little to handle the vacuum cleaner.

“Good girl.” He said unconsciously repeating what her mother had said earlier. The girl glanced briefly at the screen as ‘Nelly the Elephant’ began playing. She rushed off to the cupboard where the Hoover was kept as her father climbed the stairs and entered his bedroom.

The girl plugged the Hoover in and turned it on. Its droning rhythm filled the house, easily drowning out the sound of the shower. The little girl began moving the Hoover backwards and forwards over the carpet as she sang along to the words onscreen. “Nelly the elephant packed her trunk...”

The man removed his shoes and his coat in the bedroom before pulling a length of wire out of his pocket. His footsteps were masked by the sounds of the shower and the Hoover as he crept towards the bathroom.

The woman was shampooing her hair when she thought she heard the bathroom door open and close. She stepped away from the water and wiped the glass of the shower door, struggling to see through the steam. “Stephy? Is that you?” She stood waiting for an answer for a couple of seconds before deciding that it was her imagination and stepping back under the water to rinse out her hair.

The girl downstairs was still singing, oblivious to the events upstairs as the man closed in on the shower. He opened the door startling the woman inside as she turned around. A smile lit up her face as she realised who it was, “Oh it’s you. I wasn’t expecting you home for a couple of hours yet.” She stopped smiling when she saw the expression on his face.

“Honey?” She said as she backed up to the wall of the shower. He said nothing as he followed her, completely blocking the exit with the wire stretched between his hands. “What are you doing?” She asked shakily as he moved purposefully towards her. He remained silent as he reached out, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her close.

The girl downstairs was still singing along merrily as she pushed the Hoover under the table. “Off she went with a trumpety-trump”

The man wrapped the wire around his wife’s throat as the rhyme on the telly started again. “Nelly the elephant...” The girl sang as the woman clawed at the wire around her neck.

“Stephy!” She croaked out, unaware that that the Hoover was drowning out her pathetic cries.

“And said goodbye to the circus...”

The wire cut into the woman’s skin as blood, water and soap suds pooled on the plastic floor and ran into the drain. “Stephy!”

The girl never remembered the next bit of the song and always resorted to humming.

“Dum  dum dumm!”

On the last note a loud thump sounded from above and the little girl glanced upwards before continuing her task. She wasn’t surprised – her mummy always made loud thumps upstairs, although they were usually earlier and before daddy got home.

“Stephy.” The woman called out one last time as she lost the fight for air and curled up in a pool of her own blood. The man let the shower run for a couple of minutes, washing away the blood before he turned it off and once again pocketed the wire.

He moved back into the bedroom and changed his clothes before picking up the sock and the belt that he had found under the bed the other day. The sock and the belt that weren’t his and had no purpose being in his room under his bed.

He looked at the picture of Stephy on the bedside table. The picture that showed off her dark brown hair and his and his wife’s blond hair.

He took the sock the sock and the belt and placed them next to his wife’s clothing in the bathroom. Then he went back down the stairs and walked into the living room just as his daughter, who looked nothing like him, turned the Hoover off.

“You’ve done a wonderful job.” He said as he turned the TV off. “Now how’s about we go out for a meal to celebrate?” He said as he picked up her shoes and handed them to her.

“What about Mummy?” She asked innocently as she pulled her shoes on.

“Mummy’s not feeling very well at the moment, sweetie, so it’s just you and me.”

“Okay,” the little girl answered brightly as she pulled her coat on and slipped her hand trustingly into his.