"The Anniversary" by Adnan Bin Hoq ('19)

Adam gets out of his car and looks for the door keys in his coat. He finds a letter along with the keys. He looks at the letter curiously and slowly a hint of smile surfaces on his tired lips. The letter instructs him to go to the abandoned barn next to their house, he immediately assumes its his wife Linda wanting to surprise him with something. “So this is why she cleaned the barn last week.” Today is their 10TH anniversary. How great these ten years have been, he thinks to himself as he enters the old, dusty barn; for a mid summer day like this the atmosphere seemed pretty cold to him. He could see the signs made with flowers leading him to the center of the barn where lay a big box with a big ribbon on it. He unties the ribbon and looks inside the box. He bounces back in shock as he discovers a half rotten dead body. The body looks like it has been here for a while. Gathering some courage, he looks again inside the box and to his surprise he spots the huge birthmark on the neck of the body. “Linda!!” he gasps in horror and disbelief. He also recognizes the mini skirt which Linda wore last week when she was supposed to clean the barn. “If this is Linda, then who…”. He couldn’t finish the thought as he felt a frosty hand touching his shoulder and whispering “Happy Anniversary, DARLING!!”.