Short Story

Affaire de Famille

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for The Unicorn Challenge were Jenne encourages us
to write something magically creative in 250 words or less
using the photo below for inspiration. Here is my story.

© Ayr/Gray

The letter arrived the other day. Terse, to the point of being almost rude. Where have people’s manners gone in today’s society?

You see, this building .… the one with the orange shutters and the sign which reads MOULIN À HOUILE …. has been in my family for generations. We were among the best olive oil makers in the region for more years than I can count.

My twin brother, Marcel, and I grew up here at the elbows of our grandfather, father and uncle as they worked the presses in the mill to produce the purest of olive oils. The huile d’olive was then bottled and prepared for distribution to fine-end stores and restaurants. We had a thriving family business.

As is the nature of all familial enterprises, there was no question that Marcel and I would take our place working in the mill. It was as innate as taking our next breath. Then the unthinkable happened; our father died suddenly leaving no will and, during our grief, his brother secretly arranged for the takeover of the business, employing only his sons and kicking Marcel and me to the curb. We tried having the decision reversed but were unsuccessful.

One by one our uncle’s sons abandoned the business leaving him alone with strangers in his employ. Now it is our time for payback.

My gun is aimed at the open window while Marcel keeps guard. Our uncle appears, my finger teases the trigger and abruptly I’m plunged into darkness.

NAR©2024
250 Words

The Unicorn Challenge-21/06/24

This is “Family Affair” by Sly and The Family Stone

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

37 thoughts on “Affaire de Famille”

  11. There are lots of different circumstances that bring families to grinding halt . My father run a successful plumbing business, and later I became a partner in the business, but alas, not long after dad retired, my wife contracted MS, and I could only work part-time, because I was Carole’s carer, and then a few years later I suffered a stroke … and my life as plumber came to a disappointing end … “and I was abruptly plunged into darkness”.

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      1. Things were tough back then … somehow, I battled on, and I’m reasonably well and handling life ok … poetry has been very therapeutic for me, and my life’s journey is scattered throughout the 2000 poems I have written …

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  12. ‘You can take the girl out of Sicily…’!
    (Listening to the song as I type.)
    I feel present to the whole, satisfying process of producing the olive oil in the paragraph describing the family business.
    But sad to say, you tell a universal story.
    And one where, very often, the proponents are indeed ‘plunged into darkness’.
    Nice one, Nancy.

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    2. Haha! That line about Sicily is true!
      I looked at the photo for quite a while before any thoughts came to me and when they did, I had the entire story plotted out …. except for the end. Pitting the two brothers against each other popped into my head and the last moment and I knew that was the way to go.
      I also didn’t have a surplus of words to play with so it all tied together nicely!

      Thanks so much Jenny!

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  13. Ah yes – families at each other’s throats because of inheritance disputes. It happens, all too often. Your twins are justified in wanting revenge, but perhaps they’re being a little rash in their method. As your conclusion says – darkness descends. (BTW I think you probably wanted ‘widow’ to be ‘window’.)

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    1. Excellent play on words …. widow and window! That you for that!

      Rash? Yes. Is anyone who is willing to kill another person acting sanely? I don’t think there was another way out of this, but the MC made the mistake of trusting his brother implicitly. It doesn’t always work that way.

      Thank you, Margaret. I value your opinion.

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