It was the final insult to the family of Maggie Lou, as if they hadn’t suffered enough all these years.

For his last meal ahead of the execution by lethal injection, Edgar Kalvar had requested a succotash with lime beans and mixed grilled peppers.  The very same contents that had been found in the stomach of Maggie Lou’s butchered corpse, twenty years prior.

Kalvar had maintained his innocence all these years on death row.  He refused to explain why he had murdered and mutilated the fifteen-year-old Maggie Lou.  A schoolgirl he did not know but had allegedly picked up as she walked home to the family homestead after school.

The family had begged him to confess his guilt or spend eternity in infernal suffering.

Instead, Kalvar had simply demanded succotash with a twisted grin and said to Warden Petersen, “Let them burn in hell instead.”

Why Maggie Lou should have had lime beans and mixed peppers in her stomach had remained a mystery.  It was the one thing Kalvar’s defense team had questioned during the trial.  She hadn’t eaten that at school and there was no way Kalvar could have prepared it in his pickup – but the Jury didn’t believe them. He already had previous for rape.

Warden Petersen looked down at the succotash and smiled.  He’d been a classmate of Maggie Lou. Succotash had been what he’d cooked her that afternoon they bunked off school.

It was her last meal before the frigid bitch had spurned his advances.

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My daily micro fictions are no longer than 250 words and are inspired by word-of-the-day at www.dictionary.com

The word of the day for 26 November 2022 was “succotash.”

All stories © 2022, DBA Lehane. All rights reserved. Please do not use or reproduce in any way without the expressed written permission of the author. Please contact me.