' burnt husband'

TRACEYshep

TRACEYshep

Can anybody help with suggestions for a short story I have to complete to finish my writing course. The story must be about firework night. I have a gem of an idea about a wife getting her own back on her husband by using him as the guy on top of the bonfire at their anniversary party, but the plot seems to be going nowhere! Please help!

Carol

That would require she tricks him, or drugs him so he ends up on the top of the bonfire.
Is she just trying to embarass him, or actually trying to murder him? What has he done? Could it be turned about to thoroughly embarass him in front of his friends etc?

Butterfly

As Carol says, what are you looking to do to the poor chap?
I was thinking on the line of the guy being dressed in the husband's clothes. And as the wife gets the guy ready she is having seriously evil thoughts about her husband. In doing this something unusual happens... The husband goes off on one when he notices that his favourite clothes are on top of the bonfire...so when the fire is lit the husband who is standing beside his wife begins to get a wee bit hot, then begins to feel that his toes are burning, legs etc. The wife is telling him to stop being stupid. When does she realise what is happening? When does put out the fire? Does she put out the fire?

Jenny

Re Butterfly's idea: The wife would need help to get the husband on top of the bonfire, so who helps her and why??

It might fall a bit flat if the fire is put out, so you'll need to find a suitably dramatic way to finish the story. (Don't make it a dream though!)

Maybe she's put a life-size photo of her husband's face on the guy's head and the story finishes as the photo begins to burn.

It's beginning to sound like something from The Twilight Zone!

Crazy Horse

Moe like the "Wicker Man"

Butterfly

Jenny, I like the photo idea too. It would finish it off nicely. You'd be left wondering if the husband survived or not.
Do you think we are being a wee bit mean?
Come on Tracey tell us what you think?

TRACEYshep

Yeah, I think the photo as a face would be a great end to the story. But what about everybody thinking it was him only for the husband showing up and diving in to save his best suit and save face!  Mindyou it could even be his mistress disguised in his suit made to look like the husband, only for the husband to appear in a last ditch frantic rescue bid making himself loose face that way. Or is that overcomplicating things? Anyway thanks for the thoughts, they are sending me in a new and interesting direction.

Bud

There could be a photo of someone that, unbeknownst to the wife, was left in the breast pocket of the shirt or suit. Who that someone is would depend on how dark you want to make it.