Short Stories to Pass the Time

The Lonely Lamppost

    There once was a lamppost that stood watch over a dusty, lonely intersection in the middle of nowhere.  He didn't mind.  That's what he was put there to do, many years ago.
     Fields of corn grew on all sides of the roads.  Occasionally a car would drive by but they never stopped.  The only company he had were the birds and the occasional animal that would wander by.  He especially liked the crows.  They would always gossip and talk about how the scarecrow wasn't scary and how much corn they would eat.  He didn't know who this scarecrow was but he felt sorry for him.
     One day he was busy listening to the crows talk.  One was bragging how he wasn't scared of the scarecrow and how he perched on top of its head and crapped on it.  All of a sudden he felt a warm, wet sensation at his base.  He looked down to see a scruffy, dusty looking dog lifting its leg on him.  "Thanks, you mutt", he thought.  The dog finished and wandered away.
     Later that night, after it got dark, he noticed a pair of headlights coming down the road toward him.  He didn't think much of it, because they never stopped.  The headlights got closer and closer.  Then the car started to slow down, then stopped right underneath him.  "What's this", he thought.
     He heard a mans voice and a woman's voice.  He couldn't understand what they were saying, but it sounded like they were arguing.  Then he heard what sounded like someone getting hit.  He heard the woman scream "STOP!  HELP!".  He knew something bad was happening.  The woman kept screaming but her screams were getting weaker and weaker.  Finally they stopped altogether.
     The drivers door opened and the man got out of the car, muttering to himself.  He walked around to the passenger side and opened the door.  He reached in and pulled the limp body of the woman out of the car.  "He's killed her", the lamppost thought.  He should do something.  But what could he do?  He was just a lamppost.  Then it came to him.  He started flashing SOS as bright as he could.
     The man paused and looked up at the flashing light, then went on with dragging the woman's lifeless body into the rows of corn.  The lamppost tried flashing even brighter.  SOS, SOS, over and over again, trying to get someone's attention.
     The man came out of the corn alone.  He looked up again at the light and shielded his eyes from the brightness.  He opened the trunk of his car and pulled out his shotgun.  He pointed it at the light and fired.
     The lamppost had succeeded in getting someone's attention after all.  Before the man killed him, far across one of the corn fields, the scarecrow saw the SOS signal before it stopped and the sound of the gunshot was heard.