Very Short Stories By: Mohamed Bouhouch Translated by: Imen Zaoui -Tunisie

Doubt

After the surgeon sutured the incision, he left her in the recovery room. He passed, and hours later he came back. He found that she had opened her eyes, he looked at her, and said, “Well, everything is fine.” He left the room…He soon became suspicious, and he said: Did  I really leave the tweezers inside her heart ? …

A Bout of  sadness

She had a bout of sadness as she contemplated her face in the mirror.How I grew up in oblivion ! How many countries have  I visited ! Time has passed so quickly without noticing the growth of white hairs on her scalp. So she re-contemplates in the mirror with amazement : how sad she was, holding the feather and painting her painting, focused and silent !

Melody

The famous violinist was admitted to the hospital due to a serious illness.His stay was prolonged, and he was visited every day by his best friend, who found him cheerful  and chanted with … he asked him how it was going, and he answered him: Well, here I am practicing a tune … On the last day his friend visited him and found his eyes closed while he mumbled. When he asked him, he said: I am practicing … to the tune of death.

Something

The husband shouted: I lost it forever … I lost it !?

The family gathered around him, and they kept comforting him and asking him about what he had lost.

Every time he answered them: I lost that thing ….

That thing which is not named.

Crime

In the building, there are only five apartments.

In the first apartment, a single widow lives.

In the second apartment there is a man and his wife.

– In the third apartment there is no one.

– In the fourth apartment an elderly man lives alone.

– In the fifth apartment there is a university student …

But the crime was committed in the empty apartment when the old man was found slaughtered from vein to vein.

No one has come from outside the building to kill.

The knowledgeable narrator kept hesitating to name the killer or the murderer, so he left it to the reader to reveal the secret of the crime and the identity of the criminal? …

Good news

He put on the hook a delicious radiant bait to which fish were attracted. He threw the hook into the sea. He felt its  weight, pulling it  with strength and effort.

It was a bit heavy. He pulled it out, looking forward to what it contained. He opened it … and he found inside it a bomb dating back to the Second World War!

Night molars

 When I was young, I dreamed that a heavy burden was falling on me and I felt a crack in my bones.The dream kept repeating to the point that  I used to wake up scared at night. My grandmother was fond of interpreting dreams. When I told her my dream, she laughed, and she said to me: Do not be afraid, son. They are the molars of the night!

Now I have grown up, I am sleeping without a dream, I am always waiting for those molars.

 A Dialogue

They both went to the sea.

He: He took off his clothes

He also took off his clothes

He: He started swimming on the beach.

He, too: He completely disappeared, and he no longer appears.

He: He swam, then he put on his clothes.

He also: Sitting near him, he did not swim, but he put on his clothes.

He: He looked at him and said: What a shadow you are!

He also: He looked at him and said to him: What a fool you are!

Opened Doors

She sleeps alone, then she  closes the door of the house, fearing that someone will come to her. She puts her head on the pillow, and she  falls into daydreams about a man who  she will marry, while she is on the threshold of forty.

She was so, until she had the idea of ​​leaving the doors wide open, hoping that the wished  man would enter. One night, a man actually entered her house, and she sought good fortune ……. However, the man was her elderly neighbor who came to warn her that the doors of her house were still open … for a big lie! …

Formation

The potter took the clay paste between his hands. He kept shaping it in the form of a beautiful woman. He made her head and limbs and then he draped her frame in bright colors. During his sleep and his dream about it, he remembered that he had forgotten to make her …