Is it any good pleading? Thompson says.
For your life? Not really.
But you can’t just toss me aside like a dog carcass, not after all I’ve done for you.
You were more than serviceable, W admits. But you’ve served your purpose. You can’t argue with me.
Will it be painless?
Yes.
Well, get it over with then.
One minute, W says.
He reaches into his satchel and pulls out his laptop.
Finish your drink, W says. Out with the old and in with the new, he smiles, keyboarding fiercely.
And with that, Thompson is gone.
John Malone 
Ouch, just like that? What was his crime, John? What did he do wrong?
Wasw this a character you decided didn’t have a place at all, or was his time in the story over, so you killed him.
Death is so final, in whatever form it comes …
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His ‘crime’ Carolyn was that he had served his purpose in W’s story and was , what’s that saying?, ‘surplus to requirements’. We writers are a BRUTAL lot, Carolyn: once we are finished with a character we kill them, much as writers of soap operas do constantly. The best we can do is apologize. I thought of these things when I wrote this flash fiction piece.
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