Potential idea for a short story.

Having not a single plot-driven bone in my body, I will come up with ideas here.

General setting: The car ride to drop kittens into the river.

Possible character/scenarios:
1. Two characters: A younger child whose mother fell down the stairs and died and is now being raised by an older detached sibling and living in the same house as where the parent died. Older sibling is married, but the marriage is strained by finances and the fact that the couple cannot conceive.
---- Ultimately, older sibling wants to kill the kittens (silent understood subtext: how come that cat can have babies and I cain't?) and younger sibling is too naive to understand that his/her caretaker wants to kill the animals and goes along for the ride.

2. Two characters: Younger child and mother. Mother is single and destitute.
---- Mother wants to kill the kittens (silent understood subtext: I can't feed another mouth! I'm poor! Who would bring another life into this godforsaken world!) and has no choice but to bring the child with her.

3. One character: Poor woman who can't have no babies. Probably most like older sibling in scenario 1, but without the tension of having someone to look after.
---- Wants to kill the kittens (silent understood subtext: I can't have no babies, so why can the cat?) and has a silent car ride with kittens in a sack next to her.


I mostly like the younger main character (possibly narrator) for the image of seeing the brick in the sack and having a moment of realization. I think the first idea might be too complex for short fiction (when I think up stories I tend to think of too much back story). I think the mother/child relationship is much simpler though, so better for a short story. However, I also enjoy a good story where a person is interacting with not much other than his or herself. BUT, I do like the familial tension in the first scenario.

And this is why my short stories never make it out of my brain.

Read this. It's a really interesting opinion piece about Charles Simic being named the new poet laureate.