Tough Love

A little fiction from a recent writing assignment…

Suzanne lifted the hamper onto her hip. “Last call for laundry!” As she walked to the top of the stairs, a door flew open. Darren threw a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweaty sock on top of the hamper. Yes, just one sock. Suzanne raised her eyebrow at him. He shrugged, “I can’t find the other one right now.”

“It’s Thursday, so you can look for it while you clean your room. Inspection at 7 pm.”

Darren slouched back to his room. Where had that sock gone anyway? He grabbed his backpack. He needed some music if he was going to be cleaning.

Of course, Suzanne really should start making the kids do their own laundry, but sometimes she needed more whites or delicates to make the water worthwhile. While she and Dave were paying for the water and electricity, the extra time felt worth it. She began sorting from the various piles into lights, darks, delicates, and dirty. Dirty was mostly Darren’s stuff.

Darren looked in the front pocket of his backpack, then the side pockets. He thought for sure his air pods had been in the front pocket. He started by taking his books and notebooks out of the middle. He shook it upside down. Some lint, three pennies, gum wrappers, and several pieces of wadded up paper came out. Oh, there was his biology homework!

Sorting completed, Suzanne grabbed the detergent and carefully measured the smallest amount of soap and poured it into the tray. She couldn’t stand the white marks on her cloths if she added too much soap to the darks. She knelt down to add the clothing to the barrel, turning a few shirts inside out as she went. She also caught a tissue peeking out of Darren’s pocket. Everyone was responsible for searching their own pockets. He owed her a dollar. She threw the tissue away.

Darren turned to his gym bag next. He emptied the side pockets first. Nothing. He emptied out the middle. Oh, there was the other sock. He shook the gym bag upside down. A nickel, more gum wrappers, and a retainer fell out. Oh good, he’d been missing that for a month.

He stood up, looking at the mess on the floor and with a deep sigh, shoved his hands into his pockets. Suddenly his eyes widened.

Standing up, Suzanne closed the lid and began adjusting the dials. Cold water. No extra rinse. Start. The door made its nonnegotiable locking sound and water began to fill the barrel.

“Mom!” Darren burst into the small room. “Have you washed my jeans yet?” Suzanne looked at him and then at the washing machine. A small white container was tossed up against the glass as the load began to rotate. Darren sank to his knees with a hand on the glass. “Nooo!”

“Well, it’s a good thing you got Christmas money from Gran and Pop. I already paid for air pods twice. You owe me a dollar by the way.”

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash