Just Another Day

So I wrote this short story last semester in my creative writing class. I was trying to think of what to write and I began by describing a typical saturday morning at my house then the story spiraled out of control:) The story is loosely based on reality, soif you know me remember it is not my life, but a story! Hope you enjoy!

Just Another Day

The house was immaculate. Everything had its own little place. You could not find a stray crumb on the floor or on any of the counters. All the toys were in labeled boxes, the clothes had been put away, and the tiny shoes and jackets were lined up by the door. Then suddenly it happened.

“Mommy! I need you!” A small voice came out from a little room at the end of the hall.

“I’m coming sweetie,” yelled a tired looking woman, pushing the hair out of her eyes, as she dragged herself down the hall. “What’s the matter, munchkin?” she asked, as she went through the door.

“Mommy, lay with me,” the boy responded.

“Joey, it’s five in the morning. It’s time to go back to sleep.”

“Mommy, lay with me, pppllleeasee,” the boy asked again, dragging out the syllables.

“Ok, but just for a couple of minutes,” she said, getting into bed with him. She closed her eyes for a minute.

“Mommy, what you doing?” the boy asked.

“Trying to sleep, you silly goose. You should join me.”

“Mommy, you’re silly.”

“No, you’re silly. I’m sleepy,” she said as she snuggled him closer. They lay together for a few more minutes, and the boy finally went back to sleep. Slowly the woman untangled her arms from him. Inching away from the tangled mass of arms and blankets that was her son, she carefully put one foot on the floor and then the next, and silently walked backwards out of the room. “Time to start another day,” she whispered to herself.

An hour and a half later, after a long shower, Anne was dressed. While making breakfast she started to hear voices in the other room.

“Daddy, it’s wake up time! Daddy, wake up, wake up, wake up ins.”

“Hey, goose. I was sleeping and you woke me up, silly head,” the man said as he sat up in bed. “Where is your mommy at?”

“She’s making breakfast,” Joey responded. “Come on Daddy I’m hungry,” the little boy said tugging on the man’s hand. “Let’s go!”

“Boys, it’s pancake time,” Anne yelled.

“I want pancakes, and syrup, and butter, and syrup, and pancakes, and bacon!” the boy exclaimed excitedly.

“Well, someone is hungry,” Anne said. To her husband she said, “Good Morning, Lee. Sleeping in a bit late, aren’t you?”

“Come on, honey,” he said kissing her cheek. “It’s Saturday, and besides it’s only 8am!”

“Well I’ve been up for two hours,” she replied.

“Yes, but your crazy,” he said with a smile.

“Joey, let Mommy cut your pancakes up”

“I want too much syrup, Mommy,” Joey said. “No, no, Mommy that’s not enough. I want too much,” he said again as Anne poured syrup on his plate.

“Wow, buddy, that’s way too much syrup,” Lee exclaimed, winking at his wife

“Yes, it is!” Joey declared, with a smirking little smile. Then he dug into his breakfast.

“We need to go to Home Depot today,” Lee said.

“Oh, joy, yet another exciting hour spent pointing out the same stuff I already told you I like the last fifty times we went there,” Anne sighed. She hated going to Home Depot to pick out things for their house. Every time they went, Lee asked her to look at the same cabinets, the same carpeting, and the same tiles, she thought to herself.

“We need to decide on what tile you want for the bathroom, and we don’t look at the same stuff every time we go,” he said, reading her thoughts.

“Yes, we do,” she said.

“No, we don’t. If I picked out all this stuff, I would install it, and you would get mad saying that you hated everything, and I am not dealing with that, so we are going.”

“Fine, but this is the last time!” she exclaimed. She said that every time they went.
Meanwhile, Joey had finished his breakfast and decided it was time to play. This, of course, meant that he got down from his chair and went over to the neatly labeled toy boxes and geared up to destroy the clean order of the house.

In the kitchen there was another form of chaos brewing. Anne was rinsing the dishes and putting them into the dishwasher. She had an order for the way everything was done. With the dishes, it was rinse under scalding hot water and scrub with the scrubbing brush for at least thirty seconds. Followed by rinse again, and place into the dishwasher. Plates went on the right side, ranging from large to small, then bowls on the left in the same order. Knives, forks, and spoons all had their own compartments in the silverware rack as well. Anne was particular about the way things were put away. She had a slight case of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
As she was methodically washing and rinsing, Lee rambled on about what they would need at Home Depot.

“We need to look at cabinets for the kitchen and for the bathroom. I still want to put tile on the floor in the bathroom and then up the wall around the tub. Maybe brown tiles with streaks in them for the color. And then—”

Anne interrupted him, “No, Lee, we talked about this. No more brown. You know I hate brown, it just looks like mud.”

“Honey, it does not look like mud, and I like browns and earth tones.”

“Yes, but I don’t. Plus, since I’m the one who will be cleaning it, I get the final say.”

“They don’t call it the throne, because it’s a girly room,” Lee exclaimed. “Besides, we talked about this. It is the one room in the house that is mine. You can pick whatever colors you want, I don’t even care if our bedroom is purple, but the bathroom is mine!” he said, in an exasperated tone, as they had been having this fight for days.

“Sweetie, I love you, but Joey and I will be using the bathroom as well, so it should be something we can all live with.”

“Oh, like Joey really cares what the bathroom looks like.”

“Well, maybe not, but I do. Come on! Can’t we compromise? How about a dark gray with streaks or a marble pattern?”

Lee looked thoughtful for a minute, “All right, maybe gray, we’ll see what they have.”

Crash! they both looked at each other.

“Joey!” Anne yelled, running into the other room. “What are you doing?”

“Mommy, I’m just booming my castle,” he said in a patronizing tone of voice, as if she should have known.

“Buddy you can’t just crash everything,” Lee told him, “You scared Mommy and me.” Then he looked over at his wife. She looked dazed, “What’s wrong, Anne?”

She looked around the room at the toy cars strewn across the carpet, and the train tracks half pulled out of their box. She glanced over at the huge pile of blocks surrounding her son. Then looking at her husband she said sarcastically, “Gee, honey, I don’t know maybe it’s the huge mess in the living room!” She ran into the other room with tears streaming down her face.

“Daddy, why Mommy crying?” Joey asked, in a little voice.

“I’m not sure, but you start picking up your cars and I’ll go find out. I’m sure she’s fine.”

Meanwhile, in the bedroom, Anne sat on the bed with a bunch of tissues, whispering to herself,

“Stupid, stupid, uuuggghh, I’ve got to stop these crying jags or he’s going to find out.” She wiped at her eyes and took a deep breath just as Lee walked into the room.

“Hun, what’s the matter? It’s just a bunch of toys. Joey is out there right now picking them up,” Lee said.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine,” Anne replied. “I just hate when things get messy, and I’m tired. I’ve just been working too much lately.” Suddenly inspired, she said, “Can you and Joey go to Home Depot and the playground? I really need to go grocery shopping, and we can go look at cabinets and tiles tomorrow. You can just pick up the dry wall and two-by-fours you needed today.”

“I guess we could do that, but are you sure you’re all right?” he asked her.

“I’m fine. I just want to get some food in the house for dinner and be alone for a little while.”

“Ok, we’ll go to the playground or something first, then to Home Depot. I guess we’ll be back around 4:30 or five o’clock,” he told her looking a little worried still, but he knew she would be fine.

Walking back out to the living room, Anne said, “Joey, do you want to go to the playground and then go to Daddy’s store?”

“We going to the playground now!” Joey exclaimed, dropping his toys and running for the door.

“Hang on, buddy, you need your hat and your coat on first,” Anne said, as she grabbed him up into a hug and placed his hat on his head. “I love you monkey.”

“I love you, too, Mommy.”

“What about me, no love for me?” Lee asked, jokingly.

“I love you, too, Daddy,” Anne said, rolling her eyes and giving him a kiss goodbye.

The boys walked out the door and Anne fell back on the couch, “Phew, peace,” she told herself quietly. “Now I just have to get this place cleaned up, go grocery shopping, and get ready for the surprise.”

* * * * *

Six hours later Anne was almost ready for the boys to come home. Dinner was cooking in the oven, and Anne was walking around making sure everything was perfect. She went through a mental checklist as she walked. In the living room, “Ok, I vacuumed. Toys are in their boxes. Books are on the bookshelf.” Walking into the dining room, she looked at the table. “Plates, silverware, cups, and napkins are set out,” she said to herself. The table had a light blue tablecloth with tiny yellow flowers stitched around the edges. The silverware gleamed on the white napkins she had folded into perfect triangles. Joey’s highchair had been scrubbed free of all crumbs, and was in its place at the right corner of the table.

Moving into the bedroom, Anne quietly spoke to herself, “Alright, the bed is made, laundry is put away, and I just vacuumed. So all that’s left is to lay out Joey’s shirt and get dressed.”

Carefully she pulled a light blue t-shirt out of the back of the closet. “He probably won’t even notice,” she mumbled, looking at the letters she had embroidered on her sewing machine the day before. She put the shirt on the bed, then got changed. She put on a summer dress. It was yellow with a long flowing skirt and thin straps going over her shoulders. She had bought the dress on her honeymoon and always felt special when she wore it. She didn’t bother with shoes, as she never wore any when they were in the house.

Walking out to the kitchen to check on dinner, she suddenly heard footsteps and a little voice coming to the door.

“Daddy, Daddy, I beat you! I won! I got to the door first!” Joey exclaimed.

“You beat me again,” Lee said in a playfully sad tone. Then grabbing the boy up in his arms, “I’m going to get you next time. In fact I bet you I can run and give Mommy a hug faster then you can.” He put Joey down and reached for his keys. “Is that a deal?” he asked Joey.

“That’s a deal,” the boy responded.

Lee opened the door and they both ran through it, straight at Anne. Lee was pretending to run fast, while Joey ran across the living room into his mother’s waiting arms.

“I got you Mommy.”

“No silly, I’ve got you,” she said twirling him around.

“I’ve got you both,” said Lee hugging them both in big bear hug.

“I won again, Daddy!”

“You did? You’re so much faster than me,” Lee said smiling down at him.

Anne took Joey’s jacket off and said, “Joe, your shirt is all dirty we better go put a new one on and wash your hands before dinner.”

Then to her husband, “You go unload whatever you bought at the store and then go wash up as well.”

He rolled his eyes, saying, “I don’t need to be reminded to wash my hands.” Then he walked outside to unload the truck.

Anne and Joey went back to the bedroom, and she put his new shirt on him. Then they went into the bathroom, and he said, “No, no, Mommy. I can do it myself.” He pulled his little stool over to the sink, stepped up on to it, and turned on the faucet. Then he pushed down on the soap bottle, and his little hands filled with foamy soap.

“You’re right, Joey. I guess you’re a big boy now, huh?”

“Yup, I’m a big boy,” Joey responded, turning off the faucet and jumping down from the stool.

They went out into the living room, and Anne said, “Ok, you play with your toys while Mommy finishes dinner, but don’t make a big mess. Just play with one thing, like your cars.”

“Ok, Mommy,” Joey said, wandering over to his box of cars that he called his car garage.

Anne went in the kitchen and started putting their dinner on to serving dishes. She put the corn into one bowl, followed by the sweet potatoes into another. Then she placed the ribs onto a large oval shaped platter. She went into the fridge and grabbed the bottle of barbeque sauce, and dumped it into a little bowl. She microwaved it for thirty seconds and then put a pastry brush in the bowl.

“Time for dinner, guys,” Anne shouted, carrying the dishes out to the table. “It’s all your favorites.”

“Mmmm, smells good, “Lee said.

“Yummy ribs,” Joey exclaimed, climbing up into his chair.

“Yup, we’re having baby back ribs, baby sweet corn, and mashed sweet potatoes,” Anne told them. “Plus I have baby crescent rolls in the oven.”

“You sure went all out for dinner, Anne,” Lee said. “Are we celebrating something special and I forgot?”

Anne rolled her eyes, “It’s just a special night, Lee.”

Ugh he can be so dense sometimes, she thought to herself, as she walked into the kitchen to see if the rolls were done.

Bringing the rolls back out to the table in a lined basket, Anne sat down saying, “Time to say grace.”

“God is good. God is great. God we thank thee for this food. By his hands we are fed, thank you, Lord for our daily bread. Amen.”

“Ok. Let’s eat,” Lee said, rubbing his hands together.

* * * * *

“Ok, who wants to help Mommy clear the dishes?” Anne asked, picking up her plate and two serving bowls on her way to the kitchen.

“I help you, Mommy,” Joey said climbing down from his chair and carefully picking up his plate.

They went into the kitchen and Anne set her dishes on the counter. Joey put down his plate and then ran into the living room to play. Lee waked into the kitchen carrying his plate.

“Hun, that was delicious, but you didn’t have to go through so much trouble. It isn’t like we’re celebrating or anything.”

“You’re right, Lee. Of course, we’re not celebrating anything. Why on earth would we do that!” she said throwing her hands up in exasperation and going back out to the dining room for the remaining dishes.

“What? What did I say?”

“Nothing. You didn’t say anything. Or notice anything. Just like always.”

“I don’t know what I did, honey.”

“Just go play with Joey. Maybe then you’ll figure it out.”

Lee walked into the living room and sat down on the floor with Joey and the cars. “Sometimes I think Mommy is just being silly,” he told Joey.

“Yea. Mommy’s silly.”

Lee looked at Joey, “Hey, buddy, what does your shirt say?”

“I don’t know,” Joey responded. “What does it say?”

Lee pulled Joey up to his feet and read the shirt, just as Anne walked into the room. He looked at the shirt, and then he looked at Anne with wonder in his eyes and asked, “Does this mean what I think it does?”

She nodded, too choked up to speak.

He got up and started to cross the room to her. “You mean we’re going to…? I’m going to have another…?”

“Yes,” she responded quietly.

He hugged her to him and spun her around the room whooping and hollering.

“What? What’s so exciting about my shirt?” Joey asked looking down at it trying to figure out what could be so interesting about some words.

I’m the big brother.

© copyright Nicole Schiavoni 2008