The Water Had Not Been Kind

*** continued from previous post ***


Your mother glared, but held her tongue. She slipped into the bathroom and shut the door.

I busied myself with draping various pieces of wet clothing about the room. When I finished, it looked like a washing machine had spontaneously exploded and disgorged its contents helter-skelter. I tried to make it a bit tidier, but it was no use. I didn't have the energy.

I heard the water run in the shower, and, when I was sure it was safe, stripped off my wet gear and clothes. Several hours being damp had - in NO sense of the word - been kind. I disgusted even myself. I collapsed on the bed in a damp, wrinkly heap.

Mom finished in the shower and said with a refreshed sigh, "Okay. Your turn." She walked back into the bedroom, and I was glad to see some color in her face. She glanced around our quarters at first quizzically, then with a bit of disgust. Finally with a shrug she gave up. It made me sad to see the spunk gone out of her. There were pants hanging from curtain rods, socks adorning the arms of chairs and the sofa, and underwear draped over lampshades. You know, much like a dorm room on a Sunday morning.

She shook her head and massaged her temples. "Go take a shower. I'm starving."

Without further ado, or comment, I did as I was told.

I have had many a shower in my life, but none ever felt as grand as this one. I could have just stood there all night, letting the hot water cascade over me, washing away the past 14 hours emerging in the morning as refreshed as a converted Catholic after confession. But I knew your mom was waiting, and it was wayyyyyyyy past her dinner time, and I wanted to put this all behind us and make a fresh start. So I hurriedly washed, dried, and put on some (semi) dry clothes, and sprang from the bathroom fresh as a daisy. If that daisy had been sitting in a flea market flower stall for the last week slowly fossilizing.

Had we really only been gone from home two days? Felt more like two months.

*** the journey continues ***