Sheila's Day Off

Sheila’s migraine is finally gone. She walks around the house, seeing messes everywhere. There is a pile of dirty clothes 3 feet deep in the small laundry room. She decides to tackle that first.

She sorts the clothes into 7 piles: lights, darks, her husband’s work clothes, jeans, towels, Cleaning clothes for her housecleaning jobs and the dogs’ stinky blankets.

Sheila knows Wayne will be gone all day, so she isn’t going to stress out about the mess. She has all day to get it done, plus she can stay home today. It’s her day off.

The first load is in the washer and Sheila sits down for a cup of coffee. She makes it in an “Arrow Press”, a special coffee making gadget that many hikers use. It makes better coffee than the coffee shops and is way cheaper, she thinks. There’s a knock at the door. It’s a woman and little girl dressed in uniforms.

“Hello, ma’am. Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies? the girl asked.

Sheila thinks about it for a minute. She knows she shouldn’t, but it’s for a good cause.

“Do you still sell the mint ones?”

“We sure do. How many boxes would you like?”

“2 will be fine.” Sheila said.

“That’s $10.”

Sheila pulls a $10 bill out of her purse and hands it to the girl.

“Thanks.” Sheila said

“I’m sure you’ll like them.” The girl said.

After the door is shut Sheila mumbles under her breath,

“Just what I need.”

Next the wet clothes go in the dryer and another in the washer. She makes more coffee, then opens her laptop and looks for articles on organization. Her dog, Poochy is whining, then shoots out the doggie door barking.

Sheila checks it out, and sees a homeless lady walking by with her snapping and snarling dog. She lives in a tent next to a few others up the dead-end street on the side of the hill. Sheila knew that the police raid it randomly. They all pack up and leave, but they’re back in 3 days.

One time, Sheila’s husband Wayne, took a walk up the hill to check it out. He told her the camp was strewn with garbage, clothes and broken dishes.

“It looks and smells like a disease waiting to happen,” He said.

The neighbor dogs start barking. They live across the street in a small mobile home with their 3 cats and 6 dogs. The dogs sound like they’re killing each other, so Sheila walks outside again to see what’s going on. It’s just another person walking by. The neighbor man comes out of the mobile home shaking a stick at the dogs.

“Shut your yappers or you know what you’ll get.”

They stop barking and scuttle off in all directions to hide.

Back inside, the first load of laundry is dry, so Sheila

Pulls it out. 2 tennis balls fall out with the load. She peels hair off them, throws them back in the dryer and adds more wet clothes.

She throws another load in the washer.

There’s a knock at the door. It’s the 11 year old neighbor girl, who is visiting her grandparents in the mobile home.

“Do you want to hang out?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”

“It’s a holiday.”

Sheila finds play dough, color books and crayons, then sets them on the picnic table outside.

“Here you go. I have things to do inside, but you can play here.”

“Can I help you?”

“Not this time Kit.”

Kit plays for only a few minutes, then starts to leave. Sheila feels bad and knows she can spare a few minutes with this little girl.

“Do you want to have a tea party?”

“For reals?”

“Yeah. You wait here while I get the tea ready.”

Sheila heats the water, then finds matching cups, saucers and a teapot. After the tea is made, she gets the Girl Scout cookies and sets everything on the picnic table.

“Cookies too! This is so cool” Kit says.

They eat the cookies and drink the tea.

“We can pretend we’re at a party for rich people.” Kit says.

Sheila smiles at Kit and Kit smiles back.

“I need to use the bathroom.”

Without thinking, Sheila lets her in the house. After 10 minutes in the bathroom, Sheila knocks on the door.

“Are you alright in there?”

“Yeah, almost done.”

Sheila hears the cupboard close behind the door. Kit comes out smelling like her perfume.

“I should go home now.”

After she leaves, Sheila checks the bathroom, but doesn’t see anything missing. Even though she knew Kit went through the cupboards, for some reason it doesn’t bother her. 

It’s almost noon and Sheila hasn’t even had breakfast. She makes a BLT, then just as she sits down to eat, there’s a knock on the door again. She opens the door and just as she expected, it’s Kit.

 “Hey, can I hang out? I’m bored?”

She looks at Sheila’s sandwich carefully.

“What are you eating? “Can I have some?”

“No, Kit, you need to go home.”

Kit gets a sort of sad look on her face and turns away as if to leave. Sheila grabs a piece of bacon from the frying pan and hands it to her.

“Here’s a piece of bacon.”

“Thank you.” She smiles, then leaves. 

Now Shelia is feeling annoyed. There’s so much to do and not much time left to do it in. She looks around and sees the dirty dishes in the sink. As she starts washing them, the dryer beeps and startles her.

She throws the dry clothes on the couch. Now Poochy is whining. It’s time for his walk, so Sheila clips on the leash and heads for the park across the street. 

Poochy pulls her along, stops suddenly to sniff something on the ground and then takes off again running. At the park Sheila is not surprised to see Kit riding her bike.

“Nice seeing you again.” Kit says.

“Yeah.”

Sheila has had enough of Kit today, but maybe this is happening for a reason? She decides to go with the flow and just listen to the girl.

“I don’t like staying at Granny’s. There are too many people and dogs. It stinks too. My big brother beat someone up the other day. I think they owed him a lot of money or he wouldn’t have done it. He didn’t have to go to jail though. I’m glad about that.”

“Are you ok? Does your brother hurt you?”

“My brother lives with my dad, but he’s nice to me. I stay with my dad sometimes and sometimes with my mom. Then, sometimes I stay at Granny’s.”

“What about your grand-pa?”

“Oh he’s there too. I don’t know why, but I call it Granny’s.” 

“I better get back home. Hope you have fun at the park.” Sheila said.

“I will, thanks.”

When she gets in the house she decides to work on her long neglected novel, but can’t concentrate because of the unfinished dishes and laundry. She walks back into the kitchen and starts washing dishes again. Then she works on the laundry.

She feels sleepy and can hardly keep her eyes open, so decides to take a nap. 2 hours later she wakes up and it’s 4:00, time to start supper.

She looks in the fridge and decides on stir-fry. She cuts up the veggies and leftover chicken and fries it. Brown rice is cooking in a cast iron pot.

The piles of dirty laundry are shrinking, but her day is running out so she decides to throw them back in the laundry room and shuts the door.

Then she remembers the clean clothes on the couch. It takes several trips to get all the clean clothes onto the bed in the spare room. She shuts the door.

 Wayne’s diesel pickup truck pulls into the driveway. She hurries to light a lilac scented candle and sets the table.

Wayne walks into the house, dropping his tools and lunchbox on the floor.

“Did you enjoy your day off?”

Sheila just smiles.