I Learned my Lesson

I never understood the point of having to learn how to do laundry, we had laundromats for that and my grandmother always did it for me. I don't get why granny decided today of all days that she was going to teach me how to do laundry. My granny got her big blue basket and told me to put all of my dirty clothes in the basket. I did what she asked, she then took all of the clothes out of the basket and put them back in the dirty bin. I stood there looking at my granny like she had gone crazy. "When I said put the clothes in the basket I meant to put them nicely,” my granny said sighing and shaking her head. I didn't really get the point of putting them in the basket nicely they were dirty. 

"Grandma, why does it matter if the clothes are dirty ?" I asked hoping she would give me a clear answer. Granny did what she always did 

she just smiled and said “you’ll understand when you're older”

 It always annoyed me when she did that sometimes I wondered if she even remembered how old I was, my seventeenth birthday just passed but to my grandma, I was always going to be her little baby boy. I started to put the dirty clothes back into the basket slowly and “neatly” as my granny wanted. After I was done, we went downstairs where the washer and dryer were the same washer and dryer we’ve had since the day I was born, my granny would always tell me that I was a very fussy baby and she would take me on car rides to calm me down, but if it was too late to go outside she would turn on the washing machine and hold me next to it, maybe as a baby the sound of the washing machine reminded me of a car ride. I don’t know why but that story always makes me chuckle the thought of my granny holding me next to the washing machine for thirty minutes painted a funny picture in my head.

 “Billy sweetie were you listening?” Granny asked while putting the basket full of clothes on the ground I didn’t even realize granny was talking  “Sorry granny can you repeat that” I asked trying to focus on my granny so I wouldn’t miss anything important. My granny looked at me then looked at the washing machine then a smile began to creep on my granny’s face. It's strange but I know she was thinking about the same story that came to my mind. It's funny how no matter how old the story gets, it’s still fresh in our heads. Granny told me to take all the dirty clothes out of the basket and to separate them into three piles of whites, colors, and darks. I noticed as I started to separate the clothes granny started to yawn and close her eyes for a few seconds. “Hey, Granny, why don’t you go lay down for a couple of minutes while I finish this ?”  I said taking her hand and leading her to the bedroom, Even though Granny usually has the spirit of someone my age at times she forgets that she’s in her seventies and can’t be on her feet all day like she used to.

 “Ok, Steven but when it’s time to start the dryer call me,” She said without putting up much of a fight, sometimes Granny calls me Steven by mistake since that’s my dads name I was told since I was small I look just like him, but I have no idea what he looks like she doesn’t really mention him much. All I really know about him is he wanted to be a rockstar and meet my mom at one of his concerts when she got pregnant she wasn’t ready and left me on my father’s doorstep funny how as a kid I never thought much about my pops but as I got older I wondered why he left me with granny and not just give me up to a stranger, that means he cared about me in some way right? I don’t know but that thought always kept my spirits up. I walked back downstairs and put my dark clothes in the washing machine and started the machine, I crossed my fingers that I did it right, I wanted to show granny that I was paying attention to her when she was talking... I waited for thirty minutes and went to check on granny. She was sound asleep. Her chest rose up and down and light snores left her nose every once in a while. 

Granny always told me “you can tell when a person is sleeping good when they’re snoring,” she said it’s because when they snore their nose is fully asleep and that’s why people snore granny always made up silly things like that, as a kid I thought she did it to make me laugh but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized she told me those things so I would remember...like when she taught me how to tie my shoes she said it was important because the laces don’t like being apart from one another. As I looked outside I realized it started to get late, I know granny said to call her before I start the dryer but how hard could it be I put the wet clothes in the machine and started it. I needed some fresh air all this laundry was starting to make me feel claustrophobic, I stepped outside and walked down the block and sat on the curb, as I sat and waited a little boy around ten I think his name was Elijah he always walked up and down the blocks asking for spare change I always wondered what the change was for he never accepted dollars or food just spare change. “Hey Eli, come here for a second” I said loudly so he could hear me. Eli turned around and started walking towards me, every time I saw Elijah his clothes were always clean no matter how hard times got for him they were always clean. “Eli what do  you need the change for?” Eli looked at me and giggled like I said something funny. 

“I need the change to wash my clothes” Eli said opening up the bag so I could see the change. “Clean clothes are separating us from the caveman...that’s what my mom  tells me.” hearing that made me think about what granny said earlier today “I’ll tell you when you're older” maybe for once I didn’t need granny to teach me the lesson I learned it all on my own…..