I woke up out of a dream where I went into the bathroom and found it was smaller than I thought. Then, as I washed honey off my hands, the bathroom began to actually shrink around me. Very Alice in Wonderland, in a people tend not to drink or eat strange food and beverages in mysterious jars by unknown persons kind of way. There was no white rabbit at least. It was rather odd to be startled out of by the alarm. I feel slightly off balance actually. Not really sure why. Thought I’d share. Now on to the prompts?
This one I liked. And I feel a little bit more balanced after writing it. I might circle back and do something with this one.
Friday, August 26th: The burn throbbed.
The burn throbbed. He held his injured hand and looked at the oven dials. Sure enough one of the burners had been left on. He didn’t know who had been in the kitchen earlier, but given the general state of it, he could make an educated guess. Gavin turned off the burner and moved to the sink. He ran his burned hand under the running water, letting the water take some of the heat away. The water was almost cold enough to numb his hand and as he let the water run, Gavin looked at the sky. It was low and gray. He suspected the first of the winter storms would still be on them.
A sound behind him caused him to turn. He looked over his shoulder and found Jerimiah standing in the doorway. His hands were on his hips and he was surveying the chaos of the kitchen with pursed lips.
“What were you trying to accomplish, Gavin?” he asked. He turned his blue eyes on Gavin. They slipped from his face to his hand, still held under the running water.
“Not my adventure I’m afraid,” Gavin said. “It was like this when I found it.”
“I see,” Jeramiah said. “And the hand?”
“I didn’t realize the burner was still on.”
“Ah.” Jeramiah let his hands slide from his hips. He then rolled up his sleeves and without a word, began gathering up the soiled, and in the case of ne mixing bowl, broken, crockery and cookware.
Gavin felt the pain of burn ease so he turned off the water, inspected his hand and found the skin was still red and tender but his hand still usable. He dried his hands and began helping Jeramiah set the kitchen back to rights.
For a time they worked in silence. The sound of their work the only one in the large kitchen space. Jeramiah took over the washing of the dishes as Gavin’s burn would pain him if subjected to hot water so soon. Gavin took the chore of drying and putting away the now clean items. As he wiped down the counters and Jeramiah slipped the broken pot into the trash the silence between them broke.
“Something is going to have to be done about him,” Jeramiah said.
“I know,” Gavin replied. Jeramiah nodded and turned to leave the kitchen. Gavin looked back out of the window. All of them knew something was going to have to be done about Ferdinand. The problem was that no one knew what.
It was a tricky situation n matter how anyone looked at it and there simply were no easy solutions. Conversations about living with others and showing them respect by tidying up after oneself, had no impact. Frederick would nod and say, ‘Of course,’ but then nothing would change. Conversations about scheduling received the same affirmative comment and were likewise later ignored.
‘Talking simply doesn’t work,’ Gavin thought. ‘The problem is there is precious little else we can do.’
At the moment they couldn’t ask him to leave. They couldn’t send him away. Disciplining him was also problematic. Most of the measures that would have worked on the others living here were unavailable to them. Something different was needed for Frederick. Gavin looked at the sky and as the first flakes began to fall, an idea started to glimmer in the back of his mind. An idea that might actually have some merit.
Ten til Midnight 