I woke up with the Fraggle Rock song in my head. No clue why. Nothing I have seen or heard lately sounds like it. I had no dream attached, just the song in my brain. I think that will bug me more than the actual son. But for now, timers out and lets get to the morning prompt.
Oh there is going to be something nasty in that box. I do like the set up of the ordinary leading into the extraordinary though. But yeah, there is going to be something nasty in that box.
Wednesday, April 24th: The box came in the mail.
The box came in the mail. Truthfully, Millie didn’t think much of it. Boxes were always coming to the house. When they moved in, they did so with items they were given when they each first moved out on their own. When they married, she and Dan each brought their assorted goods with them. They went through and eliminated all the double items and were left with a mix of inherited goods and items they each purchased on their own. When they purchased the house, they inherited a set of appliances, from laundry to kitchen that the previous owners didn’t want to take with them.
The washer and drier lasted that first year before they started to become problematic and needed to be replaced. They waited for a big sale and took the money out of savings to buy the replacements. The following year, they did the same with the fridge. The stove hung on for another two years, slowly going from a four burner to a single burner.
When they were down to one, there was a massive sale and both the stove and somewhat aged microwave were replaced. As soon as they installed it, the HVAC system stopped working. They shivered through a winter where barely a dribble of heat came through the vents at the best of times. They dressed in layers and drank a lot of hot soup. Mostly it came from cans so they could keep the grocery bills low enough to save enough for the first couple of payments on a new system.
They had the new system installed when the cold of winter broke, but before the heat of summer could rise. While they had the first few payments saved it took them two years to pay off the unit. With the new unit in place all of the major purchases wore covered. So used to saving, they kept at it.
These days, even though all of the large scale needs for the house were covered, the smaller things started to break down. Items inherited when first moving out on their own stared to wear out completely. It was not replacing to be fashionable, but replacing out of necessity. It seemed every day a new small something needed to be ordered. She knew sooner or later it would end, but packages were coming in daily so she thought nothing of the new package that arrived. As she hadn’t ordered anything, she didn’t even really check the label, assuming it was something Dan ordered. She left it on the table and forgot abut it until later that day when she actually stopped and looked at the top of the box.
Ten til Midnight 