Happy fourth of July everyone. We’ve had fireworks going off like mad for the last week. Luckily we have had a lot of rain so it isn’t as dry as it usually is and thankfully no fires. I suppose that is the benefit of the massive rains coming in June instead of April and May this year. Usually the fireworks leading up to the 4th are accompanies by sirens of the fire department variety. But all is well and properly explosive. If that is a thing. I’m sure tonight will have all the neighborhood dogs howling. For now, all is quiet so lets jump into the morning prompt. Timers set and off we go.
I feel like I skipped out on a lot of detail, but I really like the protagonist and will be circling back to use her for something.
Friday, July 4th: She stretched out the cloth.
She stretched out the cloth. “It needs to dry in the sun,” she told me. I nodded as I watched her lay the cloth over the line. It was cotton and not linen so I knew there didn’t need to be tenterhooks attached to keep it square and flat. At least I didn’t think it needed them. I had never stretched a cloth like this out in the sun before. I tended to use a drier. My apartment didn’t have the space for a clothes line and I was fairly certain that if I used the small balcony outside my living room to attempt to dry anything it would smell like exhaust fumes instead of fresh air and sunlight.
I wiggled my nose. It wasn’t as bad as it had been. Knowing I was coming out here, I took a heavy dose of antihistamines. On my last visit I sneezed the entire time I was out here and in attrition to watering like mad my eyes ended up swelling. While I am certain it didn’t look attractive, more important was that it impacted my ability to drive. I nearly sneezed myself off the road a couple of times and by the time I arrived home my eyes were swollen to nearly slits.
I was amazed the trip back hadn’t killed me. The antihistamines were doing their best. I wasn’t sneezing although I was still sniffling a bit. My eyes were a little watery but there was no swelling.
I watched her finish hanging the sheets on the line and tamped down my own impatience and annoyance. Kiera insisted that I come out here to deal with her every time I needed to deal with her, which thankfully wasn’t often. She claimed that there was simply too much for her to do here to take the time to come into the city. She also refused to deal with anything over the phone or on the computer. So all paperwork had to be brought out.
So I brought it, despite the havoc it wrote on my schedule. ‘Which wouldn’t be so bad if she would just get to the point.’
I felt my annoyance level grow as I witched Kiera finish and then spread her arms wide basking in the sunlight herself.
“I could just do this all day,” she said. I made a non-committal noise and she frowned. I knew what she was up to. She wanted me to complain that I didn’t have all the time in the world. Then she could go on a tirade about how I felt her job wasn’t as important as hers. As I arranged my schedule to come out on a day she had off, I thought her job was beside the point. That attitude would have me labeled as dismissive of her work as well and leave me listening to a tirade of her importance that would last at least an hour. The longest she had taken such tirades was two hours. And I had no desire for that.
I maintained a calm and pleasant look on my face. I practiced it in the mirror, repeatedly.
Kiera frowned realizing that I wasn’t taking the bait. She didn’t stomp her foot as she would have when we were younger. I was still fairly certain she would lodge a complaint to Uncle Tirus.
‘Doesn’t matter,’ I reminded myself. I tried not to smile at the thought, squashing it down hard. There was no reason to think this was any different from any other visit.
Kiera sighed heavily. “Fine, let’s just get this over with, you are spoiling my day off you know.” She stopped off back to the house. I followed, hearing the door bang into the wall as she entered. I winced, knowing there would be a divot carved in the wall but the force of the knob hitting the wall.
‘Not my problem,’ I reminded myself.
“It is the usual monthly paperwork,” I told her. The file was on the table, she flipped through it, saw that nothing was different, signed where she needed to and closed the file. I picked up the file and handed her the envelope.
“I’ll let myself out so you can enjoy the sunshine and your day off,” I told her. I made my escape at a sedate walk; Made it to my car without being called back and left.
‘Never to return,’ I reminded myself. I allowed myself the pleasure of the smile I squashed earlier.
Ten til Midnight 