Morning all. I had strange dreams that I am certain were inspired by my neighbors Christmas decorations. This year he has three Santa’s riding dinosaurs on his front lawn. Leaving aside Jurassic Santa, why would they have three Santas? Wouldn’t it be Santa and two elves? I was annoyed watching them inflate, partially because I don’t like Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving as a rule, but mostly because of the three Santas. As a result I thought about them too much and there was a dream involving a mash up of Jurassic Park and a hallmark Christmas movie playing in my head all night. But for now, we have our morning prompt so lets set that aside, set the timers and jump into it.
Not entirely sure where this is going but someone is in for a surprise.
Tuesday, November 25th: I don’t know what I am going to do about it.
“I don’t know what I am going to do about it,” Susie tried to keep the exasperation from her tone.
Paula sighed on the other end of the line. Her disappointment in Suzie’s less than proactive response was clear. “You know it is just going to get worse of you don’t do anything about it, don’t you?”
Suzie rolled her eyes. Of course she knew. It had in fact been getting steadily worse nearly each day. That was a fact she had left out of their conversations. Suzie took a deep breath. “I will deal with it,” she said. It was a definitive statement and left no room for an additional comment.
Paula huffed. “Well see that you do,” she said, unable to let anyone have the last word. The phone went silent. Paula hung up on her.
As it was the usual way Paula ended her phone calls, at least with Suzie, she more or less expected it. There was a part of her that longed to be the one hanging up to end a conversation. Yet somehow she never could. Suzie set the phone down.
She looked out of the kitchen and into the living room. When her husband’s parents moved in with them it was supposed to be temporary. John and his sister Paula were supposed to sort something more permanent out.
At the time John and Paula decided they should come here for the interim because they had the basement apartment. Their tenant, a grad student, finished his studies and had just moved out. They had yet to rent the place to anyone else so it seemed a good, if temporary solution. In addition, Paula lived alone and here there were two people.
In theory John and Suzie were supposed to take turns helping his parents. In reality, John claimed meetings and business trips as his reasoning for not helping with anything. His parents weren’t infirm or anything, they just were no longer capable of driving and were transitioning from the large home they shared for nearly sixty years into a smaller place, more centrally located.
Yet as the days stretched into weeks if seemed they believed they had found the place they were transitioning into. Suzie ended up using sick leave and any accumulated time off to take them to doctor’s appointments and any shopping excursions or errands they needed. She tried to get as many of them slated for the weekend as possible. There she hoped John would help, but he claimed exhaustion and disappeared as soon as work ended on Friday.
In addition his parents decided they wanted more of their things with them. Much of what they owned was in storage so they could decide what they needed at their new place once they secured it. Now they felt as though they were settling, they wanted their things here. Every time Suzie left the house, things were moved in.
Things were also being moved out.
Mostly her things.
Looking into the living room she could see her couch was no longer in the living room. The monstrosity her in laws favored, overstuffed and far too large for this particular living room was in its place now. She knew her couch would somehow have been mysteriously moved to a storage unit while she was out. It was becoming intolerable and if John and Paula would not do something about it, she would. Susie nodded to herself. It was time to set her plan into motion. Everyone could either get on board or come up with their own method of dealing with it. She was about to make changes.
Ten til Midnight 