A short piece of fiction, changed at the start of the month.
"They won't fit in there."
"Of course they will. I'll just have to lean on the door a bit,"
replied Dan.
I left my husband to fight with the sideboard while I put things away in the
kitchen. I'm not exactly untidy, but my Mum doesn't approve of the tea jar
sitting next to the kettle or crumbs left on the breadboard. When I went back
into the dining room, Dan was pulling everything out of the sideboard, piling it
next to the shopping bags he'd been trying to push in.
"There's too much clutter in here," he said when he realised I was
watching.
"Yes, dear. I'll put it all back - you take the shopping bags
upstairs," I suggested.
"You can't just pile everything in our bedroom," he replied.
"Look - we need this place looking tidy before Mum gets here, and pushing it
all upstairs is simply the easiest way."
"Why does she have to stay here, anyway? Why not with your aunt?"
I sighed. "Because she rang us. I told her we were decorating the spare
room, but she says it doesn't matter."
"She's fallen out with her sister again, more like," he snorted.
I couldn't argue with that, so I went to finish up in the lounge.
The phone rang a few minutes later. Dan was coming back down the stairs and I
heard him answer it in the hall.
"Hello? ... Oh hello. Where are you?"
A pause.
"She's just making up the sofabed for you."
A longer pause.
"Oh, ok. I'll tell her."
He made the usual pleasantries, hung up and came into the lounge.
"That was your mother," he started.
"Now what is it? Don't tell me they've delayed her flight yet again!"
"No, not at all. But the airline have agreed to put all of the passengers
up in an airport hotel for the night. She won't be staying with us after
all."
I dropped the half-covered duvet onto the newly-vacuumed floor.
Dan added, "She hopes you aren't too disappointed - but she knows you won't
have gone to any trouble."
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