Happy Sunday!
It’s time for another quick short story. This week’s prompt was “rotate.”
I hope you enjoy the story.
Maya gently brushed the vacuum wand over the left cushion on the love seat. She began at the back of the couch and pulled the wand toward her, the loud whirring sound of the vacuum ringing in her ear. She had music playing through her phone in her back pocket – she always enjoyed listening to her favorite movie soundtracks while she cleaned the house. She couldn’t hear it over the sound of the vacuum which was why that was her least favorite chore.
She moved onto the second cushion, repeating the same strokes as though the vacuum were a paint brush. When that cushion was seemingly clean, she turned the vacuum off.
Her sister entered the room, dropping her purse onto the floor and kicked her shoes off.
“Excuse me, I’m cleaning. I just dusted over there, please put your things away,” Maya said.
Mia released a groan. “How silly of me. I forgot it’s Friday.” She picked up her purse and bent down to grabbed both of her sneakers in one hand.
“Thank you,” Maya said. She picked up the two couch cushions, placing them both on the coffee table. Then she turned the vacuum cleaned back on and began to satisfyingly vacuum up the many crumbs that had somehow made their home under the cushions.
She turned the vacuumed off once more and picked up the cushions.
“Are you switching them again?” Mia asked.
“Of course,”
“Why do you do that?”
Maya placed the cushion that was originally on the left on the right side of the couch. She flipped it over ensuring it fit and then she picked up the other one. “This is so I can clean both sides of the cushion, for one reason.”
“Why do you need to clean the other side of the cushion when no one sees it?” Mia wondered aloud.
Maya sighed, staring at her sister. “Did you not see all the crumbs and dirt I vacuumed up from under the cushions? Things fall through the cracks. There was dog and cat hair under there, popcorn…”
“That’s from you. I don’t eat popcorn,” Mia said, smiling.
Maya shook her head though couldn’t help but crack a smile. “I wasn’t blaming you and I’m certainly not making you clean it up, now am I?”
She placed the other cushion onto the opposite side of the couch, fitting it together with the other like a puzzle. She picked up the vacuum once more and cleaned them as she did with the other side.
When she finished, she turned off the vacuum, grinning at her sister. “Now sit.”
Mia raised an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t like me touching anything you cleaned for a couple of hours?”
“If that were true I wouldn’t let you inside the house at all. Sit,” Maya said again.
Mia obeyed, but not before dropping her things on the ground again. Maya winced but didn’t say anything. Mia sat down and raised her hands into a shrug.
“Reason number two,” Maya began, “how do they feel?”
“It’s bouncy.”
“See? I rotate the cushions because it puts some life back into them. The other side deflated from our butts.”
Mia rubbed the cushions with her hands, still sitting. She gazed up at her sister, smirking. “Is this a sign that we need to exercise more?”
Maya shrugged. “Don’t be silly. Rotating the cushions once in a while makes much more sense.”
I hope you enjoyed the story. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Please feel free to share this post.
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