THE LESS THAN PERFECT LEGEND OF DONNA CREOSOTE by Dan Micklethwaite

Author:Dan Micklethwaite
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bluemoose Books Ltd
Published: 2016-06-08T19:07:38+00:00

26

Donna pushed the vacuum cleaner around the carpet by the beanbag, resisting the nagging temptation to dance. To spin the long-handled machine around on its pivot, rehearsing, perhaps, some moves for tonight.

It wasn’t too difficult to hold back, in the end, given how skewwhiff her tummy still felt. Which had been made worse again by having to deal with the mess in the bathroom, and wasn’t exactly being helped by the creeping aroma of bleach.

Indeed, it was quite likely that on any other day she’d have already gone back to bed. Maybe taken a book with her, for comfort, but probably not. Just curled up beneath the covers, in her pyjamas, embracing the warmth for a change as she sweated it out.

No simpler detox.

But she hadn’t really left herself that option here. She could still cancel, of course, or perhaps try and postpone until tomorrow. Though that wasn’t exactly the best way to start. And it would depend on a lie, because she couldn’t give him the actual reason: a lass who got that drunk on her own wasn’t likely to appeal.

Neither was a lass who lived in her own filth.

Going at the bottom of the bookcase with the brush attachment, she sucked up the remaining two olives she hadn’t salvaged last night. They rattled in the chamber and then stopped, as if pulped. She swept the brush across the spines, the dust jackets, surprised at how rough they still looked when she’d done. A couple of times she heard a noise like a twig snapping, but when she looked inside she couldn’t see any signs. Just a tangle of thread. She carried on up the shelves.

Donna moved the empty bottles into the store cupboard along with the rest. She should probably take them out to recycle at some point, but the longer she left it the more of a problem it was. Didn’t have time to make several trips to the ground floor at the moment, and besides, it wasn’t as if she’d have cause to go in there tonight.

The sink, on the other hand, could scarce be avoided: the pan and the oven trays were still lingering there. She set on with the scouring pad to try remove all the gunk, even using some old rubber gloves so it didn’t just transfer to her hands. There was far too much foam, though, and the bubbles went everywhere, floating up by her face; one even popped in her eye.

She remembered that at some point she’d thought bubbles were fairies, that they held fairies, that it was cruel and unusual to force them to clean.

On the last point at least, her thoughts hadn’t altered.

Leaving the cookware to soak, fighting the urge to say sod it and just go for a nap, she made herself crack on with clearing up the cupboards, and then she straightened the letters on the door of the fridge. She toyed with the idea of putting them in alphabetical order, but thought that might be taking it a little too far.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.