I took a deep breath and tossed myself down upon my bed and rolled over onto my back. As far as I was concerned, my plans for the weekend had been smashed like an egg being dropped down on the ground. Sheets of rain started to pelt my bedroom window pane. It was one of those late summer downpours that are all too common in my region. It was not only rain, but lightning and thunder. Every so often a loud boom would echo across the sky, causing the house to shake.
It was a thunderstorm, one of epic proportions, ones that would drop a good three or four inches of rain and cause the many creeks to rise, one that would fill the ditches with rain water, one that might even force the river to raise from its banks. Such thunderstorms were common down here, and I hated them, they always reminded me of the night my mama was killed in a horrible wreck.
But putting all of that aside now, I hated this weather because it meant that all my normal social activity was canceled. See my friends and I have this little club, we gather out in the woods behind my house, we sit around a stone circle, a big roaring bonfire is normally built within the stone circle. Then once we're all there, we start telling ghost stories. It's good fun. And I look forward to it each week. It kind of makes my week.
But this week, beside the weather things have been rough for my little group. Daisy's in the hospital with pneumonia, it's the same hospital that is supposed to be haunted by a ghost nurse. I wonder if he'll return with a story. Jamie is out of town with the rest of her family. Cerridwen is grounded because she tried to brew a love potion and it backfired. I still want to know the whole story behind that. Taylor too is grounded because of reasons. And my boyfriend Matthew is down sick with a horrible chest cold.
And so I'm stuck here, in my bedroom. The high winds have knocked out the internet. We still have lights and such thank God for that. But all the same I'm bored out of my mind. I was just about to try to fall asleep when I heard my bedroom door creep open and there in the doorway stood my older sister.
“Hey Kiddo.” She said looking all around my room. “Weather's getting bad. Be sure to plug up your phone. We might lose power. Also make sure you have a flashlight handy.” She kept looking around my room. “Also you need to do a little cleaning in here. It's starting to get out of hand again. You know, pick up your clothing, dust, mop, make your bed, change your sheets and stuff.”
I grunted something out. Since coming to live with her, my sister has taken on the dual role of being my big sister and also being something of a substitute mother. I often called her 'Mum' just to mess with her. At first she just rolled her eyes, but then she started to accept the title and now she seemed to embrace it. It had gotten to the point I was casually calling her 'Mum' or sometimes 'Mummy' and it made her smile.
“I'm sorry, I don't understand grunts, groans or moans. Would you like to try something else young lady? Before you end up over my knee. You know having a one on one talk with Mr. Brush on your bare bottom?” Kayla said, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes Mum.” I said, sighing. “I'll clean my room after Mass tomorrow morning.” My room like most rooms in our house is small, cleaning it would take no more than fifteen minutes or so. Thirty if I wanted to really deep clean it.
“Good, also are you going out tonight?” Kayla asked as she walked into my room. Picking her way as she did over mounds of discarded panties, skirts, blouses and a mountain of second hand books.
“Can't.” I said peering toward the rain that was now coming down in sheets. “Mother nature is weeping, and most of the gang is either away, grounded or in hospital. I mean Daisy in the hospital.. and Jamie and I are placing bets that he's going to encounter the ghost nurse.” I said sighing. “Kind of hope he does, when I published my book, I felt bad. Everybody had a story beside him”
My sister blinked and blinked again.
“We'll, since your staying in. I was thinking about having a movie night. I have a stack of Studio Ghibli movies we can watch, including your favorite Castle in the Sky and my personal favorite Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. And there a few pints of fudge brownie ice cream in the freezer. So, I was thinking about cooking some hot dogs, popping some popcorn and just binge watching Studio Ghibli movies all night. You know a sister thing.” She said sitting down on the side of my bed.
I blinked and blinked again. Slowly I lifted my head up from the pillow and for a long moment I peered at my sister. The offer was too good to be true, there had to be a catch somewhere.
“Sure, that sounds fun. But what's the catch?”
“First, you need to get a bath. It's been two days since you've had a bath and your hair is oily. Once you've gotten your bath, I need you to pick this room up. Not a deep clean, just you know, pick your clothes up, put your books on your bookshelves, make your bed, sweep and dust.” She then folded her arms across her chest. “And Madeline before you say a word, trust me, if you put your mind to it, you can have this whole thing picked up, dusted and swept in about fifteen minutes, twenty at tops. So twenty minutes to pick up your room and twenty minutes to bath. Then we can start our little movie night.” She paused again. “Do we have a deal?”
I blinked and blinked again. My sister had me over the barrel and she knew it. I closed my eyes and slowly I felt myself starting to smirk a little.
“Sure mum.” I said holding out my hand. “We have a deal.” I said, and for a moment I wandered if my late grandmother had done the same with Kayla when she was my age.
Kayla smiled and instead of taking hold of my hand she reached up and ruffled my hair. I felt a deep blush forming in my cheeks as I felt her rough fingers running through my hair. My sister then stood up and slowly walked out of the room.
“Okay hon, see you in about forty minutes. And don't forget to wash behind your ears.” And with those parting words, my sister left me to tend to my chores. Once Kayla had closed the bedroom door behind her, I perked up and started to look around my room. The sight that greeted was indeed mountains of books, manga and scattered pieces of paper. My collection of Digital Video Disc (DVD) were scattered about to the four corners. And piles of clothing just added to the mix.
I took a deep breath and sighed. My sister was right, I needed to shorten this mess out. And she had given me a deadline to do so. And so rolling up the sleeve of my blouse I got to work. As I started to sort through the jumble piles it dawned on me how many books and manga I owned. My bookcase was almost empty when I started cleaning, by time I was finished it was overflowing with books.
One chore flowed into another and soon I had the floor picked up, the bed made, the wooden floorboards swept and a trashcan full of old discarded papers and dozens or so ghost stories that remained in manuscript form. Those I kept on my desk. You see I often write down the ghost stories me and my friends tell around that bonfire. I've published one such collection of ghost stories and urban legends and plan on publishing a shorter collection soon. Anyway with that chore done I started to head toward the shower. I had done more work than I had planned on doing, and I felt like I deserved a good hot shower.
