How he hated doing dishes, even if only three days worth at a time; his feet and legs already sore from another shift down at the office grindstone. And if he put them off another night, they'd just continue to pile up, making faces at him from that dirty no man's land at the edge of the sink.
     Finally, unable to stand the sight any longer, he committed himself, gathering energy from the Walkman, hooked to the waste ban of his track pants, though still sulking over the many ways the time could have been better spent, concentrated on the cutlery of fun.
     Silently cursing the shard of milk clinging stubbornly to the bottom of a drinking glass, he grinned with revenge, attacking it with a newly deboxed SOS pad. It's soapy grit helped to ease the task at hand; the price, a little elbow grease and a better part of the suds of which he knew scouring pads were quite fond of devouring.
     After a thorough rising with luke warm water, he would then let the dishes sit, and let evaporation do its part, not a big fan of the drying part. Besides, after a few hours stretched out on the rack, they were more apt to dry on their own without the extra toil of a dishtowel, an act of rebellion he ritualistically practiced.
     Twenty minutes later, the job almost complete, he breathed a sigh of relief. His socks however had become quite wet from the unplayful splash of soiled dishwater, and so stripping his feet bare, paid no attention to the trail of footprints left behind them on hardwood floor, itself due for a good washing anyways.
     Now, only to wash the couch with the cotton stretched across his bottom. What was left of the evening to be spent studying the wisdom of a steady string of sitcoms. This kind of effort however does not come without consequences, and feeling a powerful thirst come on from a half hour's life wasted in front of the sink, he reached for a clean glass from inside of the rack.

© 1991
Inputted and revised © 2014 and 2017

630 hits as of March 2024

03/11/2017

Author's Note: A short prose piece I’ve been playing with off and on over the years.

Posted on 03/11/2017
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti