Dirty Laundry

It was another boring day indoors after another round of snow. Ray went exploring downstairs, hoping to find some sort of adventure. But instead of finding ghosts, giant rats, or a hobo, he found a strange object that he had never seen before in his life. It was black, full of holes, and some sort of mix between plastic and rubber. He picked it up by the handles and put it on his head, since it was the same size.

“What is it? A hat?”

Somehow it didn’t seem right. He felt that his hair was terribly messed up, so he put the object back down and shook his head, ridding himself of the helmet-hair. Looking at the object again and pondering about it, he thought it looked inviting. So he climbed in.

“Oh! This is pretty comfy! Maybe it’s a chair. A modern chair.”

This is when I came downstairs and found him. I thought he had fallen into it and was flailing around, stuck, so I picked him up and helped him out of it.

“What’d you do that for?” he asked, sounding annoyed.

“What were you doing in the laundry basket?”

“The what?”

I noticed one of his shirts on the floor by the drum set, so I grabbed it and tossed it into the basket. “This basket is for dirty clothes.”

“That’s my lucky Batman shirt!” he objected, “It’s not dirty!”

“Smell it.”

He gave me a cautious look and sniffed the shirt, then he quickly dropped it and took a step back. “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. Now, whenever you have stinky clothes, put them in the basket. When the basket is full, I’ll show you how to do the laundry.”

Ray didn’t appear to be thrilled by the new chore I was assigning him, but he didn’t argue.

It wasn’t long, with four boys, for the basket to be filled. They kept it in their living room since it was more convenient to have it nearby than to keep having to go up and down the stairs (which is quite a journey when you’re twelve inches tall) but they quickly realized it wasn’t so convenient. Its presence was becoming increasingly noticeable.

“Ray, don’t you think you should do something about this now? It’s stinking up the whole place.”

“Why do I have to do it?”

Kyle crossed his arms. “Andy said you have to. Remember?”

“Alright, alright.” He picked up the basket and struggled a bit to keep his grip on it. “Man, this thing is heavy.”

“Be careful going down the stairs,” Kyle warned as he went off in search of a can of air freshener.

“I got it.”

Ray returned empty handed about twenty minutes later and returned to his guitar on the couch, noticing that the room now smelled like flowers. Kyle looked up at him from his Nintendo DS. “Is it done?”

“Yeah. All gone.”

“Good!”

Elsewhere, Vincent sensed something horribly wrong. There was a tension in the air and an underlying odor that he couldn’t place. Uneasy, he took up his sword and made his way through the house.

“This foul stench… Could it be a demon?”

It was his job to protect the others from such threats, after all.

He found nothing out of the ordinary on the first floor, so he went to the stairs to check the basement. Evil tends to lurk underground, and it seemed that his suspicions were going to prove correct. With each step he descended, the musty smell of death became more intense. He braced himself for what he expected would be a tough fight.

“Show yourself!” he shouted, his fiery blue eyes piercing the darkness. But long moments passed with no answer to his challenge, and he could see no movement in the shadows. Holding his sword steady, he moved over to the light switch and flipped it on. He was alone. Confused, but relieved, he looked around for the source of the smell.

It wasn’t hard to find. In the middle of the floor sat the laundry basket, still filled with their clothes. Vincent put his sword away and edged closer, covering his nose and mouth with his hands to try and filter the air he was breathing.

“I must inform Andy right away,” he mumbled into his hands, and immediately ran from the area.

When I found out that Ray hid the basket, Ray found out that he was going to sleep downstairs with the basket until he finished the job. It never happened again.

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