The Bathrooms Will Wait- A (very) short story.

Sarah glanced at her bullet journal and her list of ten daily goals.

 

She thought, Bed made. Check. Remember to clean the bathrooms today. They look disgusting. 

Sarah sliced open two pink grapefruits as the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song played in the other room. Don’t let the kids watch more than one episode, she reminded herself. If they get off schedule, they will misbehave all day long. 

 A gleaming stainless-steel pot of oats bubbled on the stove. 

Sarah smiled. Oats are so healthy. Maybe I’ll add a little cottage cheese for more protein. 

Sarah turned on the hot steaming water and it slowly began to fill one side of the sink. She washed and rinsed two Ziploc bags and hung them to dry. Two fewer bags in a landfill. 

That was when Sarah made her first mistake of the morning. 

She glanced at the photograph of sunflowers framed on her kitchen wall. Before she knew it, a poem had struck. 

Don’t do it. You will never get the bathrooms done if you sit at that computer, Sarah pleaded with herself. The poem can wait. Whatever you do, don’t sit down. 

But her legs did not obey her mind. 

Sarah sat down at the computer and began to type. By the time she had finished the poem, the smell of burning oats filled the air. The kitchen faucet was still running, and a waterfall of water cascaded into the empty side of the sink. The cheerful refrain of a third episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse played in the other room. 

The bathrooms would wait for another day.

Author's Note: I wrote this piece as part of a workshop I recently completed called "Writing with Caspian." It is a course created by Jonathan Rogers at the Habit.co, an online writing community for writers dedicated to learning more about their craft. He often hosts workshops discussing such authors as C.S. Lewis, Jane Austen, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Most of the writing assignments are limited to 300-500 words, which is why they remain (very) short.