A Series Of Short Stories

Exasperation

Suki awoke to pain throbbing throughout her skull around 5:30 P.M. Migraines had plagued her since adolescence but this was by far the worst one she ever experienced. Stumbling through her room with the ceiling fan's light burning her emerald green irises, she waved her hands blindly feeling the rough wooden paneling for the switch. With her eyes closed, fingers inches from killing the lights, a coffee table leg sprung up in front of her pinky-toe. The dull thud splintered through her foot, making her double over in pain. Though, after flicking off the LED bulb, she limped her way back to the uncomfortable futon resting in the corner of the living room. She sat down on the broken mattress-- springs poking out through rips in the smooth velvet fabric-- and prayed the nap her eyes yearned for would soothe her headache.
Howling from the kitchen woke her on this occasion. With her headache fading, she sauntered her way towards the cacophony to see what has plagued her pup, Maggie, to howl. Sludge smeared across the white tile floors and splattered on the cabinets, while Maggie sat in the middle of it in a laundry basket --her porcelain colored fur dripping pond scum and silt onto freshly laundered blankets. Suki knew she had to bathe her, but the shower from a Great Pyrenees shaking its coat was not one she wished to partake in today. The tired, aching girl scooted the wet basket--dog still waiting inside-- into the bathroom, dumping the basket into the bathtub and dragging the soaked blankets to the washer. An hour and a half later, after scrubbing the muck from Maggie and giving herself a bath, she noticed the towels put in her dryer this morning hadn't dried. The dryer was broken. Consequently, she had no dry towels, and on top of that, every one of her blankets were in the washer.