Day 225 - 31 Items or less

 31 items or less

Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

The mosquitoes were bigger this year. The winter had a wet week or two. Did that make a difference with the eggs? More or larger or something. Maybe it was the heatwave and it drove some breed further north than normal. There were always reports on the news about killer bees and swarms of locust and other catastrophes caused by climate change or global warming or some other name. Maybe the attack of the mosquitoes was part of it.

The man hated everything. It was too hot to argue. Somehow the heat was the wrong type of heat. Maybe he meant humidity. Or maybe he just wanted to find a way to argue and complain about everything.

The wife had a disease. She would have taken everything if she could have. “Oh, that’s cute.” Everything was cute. Everything could be used or given to someone she knew. “How about that lamp?” The lamp was broken, held together with duct tape and an old metal yard stick. The woman would have taken anything. She couldn’t help herself.

What was the etiquette if someone broke something that was free? Did they have to take it? No one wanted it. But what were they supposed to do? Certainly not try and take another ten things, but leave the broken item, right? It didn’t seem right, but perhaps the rules were supposed to be discussed before things started. Or maybe that was why at estate sales they made you pay and then it was up to you to take it away. They didn’t want to risk someone attempted to wriggle out of a deal.

There had been a dumpster behind the Target where they were going to renovate an old field. Probably meant more condos were coming. But the project stalled and now truckers would park there when they needed to take a nap before hitting the road again. The dumpster was long gone. Too bad, it hadn’t been locked and was a great place to get rid of junk.

The ceiling fan suddenly worked again, but one of the outlets didn’t. How bad was the wiring? And what waited underneath the carpet on the other side of the wall where they had found the leak in the garage? One more problem.

A cabinet was gone. But two more remained. The shelf that matched had been taken the day before. A broken-up set meant nothing. But no one could afford to rent an actual moving truck. All they could do was take whatever would fit in their car or van or pick-up. It all had to go. It made no difference how.

The sun was finally starting to set and the wind had kicked up. The breeze was nice. It made the end of the day bearable. There were still a million things left. A million things to do. But those were tomorrow problems. It was good to see an empty room, even if the carpet was stained and ruined. One more future thing to worry about.