February 9, 2007

• February 2007 Topic 1 of 2

  dead bodies… it could be about insects, people, water… oh all sorts of things!!!!

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  This will be the first time I’ve attempted a group topic but here it goes.

  My experience is more of a horror movie moment then it is about a dead body, although there is a body involved.

  Our laundry room is in the deep dark bowels of our house, otherwise known as ‘the basement’. It’s never fun to go do laundry and even less so when one has to venture into a basement. A cold unfinished part of our house that holds all of the secret inner workings no one ever really wants to know about, but should to maintain a home.

  One Fall day I ventured down to do the laundry. A chore that has to be done if you aren’t the proud owner of Lady Godiva hair. Even then, in the fall, Northern Michigan isn’t a place were a hair coat is enough.

  As I approached the washing machine I noticed the large wash tub next to it was full of dirty water.

  How strange that seemed dirty water? The water should be clean. Perhaps I had forgot to clean the sink after washing off my last project. Of course it was easily dismissed, the tiny itch, voice, at the back of my brain telling me that it was odd, was easily ignored.

  It must be plugged by lint. I’ll just reach in and pull out the plug.

  Don’t do it! The itch, voice, at the back of my brain was louder now. We don’t need clothes that bad, it isn’t terribly cold outside.The kids will survive going bare a couple of more days. Wait until Ben gets home he’ll fix it.

  Again I ignored the growing voice in my head.

  Don’t be silly… It’s a simple matter of reaching in. It doesn’t matter if I can’t see my hand, I’ll know its there. I mean we’re in the basement of our own home there isn’t anything scary here. Even when the voice is screaming at me, I choose the practical route. That’s just who I am.

  So I pushed my sleeve up and proceeded to plunge my hand into the freezing cold water in search of the drain.

   There it is.

  Wow… that’s a really big wad of lint and it’s so squishy. It just feels really weird. As my hand approaches the top of the water I’m wondering what I could have possible washed that produced so much lint and why did it feel so… gross.

  Pulling my hand from the water, I bent towards the offending lump to see if I could tell what it was from. As it was falling apart in my hand, a little tail wrapped itself around the base of my thumb.

   Of course the practical part of me took over again. I did what had to be done. I screamed and dropped the disgusting, decaying body of the mouse I had just removed back into the tub of water.

  Real smart.

  I danced the creepy, crawly, icky, GET IT OFF OF ME jig. All of the time listening to the voice in my head laughing and saying “told you so.”

   I gathered myself together, went upstairs, got a plastic bag, gloves and windex. I fished the poor little guy out of the tub although I wasn’t feeling charitable enough to refer to him as that then. I put him in the bag and threw him in the garbage. I then proceeded to wipe down and clean the freshly drained, but by no means fresh washtub.

  I know he probably should have had a proper burial, but I just didn’t have it in me at that moment to feel kindness towards him.  I mean, how dare he die in my wash tub? So I suppose his little bones were picked clean at the dump and now I can feel a little guilty over it.

  But again, the voice in my head is saying ’Don’t worry about it’ and if there’s one thing this experience has taught me to do, it’s to listen to the voice in my head.

  Oh yeah, and let Ben take care of any more plugged drains.

  • 9:43 am
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