“I cleaned out half the closet for you.” Doris gave him a sheepish grin and looked down at the floor for a moment. “Well, I was hopeful. I may have done that about six weeks ago.”
Lars laughed. “I was hopeful, too.” He wrapped her in his arms and breathed in her vanilla scent. The scent of home, now. “Moving into together is pretty terrifying. But as long as we talk through our issues, we’ll be okay.”
“Oh, I’m sure one of us will load the dishwasher the wrong way.” She squeezed his arms, then tugged them loose so she could turn. “Want me to help you unpack?”
“A better idea than setting up an ironing board.” It was as if clothes knew he was moving and took the opportunity to complain. Ties escaped to unexpected boxes, socks scarpered, suits embedded permanent wrinkles in awkward places…well, it would be worth it. His grandmother had given Doris the stamp of approval, and that’s all he needed.
She pulled away and headed for the closet. “I needed the time to get used to being condensed, too. Oh, and you won’t need to worry about ironing your suits.”
Lars followed her toward the walk-in. “Really, I don’t have that – that – that much…”
The light Doris had turned on emitted a pale blue, sparkling glow that danced over the thick carpet. Rather than a cord, a tail dangled from the ceiling. Blue, of course, and scaled, and not nearly as small or skinny as one might expect from a mythical creature emulating a lightning bug inside a closet.
“That,” he managed. Again. “That is a fancy light you have. Did this room used to be a nursery?”
Yes. A toy explained everything. Although moving in together was a step too soon for children in his mind, but maybe someday, in a few years. Perhaps he could have Doris move the fanciful lightpull to another room.
“It’s just Percy,” she explained. “He’ll take care of all the ironing. But we’ll keep the door shut at night, okay?”
***
A quick snippet this week, from nother Mike at MOTE. My prompt to explore the cow fortress went to Cedar Sanderson.
