Cleaning

Flash Fiction

Cleaning

I looked around the room, and saw my own youth. This time, thanks to my mom, I’ll do it right.

Suddenly I could see my mother’s point of view. All my years back then, we’d gotten into major arguments. She kept the entire house clean. I had just one room, but it looked like the city dump.

But I was comfortable! Or was I? I spent lots of time searching for things I knew I had, but didn’t know where I put them. In my defense, I always found things, but on some occasions not in time to use them, or worse, found damaged and now unusable.

Well, I wanted to be thought of as a young woman, not a messy child. The only way to get my mother on my side would be to actually clean my room, and then, keep it clean. Simple, right?

It took me almost a week to get close to the cleanliness the rest of our house had every day, thanks to Mom. In my defense, many things I hadn’t touched for years! I actually had baby toys from when I was the baby! (I kept some too, but just my favorites.)

My mother was shocked when I was done! And I loved it enough to keep it clean every day after that. And not so I wouldn’t get yelled at either, but because I loved it that way now.

All this came to mind as I stood in the doorway of my daughter’s room. I couldn’t go in without stepping on clothes and toys, many things. But I didn’t yell, I did what my mother did for me. I told her to clean her room, knowing that one day she really would. After all, she takes after her mother, just like I did.