A Little Devil in Georgia
Carter's
Weekend
The first bright rays
of sunlight began streaming through the bedroom window just as the alarm clock
jolted Carter Mayweather from his sleep.
He stretched and reached out to his wife's side of the bed not because
he wanted to feel her sleeping body but because he wanted to be sure that she
really was gone. He had looked forward
to this bachelor's weekend for some time and he wanted to make sure that it was
actually about to reach fruition. His
wife had gone off to visit her sister in Atlanta leaving Carter alone to do
anything that he wanted for two whole days.
Today he had a tee time at one of the more upscale golf courses for 10
a.m. and then lunch with his best friend and co-conspirator Randy Marvin. And to top everything off he had a dinner and
hopefully a sleepover with a woman he had met on-line. So Carter was feeling
very good as he climbed out of bed and made his way into the bathroom for his
morning routine.
Everything seemed
completely normal to him until he climbed out of the shower and started to
throw his used towel into the corner.
Then he noticed that was where yesterday's used towel also was. For some unknown reason, he felt compelled to pick up both towels and take them into
the laundry room. He started to drop
them into the hamper, which was now about half full but he could not release
those towels from his hands. Instead, he felt obliged to open the top of the
washer and put the towels in the drum.
And as long as he was doing that he might just as well add the clothes
from the hamper as well. He had never
done a load of wash in his life and something in the back of his brain told him
that he should not be trying to do something now that he had avoided for his
entire life. But no matter how hard he
tried he could not walk out of that room without completing the task. He studied the dials, having no idea what he
was looking for. Finally, he decided that his wife probably had things set the way
they should be so he added a capful of laundry detergent and then rotated the
dial to start. When nothing happened he
finally pushed and pulled on the knob and low and behold water started filling
the drum. He closed the lid and looked
around and finally was able to exit the room.
As he made his way
back into his bedroom he noticed that the bed was a mess from his restless
tossing the night before. He just could
not leave it that way. He felt compelled
to try and straighten out the sheets and covers. He had never done this task either and soon
found that it was not as easy as it looked.
His wife had always taken care of such mundane things so he struggled
with each corner trying to get them just right.
By now the sun had brightened the room completely and he figured that he
was running out of time to make the first tee.
Randy would be knocking at the door any minute and he had not even
started the coffee pot. Oh well, he
figured they could stop on their way to the course and pick up some
coffee.
He went to his closet
and pulled out his golfing outfit and carefully laid the clothes on the now
pristine made bed. He opened his top
drawer to get out underwear and socks but he noticed that nothing was in any
semblance of order and for some unknown reason his mind just could not stand
the sight of disorder. So he pulled everything out of the drawer and
laid it on the bed and began folding his underwear and socks and placing them
carefully back into the dresser.
Satisfied that everything seemed to be in the proper place, he pulled
out one pair of shorts and one pair of socks to wear for the day. He was now nearly dressed all that was left
was to put on his golf cleats and walk out the door.
He checked the clock
on the microwave and saw that he had a few minutes before Randy should arrive
so he figured he might as well check the refrigerator to see if there was
something that he could eat quickly. But
as he opened the door he found that the refrigerator was in total disarray. He felt compelled to straighten up the mess
and soon discovered that he had emptied the entire contents onto the counter
and was busy cleaning out dishes of semi-spoiled food. In just a short order he had a stack of dirty
dishes in the sink. Satisfied that all
that was left of the contents was good
food that was properly sealed, he started
to restock the fridge. But he just could
not bring himself to do that without at least cleaning the insides of the
fridge. He had no idea how that task was
supposed to be accomplished but he figured a fresh sponge and some dish detergent
would work so he opened the bottom cupboard under the sink to hunt for a
sponge. But of course, that meant that he had to organize that space as
well. He got down on his knees and began
pulling everything out and putting it on the kitchen floor. Just then he heard the loud knock at the door and he knew that Randy had arrived
and he was not going to be a happy camper.
Carter pulled the
door open and noticed the grimace on his friends face.
"What in hell
are you doing?" Randy asked.
"We are going to be late for our tee time."
"Sorry, I guess I got carried away with some
things in the house. Come on in while I
just straighten up a little and we can get going."
Randy stepped into
the house and took one look around and something strange came over him. Everywhere he looked things were in disarray
and for some reason that bothered him immensely. "Here, let me give you a hand. With the two of us working together we should
be able to put this place right in a jiffy.
And while Carter went back to organizing the cupboard, Randy began
swabbing out the refrigerator. With the
two of them working side by side soon the kitchen was put back into some
semblance of order.
"Now where are you mop?" Randy asked. "We can't leave the floor this
way."
15 minutes later they
were ready to walk out the door.
"My clubs are in the garage,"
Carter announced. "We might just as
well go out that way." Then he
opened the connecting door and stepped out into the garage to get his clubs.
"It is a good
thing I brought my truck," Randy announced. "Look at all the junk in here. We can make a dump run on the way." And the two of them started to organize
everything into piles. Neither of them
noticed the time until both of them realized that they were quite hungry. "Oh shit, we missed our tee time,"
Randy announced.
"I have no idea
what came over us," Carter said.
"For some reason, I just have
a compulsion for cleaning today. And the
bug must have struck you as well."
"Well, we are
almost done in the garage, why don't I back the truck up so we can put a load
on. We can catch some fast food on the
way to the dump. With that, Randy walked out of the garage and got
into his truck. He was shaking his head
in an attempt to clear it as he began backing towards the garage door. He got out of the cab and stepped towards his
friend's garage when his mind became very clear and he realized just what had
gone on. "Shit, we wasted the whole
god damned morning." He
declared. "Come on, let's get the
hell out of here."
"What about the
dump run?" Carter asked.
"To hell with a
dump run, this is Saturday. We should
have been playing golf not fucking around in your garage. Come on."
"I can't leave
the place in this disarray." Carter
declared.
"Well, I am not
going to spend any more of my weekend on this project." And with that Randy got back in his truck and
began driving away.
"I guess I will
just have to rent a truck to haul this stuff away. He checked his pockets to make sure he had
his car keys and wallet and walked out of the garage, pushing the button for
the door to close behind him. As he
walked towards his car, his head began to clear. The further he walked away from the house,
the more clarity he gained. And by the
time he had got into his car and started the ignition he no longer felt
compelled to clean.
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