Thursday, April 19, 2007

Entry #1

College
by Paul Liadis


“Do the dishes yet?” said Gavin.

“I told you I’d get to it,” said Samuel. “Get off my back. I’ve got a Calc final Thursday and a Chemistry paper due Friday. Besides, those dishes aren’t even mine.”

“I know,” said Gavin. “I’ve seen your cup. Wouldn’t hurt you to wash it every once in a while.”

“I rinse it,” said Samuel.

“You pledges need to know your place,” said Gavin, ignoring the freshman. “My mom’s visiting this weekend.”

“She’s visiting me this weekend,” said Samuel under his breath.

“What’s that?” said Gavin stepping forward.

“Nothing,” said Samuel. “I’ll do it.”

“Good,” said Gavin, tossing a half-eaten plate of nachos into the mess. “I better see a clean sink soon.”

That Friday, following dinner at the Olive Garden, Gavin escorted his mother around the house, visiting the kitchen first.

Little punk’s lucky, Gavin thought. The sink looks better than when we moved in. He’ll have to do the dishes every week.

“Let’s see your room,” said Gavin’s mother motioning upstairs. “You must be hiding those textbooks someplace.”

“Sure,” answered Gavin. He had made sure to prepare his room for such a drop in.

Opening the door, nudging his mother inside, Gavin’s jaw dropped. Strewn across his bed was every single dish from the sink, filthy as ever. Spread prominently on the floor was his secret stash of magazines, open to the most revealing pages.

Placed neatly on his pillow was a note from Samuel which read, “I quit. Find another maid.”

15 comments:

Bernita said...

~laughing~
Oh, TILT!

Jaye Wells said...

Love it!

kcterrilynn said...

ha!! I've dreamed of doing pretty much the same thing, but of course, never did.

Beth said...

This so reminds me of a true story involving my mother. Only the punch line was her taking a crap in a foster parents bedroom right before she said good-bye.

Funny.

Sam said...

That is great - typical college students - wonderful!!

Anonymous said...

Payback time! I enjoyed this.

Joni said...

Humorous with realistic dialogue. Very nice. A neat package.

Unknown said...

Gavin deserved it. Very funny. Well done.

Jude said...

Nice one. Loved it.

Scott said...

Mine isn't posted yet, but I swear I didn't read this until now. The photo also reminded me of a frat house.

Right on!

Bev said...

wow, somehow you tapped into my daughter's brain! She had a roommate in college that would never pick up anything. One day when she had taken all she could she spent the whole day cleaning up the room and putting everything that wasn't hers in her roommate's bed.....it was great, and so is this!

Fence said...

Nice!
Love the ending

Anonymous said...

Thanks everyone for the compliments. I'm glad I was able to make you smile.

Esther Avila said...

:) very cute. loved it.

Good work building up to the climax - and what a great ending it was. You can't help but cheer for Samuel.

Way to go, Samuel!
And way to go, Paul.

Anonymous said...

Nice sense pacing, which isn't easy in a short piece. I like Samuel's style. Would've liked to have left a job like that once (without the mags)!

High marks for pacing and storytelling.