Spring Cleaning

by Allison Brown

started up, just as cautiously. The steps were awfully creaky, and she hoped the salesman couldn’t hear it. She reached the top, finally, and stopped to rest.

  She needed a nap, she decided. The house needed to be dusted. She could tell because the railing all the way up the stairs was covered, and now it was on her hand. But she was tired, exhausted really. What had she done to tire herself out so? She couldn’t remember, but she was so tired. She walked into her bedroom, sat down on the bed, and then laid down carefully. There was still pounding on the door, over and over, and she could hear distant shouting. “Go away,” she murmured tiredly. She looked down her body, clad in a pink house coat, at her bare feet, and wondered where her slippers were.