Page 64 of Collin: Episodes 7-9
Collin shook himself. Now was not the time. He plastered on a brave smile and took keys out of his pocket. “Mom won’t be home till six, but Alice should be back soon. Come on in.”
Inside was dark. Collin flipped on the lights to the front room. No one had dusted or vacuumed in ages. Without him and Alice around, the place had really been let go. Collin let his bag slide off his shoulders.
“Well, I should get to work.” He turned to his dom. “Can I get you anything to drink, sir?”
Mr. Reevesworth studied the room. “You didn’t say anything about work on the way here.”
“Oh.” Collin lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Just some cleanup, you know. Normal house stuff.”
Mr. Reevesworth pressed his lips together. “You’re still recovering, Collin. Cleaning up dust is the last thing you need to be doing for your lungs.”
“It’s…” Collin’s shoulders slumped. “I could wrap a scarf around my face.”
Mr. Reevesworth’s lips thinned. “If you insist that this is customary, then we’ll go back out, get a proper set of masks, and clean. Do you think there’s anything else we’ll need?”
“I should check. Mom doesn’t always get the shopping done.”
“If it’s been a long time since the cleaning tools were used, some of them may need replacing. Does she have a canister vacuum or a bag vacuum?”
“Canister. Alice won that argument.”
He had to remind himself to not take off his shoes as he moved deeper into the house. A check on the cabinets and refrigerator proved that Dr. Ryker was probably living off of takeout. He tossed half a dozen take-out boxes and some unidentifiable produce, then started checking the dates on bottles. There were two open things of milk: ne was fresh. One was green and black. He went through the cabinets and jotted down a list on the paper pad on the counter: coffee, coffee filters, cereal, breakfast food, kitchen trash sacks.
Just in case, he checked the laundry room. They were out of detergent. Not cleaners though. Those looked like the same bottles he’d bought last time. He ducked back into the kitchen. Mr. Reevesworth was standing there, hands in his pockets.
“I’m just going to check the back, sir.”
Mr. Reevesworth nodded.
Collin ducked into the first bathroom. There was enough money in his account to buy a new shower curtain and there was no way he was getting the mold off of the one that was there. He’d get a new bath mat, too. Looked like they were doing a full run.
He jogged downstairs to the basement and checked the second bathroom. Same thing, but less dirty. More dust.
Seriously, he needed to make it home more often. He should have made time before the semester started. Gut tight, he opened the back door and checked the yard. Completely overgrown. Not that there was much grass. The place looked abandoned.
Collin sighed and shut the door. Dragging his feet, he moved back through the house and opened the doors to the downstairs bedroom. At least the primary bedroom looked somewhat clean. He ran up to the converted attic. His and his sister’s bedroom was one large space with a flimsy divider in the middle. The attic space was supposed to have been renovated into two separate bedrooms and a bathroom, but again…that hadn’t happened.
Sometimes things got trapped in time.
The area needed a good sweep and clean, and the beds certainly needed refreshing. He could smell the dust. Now that he was looking at the space, there was no way he could ask Mr. Reevesworth to sleep twenty feet away from Alice with only a sheet hanging between them. A sheet that was see-through, now that he took a second look at it. Had they replaced it since they put it up all those years ago? Probably not.
Funny how the solution his dad had said was “just for a few months” back when he was a preteen was still in place now that he was in his twenties.
Feeling the weight of hours of work ahead, Collin tramped back down the stairs. Mr. Reevesworth was standing in the middle of the living room, looking at his phone. He put it away as Collin approached.
“Do you think the security guys would mind a shopping trip?”
Mr. Reevesworth’s brow creased in the middle. “Mind? They’re here to follow us.”
“I mean…yeah, you’re right. Well, actually, I was really asking…do you mind? This isn’t something you usually do because, well, you have more important things to do.”
“I have specialized things to do, Collin. Not necessarily more important things. Cleaning is essential. And I’m not shopping. I’m being with you. So if what you need right now is a shopping trip to do cleaning, then I, and the security guys, will do that.”
Collin dropped his gaze. “Yes, sir.” His stomach still squirmed. He should have thought of this, should have said something, maybe arranged to come out on his own a day ahead and cleaned up, something…
The store was large, and the lights were annoying. Collin kept his head down and moved by rote through the aisles, grabbing the cheapest brands and running the total in his head. It was nice to know he could pay for everything this time. In the drinks aisle, he grabbed Alice’s favorite soda and his preferred sparkling water. Before he would have bought hers and not his. And instead of trying to convince himself he could bleach the bath mat clean, he chose a new one and picked up the matching shower curtain. The hall closet had been running low, so he stocked up on toilet paper and paper towels while he was at it.
Mr. Reevesworth dropped a box of cleaning gloves into the cart without a word and then returned to his phone. “Do you think your mother would be offended if I took you all out to eat tonight? Or if you took us all out to eat tonight?”
