09 March, 2010

twinkle 2

Flishing, sparkling, flashing, twinkling. The dancing light drew her.

Stepping into the shed with a backward glance to make sure Tobe wasn't returning because he'd forgotten something again, Fleur stepped cautiously toward the light switch. Why Tobe had chosen to place it in such an awkward position was beyond her. To get to the light switch, one had to duck under a heavy pipe, climb a step onto a table and reach a full arm's length behind the heavy metal panel at about eye height, ignoring all the spiders potentially hidden in the small space and balancing precariously over the edge of a rail. If you fell, you would almost certainly break more than one bone, and that was excluding the neck.

The yellow lights flickered on and took their time warming up to a brighter white. Fleur stared around at the mess Tobe had left behind again. Everyday. Everyday, she would clean up after him and every morning when he returned, he wouldn't notice a thing. Tobe was a weird one. Whatever this great contraption that looked like a junk sculpture was meant to do was probably nothing to do with recycling junk.

Shrugging her shoulders up hard and then letting them relax with a sigh, Fleur began picking up discarded tools and replacing them in their long ago designated places. Greasy rags were folded and laid over a pipe in order and little bits and pieces that were scattered around on the oil-stained concrete were left in little plastic margarine containers with fading flowers smudged over with dirt and age.

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