Kitchen Appliances

There was a trail of blood along the floor. It was the first thing she noticed when she opened to door into her home. The blood was crusty and brown. Who knew how long it had been dry. Susan stared at the disgusting path and felt a large lump begin to form, high in the back of her throat. She had been standing in the doorway, hand on the doorknob for an undisclosed amount of time. She let go of the brass knob. Then took a hair tie from around her wrist, and pulled back her long, brown hair.

That's when the smell hit. Susan's eyes began stinging before her nose recognized the scent. The walls seemed to pulsate with the scent of decaying flesh. Susan resisted the urge to gag. She stepped inside, careful of where she lay her feet. Against most's reasonable instincts, Susan began to follow the flaking path. She walked at a slow, cautious pace, as the trail lead her through her living room and on to her dining area. In this room the line of the blood grew wider, and the substance itself, thicker.

Further forward and the brown began to take on a stew-like texture, thick with cubes hovering in it. Susan moved onward into the kitchen, it was now nearly impossible to walk around the dried-up stream. She tiptoed across to clean areas of the floor when she had to, wanting to make as little contact with her shoes and the dark brown mess. Susan met the end of the trail at her refrigerator. The color took a vertical right angle up the refrigerator from the floor and ended at the base of the freezer door, sitting atop the refrigerator. Susan opened the freezer door, pushed a few bags of frozen vegetables aside and grabbed a bag of fish sticks. She closed the door again, made certain that it had closed all the way and headed towards the oven. Next to the oven was a dishwasher with clean dishes, she reached inside the dishwasher and pulled out a large baking pan. Susan spread several fish sticks on the pan and slid it inside the oven. She turned the oven’s temperature dial to four hundred twenty five degrees and set a timer for ten minutes. She then began emptying her dishwasher. Putting away the cups, bowls, plates, spoons, forks, knives. Susan absent-mindedly looked up at the ceiling and thought, wow, the tv commercial was right, I really didn't have to rinse my dishes before I washed them.

Inspired by my true story.... a sticker of tweety bird and a trip to Sears.