Laundry Lizard

‘Hey Harry, how’s it going?’

‘Hey trouble…’ Harry rushed past her with one of the shops yellow baskets full of wet clothes to put in the drier. It was Tia’s laundry day and she had lugged her gym bag of that week’s clothes in as usual, getting in early before it got too busy.

‘Didn’t think I’d see you this week.’ He said with his head and hands in the dryer. He moved quickly as he had to get the service washes out of the way so there was space for non-service wash customers and the clothes were ready for pick up at the agreed time.

‘You won’t see me next week.’ She responded. She went down to her parents at least once a month, sometimes less often. When she went to visit, she took all her washing with her.

‘Where’s your dad?’ she asked him.

‘He’s in later. He can’t manage the early shifts anymore, he’s trying to slow down you know.’

Harry and his father owned and ran the laundromat. Both of them were pleasant and she was always able to have good conversations with them even when it was busy, they were friendly to all their customers. Tia always felt they were like hair dressers or bartenders because of the way they conversed with ease. Was it because people were with such personal items that it felt intimate? Your sheets, your towels, underwear; it was like living with someone, almost.

‘Yeah but does he realise it gets busier in the later shift?’

Harry smiled at her, someone asked him for some change and he dipped into his apron and counted out pound coins and twenty pence pieces. When he was done he looked at Tia,

‘He likes this place, it’s just that it’s getting harder for him to be up and about so early, he doesn’t mind the rush…’

‘But you do?’ she smirked.

‘Yes the difficult customers make it harder don’t they, trouble?’ He walked past her again to go into the back room to sort out supplies.

‘Which machine should I use?’ she shouted,

‘Number one and five are free…’ the voice came from the open door that lead to the dark back of house room.

She picked up a yellow basket and turned out the contents of the gym bag into it. She started to separate colours into another basket. There were some weeks where she didn’t have enough whites to make up a full load so she didn’t wash her whites. This actually affected the way she dressed because if she hadn’t worn a lot of white/light coloured clothes in the run up to laundry day, she would probably give a white outfit a miss as it won’t get washed any time soon unless she was going home that week. Having loaded up the two machines with the different colours, she stuffed her empty gym bag under one of the seats; she would need it to take home her clean clothes. Her detergent and softener were put in the plastic bag they came in and she headed out to run her other errands. She’ll leave them in the car while she did her shopping, there was no point waiting the hour just watching the clothes spin. This was her routine, drop off clothes, do the shopping, load up the drier, take shopping home, come back for clothes. Tia lived in a small flat so there was no room for a washer.

‘I can’t wait to get a bigger place so I can have my own machine…’ she said to Harry,

‘Then I won’t see you as much would I?’ Harry was bit of a flirt.

‘Oh I’d still come, it’s just that I would be able to wash the odd thing instead of waiting for enough clothes to pile up.’

‘Half loads… that’s actually a thought you know.’

‘You’re missing a trick there Harry, there’s loads of single folk like me out there that could do with that…’

She often watched when other people came in to see what they were washing. Some people stuffed everything into one machine; maybe they separated their colours at home. Sometimes, she thought of having a laundry exchange, if someone didn’t have enough of one colour, they could add theirs to hers and vice versa, that would certainly sort out her not enough white’s problem. But how weird would that come across.

‘Hey, how’s about I chuck this on with yours, there’s plenty space in there…’ no, it was definitely too weird.

‘Can you give me a hand?’ one of the punters had tapped her on the shoulder and asked for help folding the sheets. She often did this with the other customers and didn’t mind at all. It’s not like she was a lonely old woman but she did like the interaction with others. Tia sat on one of the benches in front of the dryer and checked her messages. The heat from it burned though her jumper and she moved slightly forward. During the winters, she welcomed the free source of heat but it was a little uncomfortable when it wasn’t freezing outside. She noticed the tail end of a message.

‘Tuesday for two nights…’

What was that about she wondered? It was Cece, her former work colleague who she had remained friends with. She was such a loose cannon and needed monitoring closely when she was being engaged. What did Cece want now?

‘Hey sweetie…’ she used lots of emoji’s in her messages, they were all full of kissy faces, smiley faces, and sometimes, crying faces when the occasion arose which it often did. She also sent lots of messages instead of saying everything in one go, consequently, when Tia got a message from her, there were always more than 7 unread ones.

‘The landlord is fixing the floors…’ followed by ‘I need to be out for a couple of days…’

What was that emoji? Tia couldn’t always make out what Cece meant, she was so random. From the time stamps on her messages, it was obvious she was doing other things at the same time too so it’s no surprise when she sends the wrong message to the wrong person.

‘I need somewhere to stay…’

‘Tuesday for two nights…’ this is where Tia had caught up.

‘Thanks hun…’ loads of kissy smiley faces.

Sigh! It’s not that she minded Cece’s company, she looked forward to it but she needed a lot of energy to manage Cece. It wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t going home that week and needed energy of a different kind, all from the same source, she’d be exhausted after all of this.

‘Boyfriend trouble?’ Harry whizzed by her. Her frustration must have been written all over her face. She looked up at him and thought she’d teach him a lesson for being such a cheeky sod.

‘Not at all, I have a friend coming to stay over for a few days.’

‘Is she fit?’

‘Very much so…’

‘Single?’

‘Yep.’

Harry thought for a while. ‘What’s wrong with her then, fit bird who’s single? She’s bonkers isn’t she?’

Tia was going to respond immediately but didn’t want to seem too eager.

‘nah. She’s just broken up with her boyfriend, that’s why she’s spending some time with me,’ she opened the dryer and started taking out her clothes, ‘he was much older so they didn’t really click…’ where was she getting all this from? ‘I’ll probably just take her with me to my parents, she could do with some home care…’ she could see Harry from the corner of her eyes; he was buying it.

‘Don’t be so hasty… bring her round…’

‘To do laundry?’ Tia interrupted him.

‘If she wants, she can do as much laundry as she wants… am the laundry man…you know…’ he winked at her.

‘I walked right into that one didn’t I?’

‘Trouble!’

She’ll bring her here Tia thought, Harry was good fun, Tia was sure he would get on brilliantly with Cece, she would like his energy. She felt a slight twinge of guilt as she looked over at Harry, he was chatting up one of his older customers who came in for a service washed but stayed. He was so good with her. Harry can more than take care of himself, she decided, including dealing with Cece’s crazy side. Her clothes were all dry so she loaded up her bag and headed out.

‘See you later Harry.’ She said to him as she walked past,

‘Don’t forget to bring your friend in next time.’

‘Oh I will…’ she grinned.

She would bring her here. Knowing Cece, she’ll come with a pile of unnecessary things she didn’t need for a two day stay and this would include a lot of clothes, most of which will need washing.

‘Look on the bright side.’ Tia ought to herself, ‘I can wear whatever I want this week. Cool.’