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The way I had it planned in my head, this would be the easy part. This is what I had been waiting for: boxing up worthless knick-knacks, pulling cheap decorations from the walls, emptying dusty closets and driving it all to Goodwill.
The way I had it planned in my head, this would be where I start being happy. This would be the part where I finally felt free.
“What do you want to do with this?” My husband, he’s holding a bulky photo album as though it was a wounded animal.
“Throw it,” I said.
“But, maybe there’s some pictures here you’ll want to keep… from when you were little.” He lifted the cover and peeked inside.
“Throw it.”
“There might be something with sentimental value.”
The way I had it planned in my head, nothing would have sentimental value.
Nothing would be worth keeping.
There would be junk, destined for a landfill.
There would be charitable donations.
There would be stinking piles of worthless objects for anyone to claim if they wanted to.
There wouldn’t be anything of value to me.
“You look really cute in this one.” Now he’s holding an old photo he’s extracted from the album. I’m looking at me — a smaller me who suffers nightmares and bruises.
“Who’s that guy holding you? Is that your dad?”
“No,” I say, “I don’t know who that is. I don’t remember. It got hard to keep track of them.”
“Your mom looks different.”
“That was the pre-cirrhosis era.”
“You sure you don’t want to keep something?”
“Throw it,” I said, handing him the photo.
“She was still your mother.”
“She stopped being my mother a long time ago.”
The way I had it planned in my head, there would be no tears.
Rasmenia Massoud‘s work has appeared in, or is forthcoming in The Legendary, Big Pulp, The Shine Journal and Eclectic Flash. She is from Colorado but now lives in France where she spends her time speaking French poorly and writing about what frightens and baffles her the most: human beings. You can visit her at: http://www.rasmenia.com.
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17 Responses to “HOUSE CLEANING • by Rasmenia Massoud”
Comments
« HOW THE SNAKE GOT THE FORK IN HIS TONGUE • by KJ Kabza | Home | LEVEL UP • by Robert Edward Sullivan »
October 14th, 2010 at 2:21 am
Yeah, that’s the way I have it planned, too. *****
October 14th, 2010 at 3:17 am
Very compelling piece of flash.
October 14th, 2010 at 5:22 am
Compelling. Excellent word for this story. A lot of emotion in not many words. Very well written. *****
October 14th, 2010 at 6:36 am
Less than 300 words, yet the author told us the entire life story of her protagonist. Gripping and powerful, this is, to me, what flash is all about. Once again I wish I had more than 5 stars to give.
October 14th, 2010 at 7:15 am
5 stars from me too! This evocative short work takes the reader right to the experience of growing up in this context. A beautiful, powerful piece of writing.
October 14th, 2010 at 9:17 am
Five stars
Lotsa Questions raised by this piece.
I like the Illusion ..the unanswered
Questions. The childhood,,the parade of “Fathers”
The drinking, the collecting.
The letting it all go….Throw it away.
Dump it out…..Let me live !!!Finally.
Great job Rasmenia !!!
October 14th, 2010 at 9:37 am
This is really well written and true to life. Nothing goes as planned, even th eplans we’ve had oure entire life and we love who we love no matter what they mad to us. Fantastic!
October 14th, 2010 at 9:50 am
“The way I had it planned in my head, there would be no tears.” You were wrong – I’m still sniffling.
Excellent portrait of a woman’s pain, resentment and anger and her determination not to express those feelings with tears.
Five wet hankies from me!
October 14th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Not a comfortable read. But life is not always comfortable and this is a raw slice of a painful life. The emotional conflict of disposing of memories – disposing of a life – is very fresh for me, too. Wonderfully observed. Excellent flash.
October 14th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Great piece. Went from mundane to shocking without missing a beat — this will stay with me for a while.
October 14th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Powerful, compelling and way to apt to my life.
October 15th, 2010 at 7:11 am
In no way a criticism and it doesn’t need any improvement, but I can’t help wondering, ‘Why now?’. What finally prompted this change of heart and gave her the determination to dispose of her past baggage?
October 15th, 2010 at 7:14 am
Rose, I took it to mean that her mom had finally passed away from her liver disease and they were cleaning out her mother’s house.
October 15th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Loved this. Did exactly what it needed to do, not a word wasted, not a spare word. Very nice, and a super-rare 5 stars from me.
October 16th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Nice story, though the the shifts in tense jarred me a bit. I would’ve stuck to present tense.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
The emotional punch of this is overwhelming. Excellent flash. *****+
October 20th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Emotional and understated, and totally well done! Excellent.