Laundry Day

A lesson in life and laundry

Sam’s place was too small for a washing machine.

A studio above a kebab shop in East London… she had needed to use the local laundromat each week since she moved in.

It was a quirky little place. Eight washing machines lined the left wall, while six larger drying machines lined the right wall. There were a few mustard-colored vinyl chairs in the middle of the room.

From the ceiling hung Tibetan prayer flags and on the counter, there was every South Asian deity you could think of.

It felt like someone was either hedging their bets on who was the real God, or just going for a particular “look and feel” of the place.

**They really need some fresh paint in here, this is pretty grim** thought Sam.

The laundromat was empty, save for the proprietor, who sat behind the counter watching a small TV. It sounded like the cricket was on.

Sam sat on one of the mustard chairs, basket on the floor, and just stared at one of the empty machines.

She thought about how lonely it had been, moving to London. It really wasn’t supposed to be like this, at university everyone was so joyful and optimistic. Then the financial crisis hit, and pretty much every firm cut its 2009 graduate intake. No one had found a job except Sam.

**Lonely in luck** she thought.

It was about 10 minutes or so of just staring before she saw it. Something flashed inside the washing machine. It was quick but definitely there.

It happened again although this time it was much brighter. It looked like a star shooting across the dark circle door.

**How curious…** thought Sam as she slowly descended from the mustard chair onto the floor. Her eyes squinted as she crawled closer.

There was definitely something unusual happening inside this washing machine.

The dark shadows and shooting lights behind the door were now a light yellow. Sam opened the door and stuck her head in.

Inside was a vast desert of yellow sand.

Sam was a little confused, where was she? She turned her head around but couldn’t see her body or the laundromat behind her. Was she….stuck?

**How embarrassing!**

She thought about her body stuck there in the middle of the laundromat. On her knees with her head in a washing machine! What if someone came in?

“I’m dying. Honestly, Jerry, if I can’t get a drink in the next few hours I’m going to die, it’ll be the end of me.”

Sam’s head shot upright. **What was that?**

She had been so caught up in the surprise of her head arriving in the desert she hadn’t noticed the two cactuses in front of her.

They were most peculiar. The first was short and was wearing a waistcoat and a tie, and the second was tall and had a floral shirt and a cowboy hat on. And… and… they were talking to each other.

“Would you shut up! Listening to you whinge isn’t going to change anything.”

“Well, what then? What can we talk about?”

“Anything! I don’t care just stop complaining about the lack of rain! You’re a cactus! Be grateful you’re not something else!”

“I have this awful rash on my lower back. It’s itching like crazy. I need some cream or something.”

“Not that, try again.”

“She left me you know. Took the kids. Said I wasn’t mature enough, needed to grow up”

“I’m sorry.”

“About the rash?”

“About the kids.”

“Ah yeah. I think it hurts the most because deep down when she calls you pathetic, you know she’s kind of right.”

“At least she didn’t call you a prick.”

Tony burst out laughing. “Haha, I love it, because I’m a cactus! Honestly, Jerry, you should be a dad with those jokes, if I had jokes like yours I reckon they wouldn’t have left.”

“Who knows, not worth speculating now.”

“Yeah I know, will just need to try harder tomorrow. If there is a tomorrow…honestly, if I can’t get a drink soon it’s over anyway.”

Jerry looked down at the sand, he didn’t want to admit it, but Tony was right. If they didn’t get a drink soon they were done for.

Then the sky let out an enormous crack. The boom of thunder. The rain started pouring, but, but a few meters away. It wasn’t in front of us, it was to the side.

“It’s not us,” said Jerry.

“For a moment I thought maybe…”

“I know, but it’s not.”

The water soaked the sand to the left of us, but not a drop fell or seeped anywhere near Tony and Jerry.

The two cactuses both looked so defeated. Like life had really beat them down.

Sam fell back into the laundry. The proprietor had yanked her back into the middle of the room.

There was an old lady who had started a rinse in the machine next to Sam. Both the owner and the old lady were staring at her with confused looks.

Sam’s eyes were wide open. She slowly loaded her whites into the machine in front of her and slotted in two one-pound coins.

She pressed the longest cycle setting the machine had and flopped down cross-legged on the floor.

She stared at the machine and smiled.

**Drink up lads** she thought to herself.