Sybil Bruncheon's "Aren't People Fascinating?... Muriel Desatnick..."

Muriel had always taken care of her entire family even as a child. At six, her domineering mother taught her how to do the laundry, wash the dishes, polish the silver, and to scrub the floors ("Don't forget the baseboards, Muriel!… THE DAMN BASEBOARDS!!")...

When her friends were out playing after school, Muriel was just starting some housekeeping project or another, then cooking and serving dinner, and then to bed to finish her homework before falling asleep in her pillows and school books. Week after week, semester after semester, year after year, the grades slipped through her rough, red, dish-water hands and wrinkled fingers...

Time passed, and first her grandparents, and then each of her parents passed away as well... until finally, she was alone. Blessédly alone.

At 58 years of age, she had spent nearly her entire life taking care of her family's needs like a maid, a common maid. Was it any surprise, once the last funeral had been arranged and attended, that Muriel's first solitary night in the house was a restful one? The guests for the wake had left, the dishes were in the sink, the leftovers were on the counters, glasses and cups on the side tables... Muriel looked around and breathed a sigh of relief. A sigh of relief that had decades of baggage and heft behind it, and deep, deep subtext running through it. Her sigh contained a level of release and gratitude that few people would ever experience... or even imagine. And then, slowly and almost imperceptibly, these years too began to slide by... but this time, with a simple quiet joy, too quiet and simple for other folks to notice or understand, but rich and lovely enough for Muriel. Colored, and vivid, and flavorful for Muriel. Each moment a celebration of peace and fulfillment and... well... life!

And NO, to answer your question, she never, ever cleaned a single thing again in her long, long, long life. Not a single thing.

[Want to read other stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]