The Night before Monday

Paige had put off the things she needed to do. She knew that everything was going to be fine the next day but she had to do her laundry. That was her goal for the day even though again she didn’t want to carve out the time to do it and sit there.

She bundled her things up and walked to the basement of the building. The old light flickering in the distance always made her feel slightly uneasy but she knew she had too.

She then placed everything right in the washer knowing that she should do two loads but there was no way she was feeding this machine which happened to be the only one that would actually work most of the time, that many quarters. She opened the lids and then placed everything where it needed to be. Then closed it and shoved the quarters int eh slots to start the machine. It would be about forty minutes and she had this done to a science. The machine was locked for the moment. No one could open it.

She walked back upstairs to her apartment and she looked at the clock and then set her timer on her phone. She knew if she was there before the time she could get her things out of the machine and into a dryer. That was when she would have to stay and watch her clothes int eh machine as it went round and round and she hoped that everything would dry with one time because the load was larger than most.

This was two weeks worth of clothes for her. She knew that it wasn’t the best and she would do it more often if she could but she hated this part of everything. This place was not made for single small women. Thoguh she also knew that she was safe within the walls. Nothing had even happened there.

When the timer went off she got up and then went down to the basement to change over the load. Her eyes had become sleepy and she really didn’t want to have to wait in the darken slightly musty old room.  It was not the best idea for her to do so.

She had that sixth sense that something was going to happen. She knew fate. She hated fate as it never seemed to work out well for her. She didn’t like it. As she struggled to keep her eyes open as she moved her wet clothes to the dryer which she would need to dry for at least forty minutes or a little longer. She smiled at the older woman who also walked in. There was no threat there.

“You look so tired my dear.” The older woman who Paige though lived on the floor above her. “You need to get some rest.”

“I am trying to this weekend.” Paige said softly.

“They are working you to hard at that company.” The older woman chuckled. “Go up and lie down. I will watch your things for you. Just come down before your time is up. No one wants an old woman’s things. But I will be going up when I switch them over to the dryer.”

“Thank you ma’am.” Paige said as she smiled at the older woman. At least she had heard of the others who had things missing from the loads of laundry as well. It wasn;t just Paige.

She walked back up to the apartment and set another alarm in the timer. As she laid down on the couch she felt the pull on her eyelids. Soon enough she was fast asleep. She knew that she had to wake up when her phone made noise.

Though she nearly jumped when she heard something. She looked at the time and she had over slept. She got up dragging herself tot eh basement where she loaded her laundry into the bag. She thought it seemed a bit lighter than it should be but she had no one to blame but herself this time.

As she went upstairs she placed the bag down and would go through it in the morning. Most of her clothes wouldn’t wrinkle so she knew she was good for a bit. She walked back to the back bedroom and fell on the bed.

Asleep in no time she knew the next day was the beginning of her new job. A new life.