Delight in Flushing Toilets
Mindy tossed the ballots into the trash can and pulled a paper from her clipboard. “Here’s the list of things that need to be done each day before inspection. I have to go to the counselor meeting now, but since Victoria’s an experienced camper, I know I’m leaving you in great hands. I’ll be back before we have to leave for our first elective. Ta-ta!” She smiled a megawatt smile and then was gone.
We stared at Victoria as she looked over the list. “I think the best thing to do is to assign everyone a chore.”
That actually sounded fair—I was surprised. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad with her in charge. She glanced around the cabin and then down at the list in her hand one more time.
“First, everyone needs to make their beds. While you all do that, I’ll write names next to chores.” She turned to Anna. “Will you pretty please make my bed while I work on this chore chart?”
She nodded.
“Sorry you didn’t win,” Pogo said to me as she climbed the ladder to her top bunk.
“Yeah, me too. Thanks for voting for me though.”
I tidied my sleeping bag and fluffed up my pillow. Since it was only the first real day at camp, my luggage was still nice and orderly. I didn’t have to do much with my clothes.
Pogo landed on the floor with a thud from the top bunk. “Where’s Victoria?”
I turned around. “I don’t know. She was here a minute ago.”
Anna walked up. “Victoria finished the list and went to take a shower.”
“Oh?” Pogo said. “Did she work up a sweat with all the writing?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind,” Pogo said. “Where’s the list?”
Anna pointed to the wall near the bathroom door.
“Good grief,” I muttered.
Victoria had posted the chore list to the wall using tape covered with unicorns and hearts.
–Empty trash can: Anna
–Vacuum floor: Marcie
–Clean mirrors: Charlotte
–Pick up outside trash: Ruth
–Sweep front porch: Leslie
–Scrub toilets: Paulie and Chloe
“I say we impeach her,” I said.
“I bet this is just for today. We’ll probably have a different chore tomorrow,” Pogo said.
“We’d better—’cause I’m not cleaning bathrooms for two weeks.” I looked at the list again. “Where’s her name on this anyway?”
Anna looked uncertain. “She said her job is to make sure everyone else does their job.”
I stared at her, grinding my teeth together. “Isn’t…that…nice.”
Pogo pulled me toward the bathroom door. “C’mon. We can’t leave for the elective until we get this done.”
Billows of steam assaulted us when we walked through the bathroom door. “How are we even supposed to find the toilets in here?” I said, waving my hand through the air.
“Here.” Pogo handed me a toilet brush. “You take the two stalls near the showers, and I’ll take the two near the wall.”
I started to walk toward the bathroom stalls, but Pogo pulled me back.
“Hold on a minute.” She bounced on her toes and whispered, “Do you know what happens when a toilet is flushed while the shower is on?”
“No.”
Pogo gave me a mischievous grin. “Well, having younger brothers and sisters in the house who don’t care if someone is in the shower, I’ve learned it takes a while before the hot water returns.”
We slapped high fives and went to our separate stalls.
I went to the first stall, swirled the brush around the bowl, and was filled with a huge sense of pleasure when I flushed the toilet and Victoria yelped from the unexpected surge of cold water. Pogo leaned out her stall door, winked, and flushed her own toilet a couple of times.
“You two better quit that or I’m going to tell,” Victoria screeched.
“What are you going to say? That we were cleaning the toilets and just making sure they were scrubbed good? Yeah, that’ll get us in trouble for sure,” Pogo said. She made a face, mocked Victoria silently…and flushed one more time.
Victoria muttered and I snickered while making my way to the next toilet stall.
Before I even had the stall door open all the way, I saw the spider. How it survived the Bug-Me-Not dousing, the fall from the corner, and the hairspray soaking was beyond me. I wasn’t about to let it get away a third time though.
I gripped my toilet brush in front of me and slowly advanced. I’d never killed a spider with a toilet brush before. I’d used shoes, a book, even a hair dryer. But never a toilet brush. I wasn’t sure it could be done.
I jabbed at it, and it scurried up the wall several feet. I jabbed once more, and it darted closer to the shower stall on my left. I had one shot left before it disappeared into the rising steam of Victoria’s shower. This spider was going to wish he was the one wearing football pads and a helmet. I balanced myself on the toilet seat (again) for a final blow. I raised the brush over my head and smack!
The spider fell into the shower stall.
Victoria screamed.
And I fell into the toilet…again.