Kneeling at the door
» Sketches
I was listening to the rain when the phone rang.
It was she: “Door. Knees. Clean. Now.”
When she uses her tone of command “knees” and “clean” have certain meanings. I understood door and now easily enough.
Excited I went and kneeled near the front door with my head bowed.
She must’ve been round the corner, her car pulled into the drive a few moments later.
After she’d closed the door I knelt to lick the mud from her shoes. My hair brushed against her leg.
“Clumsy fool, look at me.”
“Don’t you know better than to bump into me?” Every other word was accompanied with a slap to my cheeks. I’d learned long ago to not point out that strictly speaking I hadn’t.”
She stalked off, telling me to lick up the trail of mud she was leaving before I crawled over to show that I knew how to clean her shoes properly.
