There is a B I T of InSaNiTy
in ∂αηcιηg that does everybody
a great deal of gσσ∂.
Edwin Denby
Edwin Denby
It was their turn to entertain the scholarship holders. Malaika Abdi Samakab was panicking. As far as she was concerned the house wasn’t clean enough for visitors. She’d been busy sweeping, dusting, arranging furniture and everything under the sun. Mel wore herself out! But, that didn’t matter to her. What mattered was that she still hadn’t gotten around to mopping the floor. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t picked out anything to wear or wrapped the gift she’d gotten properly! Nope. Mel was more concerned with how the house looked than how she looked or some stupid gift. Well it wasn’t stupid. In fact, she felt very proud about her choice for the secret santa. Mel looked over at the gifts sitting nicely on her bed waiting to be wrapped. She giggled and turned away from them! They were a distraction. She needed to get ready! Mal wasn’t always this way. Usually, she was organized to perfection but today everything seemed to want to go wrong. Waking up late had only been the start. It all went downhill from there. Standing in the living room with the mop tucked under her palm she let out a sigh. All she had left to do was run the mop over the rest of the floor and the kitchen, toss out the dirty water, pick out what she was wearing take a bath, wrap the gift and she’d be ready! Hopefully everything went in that order. Mal prepared some meat for tonight’s dinner. She’d done the turkey. Right now it was still in the over cooking and it wouldn’t be done until their guest began to arrive. That she was sure of! Playing hostess was something Mal enjoyed! But, it wore her out. With a sigh because she had been the one to volunteer to do most of the work around the house she went back to mopping. It had to be done! And, well she was going to be the one to do it. Unless someone was sweet enough to come downstairs and do it for her. She doubted that was going to happen. It didn’t matter though. She’d never been one to push her responsibilities out on anyone else.
The time was seven thirty when Mal finally left the downstairs. She’d finished cleaning – everything. Jogging up the stairs she dashed into her room and closed the door behind her. Mal became so comfortable in the house she didn’t lock her door as much anymore. The first few months however, she’d never leave her door open. Things were ….slowly changing now. Grabbing her bathroom she dashed into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. Stripping out of her clothes she quickly moved under the shower head and washed her skin. The bath was anything but quick. Mal enjoyed every minute of the ten minutes she spent in the shower. She wanted to make sure she got the scent of the cleaning products out of her skin and hair. Yup, she washed her hair too. It was a very lazy time only when she remembered they were having company did she turn the water off. Wrapping herself in a towel she walked out into her bedroom. Mal quickly pulled her hair up into a ponytail so the water that was left clinging to her curls didn’t make a big mess. Standing in front of her closet she tried to figure out just which dress she was going to wear! Mal glanced over to see the time and let out a shriek! Finally she pulled down a white shirt with black fauna designed over it. She grabbed a pair of white slacks to match it. When she was finished decorating the outfit she was pleased with the outcome. Turning to her bed she saw the gifts and bit her lip. She did have wrapping paper…but she also had a small bag that she could tuck the gifts into. All she would need to find was some colourful paper to decorate the bag with. And, she had a nice stash of that left over!
When she finally stepped out of her room it was eight twenty. Ten more minutes before their guest arrived. Mal quickly moved down the stairs putting her gift under the big pine tree that she’d help to decorate. Mal didn’t understand western culture and their odd traditions but she would at least admit some of them were really nice. She remembered how she helped put ornaments on the tree and what fun that had been. Putting the gift down she turned from the tree and into the kitchen to check on the turkey she’d been cooking. It wasn’t done just yet! Twenty more minutes and it would be ready. Mal took down enough dishes for the small party that would be at the house. Glasses and silverware followed. Then she began to set the table and bring out the other items that had been bought for tonight. There was a nice bottle of wine on ice. Mal looked around her shoulder to make sure no one was in the kitchen before she opened the fridge and grinned at the ice-cream cake. Biting the inside of her lip she step behind the door and snuck a bit of the icing off the cake. Pleased with herself she stuck her finger in her mouth and enjoyed the treat she’d just given herself!
It seemed like forever since she had anything sweet! Because of the show she was in they were on a strict diet. But, since no one was around she didn’t think sneaking a sample of the icing would hurt. It wasn’t as if she was going to put on a lot of weight anyway! No matter how she tried, she could never rid herself of the slim figure she had. It bothered her! She wanted to be like the other women in her family that were filled with curves from their bust right down to their hips. While she was nicely shaped….Mal wanted more. But she’d been given her father’s genes tall and lean. With a sigh she closed the fridge door.
No time for personal day dreams Malaika! You’ve got people coming over.
