“It still feels damp to me,” I said, my hand instinctively rising to pat my collarbone.
Clara smoothed the corner of the blue fabric, her fingers lingering on the hem.
“I only want our home to feel fresh, but you keep leaving these damp things around,” she said.
“I always put them in the hamper when they are done,” I said.
Clara smiled, though her eyes remained flat as she gave her watch another quick turn.
“We have to be mindful of the laundry,” Clara said, her gaze dropping to my red wrists. “Arthur says the water bill was eighty-two dollars this month.”
I did not answer her, but my skin began to itch under my sleeves.
She stood in the doorway for another moment, watching me as if she expected me to argue. When I remained silent, she turned and walked down the hallway, the heels of her shoes clicking against the oak floorboards.
At two in the afternoon, the house was quiet except for the low hum of the refrigerator. I walked down the narrow wooden stairs into the basement, determined to fetch the reserve stack of green bath towels from the cedar chest near the old dryer.
The wooden steps creaked under my white leather orthotic shoes, a sound that usually brought me comfort, but today it felt too loud.
The air down there always smelled of laundry soap and dry concrete, but today it felt unusually heavy, almost thick with moisture. I walked past the washing machine, which stood cold and empty, its lid open.
I opened the lid of the cedar chest, expecting the familiar neat rows of folded cotton I had placed there after the Labor Day wash.
The chest was completely empty.
I stood there with my hand on the wooden lid, staring at the bare cedar boards. I knew I had washed six large green bath towels and four yellow hand towels three weeks ago.
I reached inside to touch the bottom, thinking they might have slipped down, but there was only dry wood.
A soft rustle from the dark corner behind the furnace caught my attention. I stepped past the water heater, my shoes squeaking slightly on the dusty concrete floor.
There, piled directly on the damp stone floor near the coal chute, was the entire stack of green towels, tangled together in a messy heap.
