Mole: A Dirty Mess
Geovanni Cota
The sun had begun to rise over the bluish grey sky as Eddie pulled up the driveway in his mother's car. Three constant days of working both of his jobs had done him no good. He was sleep deprived. He was stressed. On top of it, things with his girlfriend of over two years were not going so well.
"You get to relax now,” thought Eddie to himself as his palm moved the stick shift to the "P"-- setting the car in park. "No work until Monday. I’m sure this wouldn’t have come any sooner if I asked for it,” he let out. “It is what it is,” he thought.
Eddie was getting the break he needed. Instead of walking through the doors of his work at this time of day, like many other days, he was walking through the door of his home. It was time to relax.
The rattling of the doorknob and the sound of the key unlocking the living room door woke up Geovanni, Eddie’s seventeen-year-old brother, who was laying on the living room couch. By the look of things, he had spent all of the evening cleaning up the week’s mess that had been scattered throughout the bottom portion of the house. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Oh great, couldn’t I have run into Pollo instead of this guy,” said Eddie out loud as he turned to set the locks of the living room door. “I really hope he keeps his mouth shut,” thought Eddie. “I don’t have the patience to hear Geo right now.”
“Mom and dad won’t be home until later, way later, they went out of town,” Geo yelled out, half asleep. “They said to keep the house clean—something about bringing home guests with them, so try and keep the house clean.”
“Alright,” mumbled Eddie from the kitchen. He was picking at some leftover mole from yesterday’s dinner.
“For crying out loud Eddie, grab a plate and serve yourself!” yelled Geo. “Seriously man, I spent all last night cleaning the house, and knowing you, you’ll just leave the mess you made lying there until who knows when!”
“That’s it,” Eddie thought, “I’ll show him what a mess really looks like.” Grabbing the plate in which the mole was in, Eddie called for Geo. “Why don’t you come in here and say it to my face. Nobody wants to hear your girl-like voice at this hour,” he taunted. “I know I don’t.”
Eddie had no doubt that his younger brother would take the bait. Keeping the fridge door open he placed the plastic plate on his left hand and positioned himself where the left side of his body was behind the fridge door and the right side exposed. He stood there, waiting until he saw Geo’s shadow engulf the kitchen tile.
In an instant the tile floor was covered in the mole’s dark brown sauce which also managed to grab onto Eddie’s security clothes, hanging on for dear life. Geo’s reaction was just as Eddie pictured in his mind. Eddie gave Geo a mess to complain about all the while making it seem like Geo was responsible for it.
“Why would you walk into the fridge door, you idiot?” said Eddie, sounding as genuinely angry as he could. “Didn’t you see that I was behind the door? You got the mole all over the floor and me—clean this up, like now!”
“Don’t even try to blame this on me! I barely even tapped the fridge, you over exaggerated the shove. You clean this up; that’s what you get for not serving yourself on a plate and picking straight from the plastic container,” said Geo, desperately trying to turn the blame on his older brother.
“You’re the idiot who came rushing into the kitchen because you were trying to act hard,” said Eddie. “You bark at me to not make a mess and look at what you cause.”
“Well who’s the dumbass that can’t hold a container in his hand properly? Let’s not forget you’re the one who called me over—stupid.”
Before the two brothers knew it, they had made their way into the living room.
“You really want to do this?” asked Eddie as he wrapped his arms around Geo’s upper body, going for a chokehold.
“You’re the one who attacked me, you’re the one who’s in the wrong,” replied Geo struggling to get free of his brother’s tight grip. “Wait until I get out of this.”
The pushing, the shoving, and the grappling soon came to an end—the two were out of breath. They would have continued when one or the other could breathe again if it were not for the ringing of the phone. It was for Eddie.
Geo handed the phone to Eddie with a smirk and headed to the living room.
“You trying to play some mind game with me or what the hell?” asked Eddie as he yanked the phone out of Geo’s hand.
It was Ryan, his supervisor from the security place where he worked part time. When Eddie hung up the phone, Geo could not hold himself back, “They call you in on your day off there, buddy?”
Eddie did not reply. He walked up the stairs, slowly zoning out the sound of his brother’s voice. Walking up to his room to call it a night, he yelled down to Geo, “Don’t forget to clean up my mess in the kitchen, sweetie. I think I purposely dropped last night’s dinner.”
Locking the door to his bedroom, Eddie tried to picture the look of utter defeat on his brother’s face, tried to enjoy the victory, but he was tired. He was finally getting the sleep he needed. The sleep that would soon be interrupted by the alarm he set for later that evening. No day off for him.
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