Lucy's Load

It becomes three thirty as Lucy walks up the path to her nice, brick house. She had worked hard at school that day and the first thing she wanted to do was have a snack. She turned the golden knob and wiped her feet before entering. Right away, she took off her shoes and jacket and put them in the closet. Then she headed straight to her room to put her bookbag away. Before getting a snack though, she had to use the restroom and wash her hands with lavender soap. Ah, now she could have her snack. Lucy walked into the kitchen and saw her younger sister.
"How was school, Susan?" Lucy asked.
"Eh, okay, I guess" she replied. Susan was sitting on the couch, sprawled out, eating cereal out of the box.
Lucy watched Susan as she sat there eating cereal, crumbs falling on the floor. It seemed Susan was intently watching some afternoon cartoons. Now, on very light homework days, Lucy was one to 'let go' and watch the crazy animated characters for a half an hour. But today she had a project to begin. It wasn't due till next week, but Lucy just loved geography projects. Lucy had an atlas in her bedroom with pushpins in all the places her parents had to fly to. She hadn't been to any other countries before, but she decided she wanted to visit all the places they had visited.
Rrrrring! "Lucy, get the phone," said Susan.
Lucy got the phone, not because Susan had asked but because her parents had always stressed the importance of taking good messages. They counted on Lucy to do this, because Susan could be a little irresponsible at times. Lucy always got the important jobs like taking messages, locking the door, and feeding the cat, while Susan just had to worry about her own messes.
"Yes, I'll give them message. Goodbye." Then Lucy wrote it down and hung up the phone. She put the post-it note on the kitchen counter next to phone.
"Susan, you'd better clean this newspaper pile before Mommy and Daddy get home" said Lucy.
"Shh! I'm watching t.v. here" said Susan.
Lucy merely rolled her eyes. She didn't know what was going to become of Susan. She didn't understand why she didn't seem to care about anything. When Lucy was thinking about this, she suddenly realized she didn't have her snack yet. She poured herself a glass of iced tea, and a bowl of grapes and some crackers. She sat at the kitchen counter carefully eating her crackers and sipping her iced tea, when the phone suddenly rang.
Rrrring. "Hello?" said Lucy.
"Hi is Lucy there?" asked a familiar voice.
"Oh, this is she" replied Lucy.
"Hi, this is Henry from class," he said.
"Oh, hi Henry," Lucy said while smiling. She liked Henry. Henry and his orange striped shirt. He sat behind her in class, and always offered to sharpen anyone's pencil when he had to get up and sharpen his.
"Yeah, uh, I was wondering if you got all of the geography assignment from class? I didn't catch part of it," Henry said.
"Oh sure, you can use page twenty one as an example and.." Lucy went on talking about the assignment. Then the conversation went to other kids in their class. Lucy laughed a lot when Henry talked about Thomas and his slippery shoes. They also talked about how they hated when Mrs. Shoehorn gave them pop quizzes. Suddenly the phone clicked.
"Henry, can you hold on a sec? It's my call waiting," said Lucy.
"Sure," replied Henry.
"Hello?" Lucy asked the unknown called.
"Oh Lucy, this is Mommy. We're on our way home, just had to stop and get some bread see you in ten minutes or so. Okay, bye," she said all in one breath.
Lucy started to panic and she clicked over.
"Henry, that was my mom. I have to go finish up some stuff before she gets home," she said.
"Oh, okay. Well, thanks for the assignment. It was nice talking to you," said Henry.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Lucy quickly said.
"Bye."
"Bye."
And as soon as Lucy hung up the phone she started running around frantically. She quickly swept the kitchen floor, vacuumed the living room, and then told to Susan to stand up so she could vacuum her shirt. She straightened out the living room furniture, ran to the kitchen counter and swept all the papers and notes on the counter into the recycle bin, wiped off the counters and then took a break. That would be enough, she thought. Exhausted, she walked to her room and plopped on her neatly made bed. She decided to wait her until her parents arrived. She looked around her room. Good, desk in order, she thought. Toys in box, trophies on shelf, and piggy bank untouched. Sometimes Susan would get noisy and go through her room looking for cool toys.
"We're home!" said her mother from the kitchen.
Lucy ran out to greet them, and politely said hello. Her mother and father gave Susan a hug and put their coats in the closet and looked around.
"Well, everything's nice and neat, like always," said her father.
"I'll get started with dinner," said Lucy's mother.
A little after that, the recycling girl came by and picked up their bins.
The rest of the evening consisted of Lucy thinking of different ideas for her geography project, eating dinner, and taking a shower. Lucy then brushed her teeth, then laid her toothbrush horizontally parallel to her toothpaste. Then Susan stumbled into the bathroom and mumbled something about it being her turn to take a bath. Lucy walked out and went to her room to put on her pajamas. Then she heard her parents talking.
"I don't know, but now we're behind," she heard her father say.
"Lucy, come here. Did you take a message from someone earlier today?" her mother asked.
"Yes."
"Well, where is it? I was supposed to call as soon as we got home," she said with harshness in her tone.
"Well," began Lucy. Her face was starting to get hot; she didn't know what to do. She was usually so responsible with these kinds of things. "Well, I took the message and put it on the counter next to Susan's newspapers," said Lucy.
"Oh, great. I'm sure Susan threw them away. And now the message is gone in the recycling bin," said her father.
Lucy quietly walked back to her room. She got under her covers and turned out the lights, not even remembering to say her prayers. She heard her parents in the next room scolding her younger sister. They told her she had to grow up and be responsible, and that she was grounded for a week. Lucy felt hot and her stomach wasn't feeling so great either. She began to kick her legs, pulling out the neatly tucked in sheets. She was tired but she couldn't sleep. Lucy had always been responsible. She was angry with Susan for being messy. Angry with the boy with the orange striped-shirt for calling. But most of all, she was angry with herself for throwing the paper away, and for lying. She had lied only once before in her life, and after that she had learned her lesson never to do it again. She thought about what happened over and over, in her head, until she began to drift into sleep.
The next morning when Lucy woke up, the sun was shining into her room. Everything looked fresh and she was even in a better mood. She remembered what had happened the previous evening, but it didn't seem to matter as much. She stood up, ready to go on with her regular routine. I suppose it gets easier every time you do it, thought Lucy.