Shower Time
A Strange Short Story
By: Shima And Tempis

Because of the awful plumbing, our two large families had to share the big women's bathroom that connected to our suite. There was only one shower, but there were four stalls and a large sink plus a couch near the door. Although it had all these things, it was extremely narrow; three people standing shoulder to shoulder could barely walk the length of it.

Alexander went first, not because he was the oldest, but because he had to stand just inside the bathroom door and make sure no one went over his or her five minutes in the shower, and no one came in early. Besides the parents, he was the only one with a watch. And our fathers were usually out playing a game in the men's club, while our mother's watched shower time, which was quite a sight to see.

After Alexander was his brother Sloth, with a buzz-cut of dirty blonde hair, and muscle shirts that were too baggy, making him look like a tree that they'd been set out to dry on. I'm not sure why he wore them; he had no muscles.

Nadine, my sister, was after Sloth. She was the smallest, so Alexander always waited until she was done instead of watching his wristwatch. This hadn't been Alexander's choice, the mothers had told him to do so. Nadine had bouncy dark brown hair cut short, and about halfway down her neck her hair curved outward. She liked wearing all my old dresses, mostly because I hadn't worn them.

Jake, our older brother, went next. By now the water was only lukewarm, but someone would flush a toilet, usually Alexander, to get the water going again. We had the weirdest shower time--late afternoon, every other day. Jake was the oldest, but mother said he had too much studying to do to bother with guarding the door. Plus, he was constantly being the messenger between the mothers and fathers--Sloth took his place during Jake's turn. Jake actually looked a lot like Sloth, though he wore white t-shirts that actually fit him, and his hair was grown out, but at weird angles so it looked like he had been shocked by electricity. That, on Jake, was not a bad thing.

I was second to last. Nobody but me knew that Alexander gave me a little more time as well, not even the mothers. I'm not sure why he did, I could shower faster than anybody else, but I think it was so I didn't have to rush. He liked telling me to stop and smell the roses, although there were no roses in the shower. Perhaps he meant our shampoo.

One shower day, my mother and I had been out for a while at the amusement park, but when we realized what day it is we'd rushed home. Luckily, Jake was just finishing when I arrived. Mother handed me my shower things and just when Jake came out I came in. I was about to run to the shower when Alexander decided to stop me. He was look incredulous. "Stop rushing, you worry-wart. You're not late."

Just for effect, I walked in slow motion to the shower. Alexander was not allowed in the bathroom at this part for anyone, so I waited until I heard he door click then undressed. Showering with getting-close-to-cold water was normal for me. I was glad Natalie, Alexander's sister, got to be last. She spent the longest time in the bathroom in front of the mirror each morning, so having her get the cold water was always nice.

I never know exactly when Alexander comes back in, because the shower's so loud and the sound from the families outside jumping on beds and running around drifts in quite easily. All I do know is, by the time I'm wrapped in a towel and out of the shower, he's back. Then I get into one of the stalls, and Alexander lets the final child in. Natalie. The stalls aren't very big either, and so usually I can open the two at the end to make one, because the wall between it is unhooked. It takes a little maneuvering, but Natalie never seemed to care before.

Until today, of course.

"God, Lorriana, do you have to use two stalls? That's being a bit selfish, isn't it?" She hissed at me, and I heard Alexander-unfortunately-leave the room so she could get ready to take her shower.

Rarely were their four people in the bathroom. That was usually only after dinner. And dinner was always late. I didn't answer her though. I heard the shower turn on and a little later the door practically slam shut. This was Alexander's least favorite time. Natalie doesn't listen when he says that her time is up. She says that being the last person, she has no time limit. The mothers have stopped debating with her. The fact that Alexander has stopped debating with her is amazing. She is his older sister, but Alexander's known to talk back to adults as well.

When the shower turned off, I heard Natalie laugh. Natalie's laugh is a lot more like a honk, and when I peaked over the bathroom stall, for I was almost done changing into my nice outfit for dinner. I was the only girl who wore pants to dinner, but my mother couldn't wrangle me into a dress, even when I was little. However, along with wearing pants I had to wear a nice blouse, plus a vest, plus a shirt to go under them both. All the buttoning sometimes drove me mad.

"Still there, Lorriana dear? Well, guess what, because I'm one of the oldest, I get to have more people come in and talk to me. However long I want." I didn't know this. Jake was too fast to invite people in, and he was the oldest. Peeking over again while I buttoned my blouse, I saw Alexander open the door, and didn't hear the sound of mothers' voices float in. Apparently, they'd gone out to gather in their husbands. As if things couldn't get worse, Sloth and Nadine sauntered in the door, and Alexander closed it behind them, leaning on it with his arms crossed. He caught me eye and stuck out his tongue while looking at Natalie, who was still clad in only a towel. I returned the look.

"You see, Lorriana? Now you're hogging all the space." That wasn't true. Nadine and Sloth had already had their turn. They had to have gone to the bathroom already. I was buttoning up the last few buttons on my blouse, and was about to get on my pants, when I heard the rattling of the other stall I was using.

"Get out." Alexander's voice sounded very scary. Although Alexander was imposing, I never thought he was scary. Right at the moment however, I had to shudder.

"What, dear Alex?" I hated when Natalie called anybody dear. Instead of using it the nice way our mothers did, she made it sound like an insult, so we cringed every time we heard it from anybody, even if they weren't talking to us.

"I said get out. Not only is your time up, but also you're not allowed to have anyone else in here. Sloth, Nadine," his voice got a little kinder when he spoke to the little girl, "you have to leave. Now."

Nadine didn't need anymore talking to. After pulling on my trousers I'd opened the stall door, and watched her leave the bathroom. Sloth glared at his brother angrily, but left. Natalie, as usual, did not like following orders.

"If I have to leave, then she had to leave ages ago!" Natalie screeched, and I saw Alexander wince along with me. Natalie said 'she' like I was a rat she'd just found scuttling around a restaurant kitchen.

"She had to change. You've been wasting your time. So, you no longer get the bathroom." Speaking of changing, when all the kids were dressed for dinner, we all looked quite nice. Nadine, Jake and I agreed that Alexander looked the best of us all. He wore a red jacket, but it was ornamented to make him look like a prince, and white pants. The coat was buttoned, so I don't know what he wore as a shirt, but it didn't seem to matter, because when he was in his prince's uniform (what I liked to call it), nobody really cared.

Natalie stormed out of the bathroom, calling out her mother's name, and heard laughter from the other children. Even Jake's deep laughs could be heard. I smiled.

Now there was no one in the bathroom but us. I wasn't worried that Alexander was going to be punished. All that was really going to happen was their mother was going to stare at the towel-clad girl and say, "You listened to him?"

Alexander had been looking at the door, as if astonished that he'd actually done the impossible, but when he turned to me he was grinning ear to ear.

"Well, that was quite an eventful shower time. Shall we go to dinner, milady?" In private, I'd told Alexander that we thought he looked like a prince dressed up like he was. So, also in private, he pretended I was a maiden in the castle, and that every dinner was another ball. Our private time was after every shower time in the bathroom--not because I'd still be in there, usually I was out by then, but after everyone was gone.

"That would be wonderful, Your Highness." I'd put my hand on his arm, and he'd lead me to the door and open it for me, bowing, but after that our pretend ended. Alexander didn't want people to know he was nice to me; if he was going to keep up with guarding at shower time, he needed to keep up an image. And I didn't want people ruining the friendship that I had with him. Shower time, I guess, was our time.