Sally turned to her back to find Tina, who happened to be concerned with her friends’ secrecy from before and wanted Sally to explain their shift in attitude; unlike others, Tina actually felt some remorse for Cora’s apparent lament and felt especially confused by Sally, usually Cora’s only real sympathizer, to follow on with the intended prank and give Cora the tainted glass with a snide grin on her face and then giggle quietly once she saw Cora drink down to the last drop; something she thought was unusually cruel of her friend.
“Sally, is something wrong? It’s not like you or Cora to act like that, what happened?” Tina asked in a tone that reflected equal parts of worry and curiosity as she knew that something that could flip her friends’ attitudes around had to be either severe or amazing.
In response, Sally just returned another smirk and a mild snicker, which Tina still found weird; and after a moment, she assured Tina:
“Oh, don’t worry about that dear, it’s nothing serious.” Sally paused for a moment to chill some more, “I just couldn’t help but to carry on with our little prank when I heard Cora whine about what she just had heard over the phone. I know it sounds bitchy of me, but when I tell you, you will love it too, see…” Sally paused once again, before drawing a breath to level her laugh and confess the gossip to Tina.
“Her landlord called, there was a flood in her building’s basement last night, a busted pipe or something, and pests are beginning to crawl in; she lives on the ground floor of the building. Go figure.”
Hearing this, Tina’s own expression turned from a concerned frown to an incredulous stare as she heard Sally explain, and true to her word, she found amusement in Sally’s words. Like teenagers hearing the latest gossip in high school, both Sally and Tina had a giggle fit that stemmed from their friend’s karmic backlash.
“Well anyway, she wants to pick up some things from home before vermin do, as well as a place to crash while they clean hers, so I guess I’ll be having a guest for some time now, oh well. We’ll be back quickly dear, but please, keep this talk between us.” Sally concluded, after which Tina made a zipping gesture on her lips with her fingers, then turned back to the hallway.
Having made Tina more of an accomplice in mischief than she was already, Sally left her to go return to accompany Cora while Tina left to get snacks for the movie, snickering the whole time up until she came back to the living room, where she kept her amusement down to keep secrecy; and so the pair left for Cora’s amenities.
***
Even though you could hear your mom, Beth and Tina talking, your focus in getting Tina’s attention distracted you from them, preventing you from actually listening to their talk in the case of mom and Beth; or in the case of Tina, understanding why she was talking about fleas.
Your lack of self-awareness notwithstanding, it still was no use, nothing short of a sign with your name pointing at you would get Tina’s watchful lazy-eye to notice you, and even if by chance you freed yourself from the lint, all you’d get for your troubles would be a long fall to your death from her hand. Realizing this, you stop struggling and instead wait until either she lays you down or stops moving, maybe then you could actually try and succeed without risking the fall.
For the next couple of seconds the sway of her movement carries your dirty dinghy on and the thrill serves to distract you from your helplessness, if only to replace it with a mixed feeling of fun and vertigo. The move is short however, and soon you feel her hand remove itself from below you and set free the dust bunny.
Though sudden, the drop barely fazed you, as by now you were getting used to sharp, sudden moves, and the drop didn’t felt as strong as it would, partly thanks to the cushion of the lint, instead it felt not unlike taking an elevator downstairs… while packed in a hobo’s bed.
As your grimy packing drafted below, the giant Tina above got farther from you, letting you appreciate her presence in a more complete manner, or at least her upper body, instead of just her monumental retina. Dressed in an open-buttoned, loose-fitting blue jacket with a more fitting black shirt beneath; her expression was the most telling aspect. With her eyes fixed on you, her lips formed a wicked smile that stretched her cheeks into a wide, teeth-showing grin. As your vessel lowered, clear glass walls rose from your peripheral vision, framing the sight of a now snickering Tina in a rising circling wall. (Full moon, Transylvanian background, thunder and crash not included.)
Did she actually know you were trapped in the ball of filth? Could it be that she could actually tell it was you, shrunk, struggling and trapped helpless in a minuscule-yet-bigger piece of filth, desperate to get her help? Was she mocking your predicament with her evil smile?
It certainly seemed like so, but why would she ignore your pleas and dismiss you so eagerly? Did she resent you for some reason?
Your doubts would remain unanswered as the descent came to an end soon after. The sinking feeling stopped, timely marked by a soft splash echoing below, and Tina turned her back and retreated beyond the clear walls, leaving you alone again bound in dusty ropes, now circled by a tall glass pen and surrounded by the women’s whispering voices.
As Tina left, you contemplated the enclosure she casually dropped your grimy craft into, as much as your entrapped self could observe from atop the bed of dust. The glass walls created a wide, circular enclosure around you stained by the blurry, moving image of the world outside the walls. Beyond that you couldn’t tell much about your holding pen, other than there had to be some liquid below, as you could hear sloshing water beneath the threads and still feel a slight sway carrying your lint, despite no longer being in Tina’s grasp.
With nothing else of note about your surroundings you retry your efforts at freedom, this time in a more relaxed, focused manner, thanks to the soothing sway and not being under the stress of being stepped on the floor or desperate for bitchy Tina’s help anymore.
Soon after, not thrashing like a maniac pays off when you manage to pull and yield at the right threads holding you, instead of yanking all of them at once and hoping for the best. With a steady, controlled grip you untangle your legs and torso from the loosened threads, freeing yourself from the oppressive lint at last…
Still, you now found yourself trapped behind a high wall of glass of unknown purpose, as you couldn’t figure out where Tina had dropped you. If it weren’t for the liquid below, you would think it was an ash tray, though you think the walls were still too high for that; and the present smell, though obfuscated by the ever present cloud of dust in the lint, certainly wasn’t that of spent tobacco, but rather cheap booze and cleaning products. Maybe they spilled some beer in it then cleaned it lazily and left water on it?
Though curious for the nature of your glass enclosure, your lungs yearned even more for a breath of air clear of dust. Carefully, you maneuver over the threads and folds of the lint without tangling yourself again, though your movement conjures up more puffs of dust clouds that coats and put you in a coughing fit that lasts until you reach a point where the threads and filth aren’t dense enough to traverse, resulting in you falling through them.
The blunder of your slip cost your balance, and even though you didn’t get caught in the threads this time, the resulting fall didn’t last either. You assumed that you would hit a glass bottom when you fell through and maybe get laced with ash or wet with the puddle of water that the lint landed on. What you didn’t expect however, was diving right through the surface of the assumed puddle and sinking into a pool that was deep enough to let you through without even touching the bottom. Luckily you had your eyes shut before hitting the water, thanks to the constant pestering of the dust clouds.
After getting over the surprise of the unexpected dive, you kick into swimming upwards, expecting to surface immediately. Instead, a sudden jolt spurs the waters into chaos just as you break your swim, submerging you again and in turn making you taste the water instead of air, or as you had accurately thought earlier, cheap booze mixed with dish soap.
The waves are short lived, as you break the surface after just a moment and start spitting out the nasty brew and clearing your eyes from it, as even closed shut they burned from the abrasive substance. When you opened them, the first thing you noticed was that the lint had been moved slightly; now a floating puff on the pool you were in.
Next, there was the familiar feeling of being lifted, accompanied by waves crashing mildly around in the pool. Above the tall glass wall, towering over in the same way Tina had a minute ago, Cora appeared; her large face upset in a frown as it neared towards your swimming pond.
It didn’t take you another second to figure out the true nature of your surroundings, for Cora didn’t smoke but loved herself some alcohol, and no trace of dust, soap, wayward swimmers, or cheapness of quality in her drink was going to stop her from enjoying her nectar of choice.
As if your cord had been sprung into overdrive, you break into a frantic swim in Cora’s opposite direction. It just so happened that your former filthy vessel was that way, and the shifting tide arranged you both in a crash course. Cora's sailor-proud mouth approached with a sea-worthy thirst, and with only seconds to react you…
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