The chalk on the floor

The chalk on the floor

5 July 2018

Courtesy pinterest.com

 

She readjusted the dish-stand. It still looked crooked. Nothing seemed to be straight in anything that was going on around her she thought. Her shoulders hunched slightly in defeat. She turned the dish-stand around lengthwise against the wall and it finally seemed to fit straight. At least one thing that would be in order she thought. She laughed to herself at the idea that her OCD behaviour seemed to be returning. This was definitely not the place to have those compulsions she thought to herself. She shrugged off the nagging impulse to set straight the jars that were drying next to the sink.

On the floor a cockroach was running towards shelter under the sink. She gritted her teeth and tried to swat it with the broom but it was too fast for her. She re-positioned the broom but it had already disappeared under the sink. She did not feel like going to search for it. The mere idea of pursuing the insect under the sink nauseated her. She looked for the chalk she had bought earlier and that was said to keep away ants and roaches. Slowly but surely, she began drawing straight lines all across the floor, around the sink, the granite topped cavities that acted as makeshift cupboards and the small wooden cupboards.

After she had finished drawing the lines she stood up and gazed at them. Some seemed slightly crooked and she bent down to draw straighter lines after she had rubbed away those that seemed crooked. She repeated the experience when she felt the result was unsatisfactory. After a while she was far more pleased with the result of her drawings. She stood up and gazed at the drawings from above. They were indeed very straight now with the intersections giving forth clean right angles.

From the corner of her eye she could see one of the huge ants that had been there earlier run towards the cupboard and then stop before the line in front of it. She was extremely pleased to have bought the chalk. It seemed like her ticket to sanity in this insane circle of huge ants and roaches that had been taking turns in attacking her stock of groceries. She looked at the lines again beaming at the idea that they would finally protect the groceries. Under the tube light it seemed to her that the chalk on the floor beamed back at her.

 

Opa Tsupa – Les deux Guitares