“Maddy!”
“What?”
“Maddy! Wake up!”
Maddy awoke in a panic to find her husband looking down at her with a scowl on his face. “Oh my god!” she gasped, her head turning from side to side. “You frightened the living hell out of me!”
“I’m sorry dear,” he replied. “Are you alright? You were shivering so hard and crying out in your sleep. Of course, that’s no surprise since you were curled up in that garbage heap again. What compelled you to do such a thing?”
Maddy’s hand went to touch her forehead and she absently rubbed it before looking over at the window. She was about to say something but stopped and instead turned back to face her husband, who had just finished putting another log into the fireplace.
“You’re right. I need some tea. I’ll be right back,” she said wearily.
“Alright. I’ll wait.”
When she entered the kitchen and the door closed behind her, Maddy looked out over toward the trash bin with a dark expression. She went over and lifted up the lid, putting her hand inside and feeling around. “Where is it?” she muttered, her voice growing angrier. She lifted the lid and tossed it down, put her hand back in and shoved everything in one pile. When she finally found the item, she brought it out, looked at it for a moment, and then threw it in the fire as well.
“You miserable sinner!” she gasped in surprise, looking up at the ceiling.
“Maddy?”
“Yes, dear?” she replied after a moment.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, some rather nasty-smelling thing!” she answered, trying not to make eye contact with her husband.
“What’s that?”
Maddy ran over and pushed the rubbish into the fireplace. “I don’t know,” she said with a blush. “It was on the floor next to my…” she stopped herself and went back over to her husband. “I’m s-sorry. I mean, I don’t know where it came from and I very well don’t know what it is, so… I just put it in the fire!”
“You are not familiar with it?”
Maddy looked up at her husband and said in a small voice, “Please, Alfred. You know I am not.”
“No, no I don’t.” He approached his wife and put his arms around her. “It is all right, dear,” he said. “You must’ve picked something up when you put your hand in there. I’m not worried about it and certainly you need to go to the doctor.”
Maddy looked up at her husband and started to say something else before turning her head away.
“What, dear?” Alfred asked, his eyes darting over her face.
“Nothing, dear. Why don’t we go to bed? I am feeling rather tired.”
Alfred looked at the floor. “I know the doctor advised you not to sleep in those trash dumps.”
Maddy turned and smiled. “Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ll be fine.” She turned away again.
“Maddy, you’re not still going down there, are you?”
Maddy returned her husband’s gaze. “I was meaning to tell you that,” she said. “I went down there… alone.” She looked away again.
“Well, that is not good. We can’t–”
“No, I will not be doing it anymore,” she said solemnly looking back at him. “I won’t go back down there.”
Alfred looked at her but said nothing.
“I promise! I won’t.”
“Maddy, – ”
“I promise.”
“Perhaps you should keep more things in the kitchen when you do go down there.”
“Oh, that wouldn’t be any fun! It’s more fun at the beach.”
“What are you talking about? Did you go down there today?”
“No, it is just something special I did.”
“I see. Well, you really shouldn’t do those things anymore.”
“I know. I won’t.”
“I suppose that’s all right.”
Alfred began to look at the floor. An awkward silence settled over Maddy, and before she knew it, he moved away from her, just close enough to grab the door knob. He left the room, leaving Maddy standing there in a rather bewildered state.
“I s-s-seem to be having d-difficulty…”
She turned to glance back toward the trash bin. “Oh,” she said. “Yes, I guess so.” Quickly, she picked up the piles of junk and tossed them into the fire, but then snatched them out again and held them in her arms. “Thank, God, I don’t have to burn that.”
She went over to the trash bin, opened the lid, and tossed it in, shutting the lid again. “What’s this?” she whispered to herself. “Where did it come from?”
Maddy ran through the house, holding the box up in the air. “Good heavens! What is this?” she asked. She finally found a package of filament and placed it in the device in front of her. She pulled out a handful of the filament, placed it on the smaller box that it was inside of and tossed them in as well.
“I don’t know. Who knows? There must be a good reason for this!”
She dashed away, leaving only a few small piles of trash and back to pack up most of the wrapping paper. She looked back toward the fireplace and then proceeded to unpack the smaller box. She lifted the lid and put her finger over her lips, trying to remember everything she’d done earlier. Her finger slid over something and her mouth dropped open in shock.
“There were two,” she whispered.
Maddy pulled the petri dish off the box, held it in her hand, and fumbled around with the other one. She set them next to the large box on the table and opened it up, pulling out the second dish. She placed them in the top of a pile of trash and then got to work.
She picked up a box of blister packs and opened them up, pulling out several. She started shaking the small packages, shuffling and flipping through the other items on the table towards them. Her hands moved faster and faster, ripping out the boxes of razors and putting them in the trash piling.
She pulled out the old candle, lit it with the matches she kept in her apron and throwing them into the sink with the used tea can. Maddy separated out the old paint cans in the trash, putting them in the box with the food items as well. She picked up the box of spaghetti, unwrapped it and placed it in the cabinet next to the stove.
There was nothing left that Maddy could put in. In a fit of confusion, she ran to the closet, picked it up and carried it back to the bathroom sink. Opening up the lid of the bathroom sink, she grabbed the rag and started rinsing out the mop handle and rag.
“No,” she said. “It’s not…”
She looked at the box of macaroni and placed it with the milk bottles.
She was about to drop it when she heard a shrill cry from outside. She ran to the other window and looked out.
“Hurry! Hurry! Someone’s trapped out there!” Maddy hurried to where Alfred was standing and placed her hand on his shoulder.
“What?” he gasped, his eyes darting over to where they had come in, watching a scene unfold that was frozen in time.
Maddy ran across the room, flung open the windows, and flung the macaroni out.
“There,” she said, looking down at the pile with a frightened, wide-eyed expression.
“Are you sure?” Alfred said, his eyes darting between his wife, the window and the floor.
Maddy nodded her head and then ran out of the house.
“Maddy! Maddy, wait!”
