Susan and I have been sitting here in front of old number 7 for over three hours now. She has her head on my shoulder, lightly sleeping to the drone of the machines. She wanted to come here, Andy’s Laundromat, one last time before she left. When the cab dropped us off she didn’t even notice the sign over the entrance which now read “Rashid’s Wash Emporium.”
We made quite the pair entering the establishment. Two old coots lost on 39th Street. But we had a reason to be at Andy’s, I mean, Rashid’s place. I met Susan here 32 years ago today. It was scary at first because we had both divorced our first partners and weren’t really looking for companionship. Love strikes in mysterious ways.
Susan was using #7 and I was starting up on #8 in the corner. I didn’t close my jug of bleach so when I knocked it off my machine with the basket, her bright red Capri pants took the brunt of it. I saw her eyes flash from shock to fury in an instant as they met mine. She always told me it was the look of abject terror in my eyes which caused her anger to slip quickly into mirth. She flashed a smile then and said, “I always wanted tie-dyed Capris. I was just hoping for more of a color variation.”
After that day we shared more with each other. It began with stories of our former spouses, then to shared meals and, eventually, an apartment two blocks from the laundromat. We shared our lucky #7 washer during the weekly laundry visits too. As the months turned to years we shared everything from our last names to decades of love and devotion.
Lately though it seems through our love, we are also sharing our pain. Her pain is from terminal cancer, mine is from utter helplessness. The buzzer on #7 goes off. Tears roll down my cheeks when Susan shudders. I think, now, she is sharing her soul in the ultimate peace and joy that awaits us all.
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And that is my entry in the weekly writing exercise on G+ as part of the Writer’s Discussion Group for this week. Everyone submits stories in the comments of the post at the link and anyone can +1 their favorites. In the end the story with the most +1 votes gets a little recognition. This is a weekly thing and this time the story is based on this image.
