Markers

Sophia was happily humming to herself as she pulled the pot roast out of the oven. She grunted as she placed it on the stove top. She looked around, hoping her children had not seen her struggling. She sighed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. Tentatively she lifted the lid of her roast. She jumped up excitedly as she saw the roast was perfect. She placed the lid delicately back down on the pot. She then awkwardly placed the roast back into the oven to stay warm, checking three times she had set the heat appropriately.

She glanced around the kitchen, satisfied she had cleaned it well enough. She walked to the living room and stopped mid step. Her four year was standing still in the middle of the room, head down, waiting for her mother's yells.

Sophia yelled, “Arianna!”

A door creaked open from down the hall. “Yes, mom?”

“Get in here!” She wrung her hands, hoping her daughter could save her.

Arianna hustled to her mother's side. “What is it? Why are you sh-” Arianna stared at her four year old sister. “Kody!” She ran towards her, grabbing her by the arm. “I'll wash her up, mom. Don't worry.” Arianna whispered lectures to her younger sister about using markers properly, dragging her away to her own bathroom.

Sophia held back tears as she wondered how on earth she would get the markers out of all the light beige furniture. She rubbed her temples as she took in the rest of the room, seeing that the walls and floors had also been massacred.

“Andy!” She shouted, her voice cracking. She wiped away her tears, not wanting to risk appearing weak before her only son. She cleared her throat, forcing her voice not to crack as she shouted, “Andy!” once more. “Get your rear end in here!” Her heart raced as she fumbled in her skirt’s pockets for her phone, then sent her son a text.

“Mom?” She heard his voice from the hallway. “What is it?”

“Get in here!”

“I'm doing a live-”

“Now. Andy.”

“Oh, shit.” Andy rushed back to his game and spoke to his fellow players. “Sorry guys, I gotta go.” He didn't wait for their cries of protest as he signed out of the game and went to his mother. “What is it mo- Oh fuck.”

“Andy!”

“I'm sorry, mom! Sorry. Well. Uh…” he looked around. “What, uh?” He gestured towards the living room.

Speaking more to the room than her son she said, “The markers should be washable. Let's tag team this and get it done. You do the walls and I'll start on the couch.”

“Alright, mom.”

“Drag the rug to your bathroom. I'll work on that in a bit.”

“Alright, mom.”

“When you're in there, get the cleaning supplies from under your sink.”

“On it.”

Sophia ran to her kitchen and grabbed the appropriate cleaning supplies and scoured the living room for any unopened marker. To her relief, they were in fact all washable. She threw them all in the wastebin and focused intently on scrubbing out the marks on the furniture. Alex followed his mother's lead, swiftly and efficiently tackling all the marks on the walls. The two worked well together and within a few hours the only indication there had been a mess was the missing area rug and the wet spots on the furniture.

“I don't know how to get the spots to dry.” Sophia said, holding back her bubbling anxiety.

“Do you have a hair dryer, mom?” Alex asked, knowing the answer.

“You're such a smart boy.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed. She looked at the wall clock and gasped. “Oh no. It’s six already. You're father will-”

“I'll do it mom. Go get cleaned up.”

“You sure, son?”

“Yep.”

“Oh, the rug! We didn't!” She ran her hands through her hair.

“Arianna came in about an hour ago. I told her about the rug. She's cleaning it while keeping an eye on Kody.”

“Oh. Oh.” She placed a hand over her heart.

“Go on mom, we got this.”

She sniffed back her tears and raced to retrieve one of her hair dryers and sprinted it back to her son. She then ran to her son's bathroom and saw Arianna was almost done removing the marker from the rug. She grabbed her daughter in a hug and kissed her forehead.

“Mom,” Arianna said, pushing her away. “You're going to get marker on you.

Sophia laughed and kissed her quickly once more. She pointed at Kody and Kody pouted in the corner, her chubby arms crossed and bottom lip out as far as it would go.

She ran back to her husband’s and her bathroom. She gulped as she realized her side of the sink was riddled with cosmetics and perfumes while his side was immaculately clean. She rubbed her hands down her face, took a deep breath in and decided to clean herself up first.

When her husband walked in, late again from having to stay late at the office, he walked into his pristine home where his three children sat in the living room, speaking softly to one another in their freshly pressed garments. As always, there was light music playing and his beautiful wife, ever so graceful, was removing a perfectly cooked meal from the oven.