Drabble - Cut - 500 words
Alexander had a million things on his mind. The meeting he was holding was going very well, they were getting a lot accomplished. It was going to be a very productive day.
He continued to hand out assignments, directing his Generals but out of the corner of his eye, he saw the drapes at the window. One of the curtains was hanging lower than the other, his eyes straying back to them several times during the meeting.
Alexander ended the meeting and told everyone to meet back in the room in three hours to see what progress had been made by everyone.
Hephaestion and Perdiccas were heading for the door when Alexander came up behind them.
"Before you get started on your tasks, could you two do me a favor?" he asked.
They both nodded and Alexander told them about the drapes, asking if they would straighten them out before they started on their assignments.
After Alexander left, Hephaestion and Perdiccas looked at each other for a couple of moments before breaking out in laughter. It was a known fact that the smallest of imperfections could unhinge Alexander, driving him to distraction. He would even rearrange the food on his plate to make it more balanced.
They pulled a couple of stools over to the window and pushed the droopy curtain up higher on the rod. They then got down and stood back to look at their work. Now the other side was higher than the first. They giggled and got back on their chairs to even the drapes again.
This went on for quite some time, on and off the stools, giggles and laughter getting louder and sillier as they went along.
"This is ridiculous," said Perdiccas, "we are the top two engineers in Alexanders army and we can't even fix window curtains!"
"I have an idea, let's just cut them off from the bottom instead of getting on the stools again." Hephaestion managed to get out between hiccups, an offset from the laughing.
They both got on the floor and starting cutting with their sharp battle ready swords.
They stood back again, looking from one side to the other, deciding which one needed work. The conclusion was both, and they got back on their hands and knees, cutting again.
They were surprised by Alexander's voice when he asked if they were still here.
Alexander looked at the window. The right side was three inches off of the floor and the left side was five inches away from the floor tiles.
"Is this what you call fixing the problem?"
Without skipping a beat both of the engineers tilled their heads to right and said in unison, "looks fine to me."
Alexander took both of their tilled heads and straightened them out.
"Well...," whined Hephaestion, "we cut them off twice and they were still too short!"
Alexander could only shake his head as he watched his little Generals fall again into unrestrained merriment, besides it was contagious and he soon found himself joining the chaos.