Prompt 17 : Dust
Clearly Not An Acceptable Way To Behave.
Dean trudged up the stairs with the supplies, Eliot following behind him. At the stop, Dean turned and opened the small almost hidden door before heading up yet another flight of narrow steps without a word, flicking the light switch as he passed it. By the time they reached the top of the stairs, the light had flickered to life and shone dimly. Dean sighed and set down the things he had been carrying.
He moved to the small window and Eliot watched as he grimaced as he struggled to turn the latch and open the window. "Better get started," he said, resigned to the task at hand.
"I'm sorry, Dean," Eliot apologized again. It wasn't the first time he'd said the words that afternoon and they were no less heartfelt for the repetition. Dean just shrugged and moved back to the things he'd dropped on the floor, before pointing at a pile and directing Eliot to start there. "How will I know . . .?"
Dean sighed, "Okay, okay, I'll do the papers. You can . . . you can start with this stuff. You know how to polish, right?"
"Ummm, kinda, not sure. Tell me, so I don't do it wrong and get us into more trouble?" For the first time, Dean actually looked up and met his eyes and smirked before turning back to the bucket he'd brought up filled with cleaning supplies.
He pulled out several items, then laid them out on the floor beside the ceremonial plates from the church. "Okay, first, you wipe with this. It gets the worst of the dust off. Then you use this to rub that on and this one to wipe it off and make sure it's all nice and sparkly!" he finished with a hint of sarcasm. "Meanwhile, I'll go through the papers!"
"Dean, if I'd known that Sammy would do that . . . I'm sorry, I'd never have . . ."
Dean shook his head, "'s not your fault. I know what Sam's like. He's a real pain in the ass at the moment, won't do what anyone tells him. Anyway, just 'cause we're doing this, don't think the Pastor will let him get away with it either. He knows better, he knows that he shouldn't have wandered off like that and that if there was a problem, he should have called the Pastor. He'll be in trouble too. Pastor Jim . . . he's really, I dunno, fair I guess, about stuff like that."
"Will he . . . will he have told Ava?" Eliot asked anxiously.
"Probably, but don't worry. He'll have told her he's got you up here cleaning as well. If – if he thinks you'll get in more trouble than you deserve, he won't have told her," Dean said.
"How can you be sure?"
The papers that Dean was sorting through suddenly slid off the box they had been precariously balanced, raising a cloud of dust that had both boys sneezing several times before Dean could even contemplating answering. When they'd both calmed down, Dean said, "He doesn't often tell Dad when I've done stuff wrong. He says it's dealt with already, doesn't need Dad to do anything."
"Wow! He covers for you, that's kinda cool for a Pastor."
Dean shrugged before explaining again that he had his own punishments, cleaning the church silverware was among them, cleaning the church itself was another. Eliot couldn't help laughing when Dean said the worst punishment of all was helping at the church coffee mornings and having to be polite to all the old ladies.
Dean had sorted through the pile of papers, making several smaller piles and putting a large number of the papers into the garbage bags he'd brought upstairs with him. "How's it going?" he asked Eliot when he'd finished, taking in his frown of concentration and the polish smeared on his cheek. Eliot shrugged and gave him a somewhat pained look. Dean sat down beside him on the dusty floor and picked up the pieces he'd already done, looking at him with a smirk as he said, "Dude! Sam can do better than this!" He laughed at picked up another clean cloth and began to rub the excess polish off until the first plate was smear free and shining again, dangling it in front of Eliot's face to show what it should have looked like. "Put less polish on, it'll make it a bit easier," he advised as he picked up the second plate and began to rub that one in the same way.
"Sam'll be okay though, right?" Eliot asked.
"Yeah, he'll be fine eventually. He'll listen to Pastor Jim more than anyone else anyway. He just answers back when Dad talks to him, won't listen and won't do anything he's told at all, no matter what he's being told to do. Me, he listens sometimes, but Pastor Jim says it's something all kids do, they test their boundaries and that's what he's doing to me right now. I don't know about boundaries, he's certainly testing my patience!"
"We shouldn't have left him like that and just told him to wait there," Eliot said. "It was a stupid thing to do."
"It was and that's why were sat up here surrounded by dusty plates and polish and unless you get better at this quickly," Dean held up another plate with smears, "We're never doing anything stupid again because we'll still be doing this lot for the first time!"
Eliot chuckled, "Sorry, I guess I haven't practised as much as you have." Dean laughed in agreement.