"Alice, darling, can you come here for a moment?" Father asks as I pass by his study. This avoiding game would be much easier if it wasn't raining.
"Uh…yes Father," I nervously say as I join Father. Why did I walk pass Father's study? Why did I forget that Father works in his study all day? And more importantly, why did I walk past his study when I was supposed to be avoiding him and Mother?
"Darling, why are you carrying around your Mother's mirror?" Father asks looking up from his papers.
"I…Umm…Wanted to…" I'm carrying around my mother's mirror to practice making surprised faces, which I will use when Lorina and Samuel break the news about their engagement. But, I can't tell father that!
"Well, put it up when you're done with it."
"I will," I say feeling immensely relieved. Thank, goodness father wasn't going to question me about the mirror.
"You better, your Mother hates it when her things are not in place."
"I know," I say as Dinah walks into the study.
"It's the number one thing that bothers her. And, yet, she ended up married to me."
Mother and Father have very different terms for neat. Mother considers a room to be neat, if everything is put in its proper place. Mother has a proper place for everything in every room in our house, except the kitchen the maid takes care of that room. And if anything is not in its correct place, then the room is not neat. However, Father would consider a room to be clean if everything was off the floor. And by keeping everything off the floor, he would pile it all up on a table or chair.
"Okay," I nervously say as I look at Father's desk. That desk is probably the perfect example of my father's terms of neat. It has everything on top of it, crumpled papers, uncrumpled papers, opened books, unopened books, opened maps, unopened maps, empty boxes, and even a dinner plate from yesterday. Father's desk has so much stuff on it; I once played "I Spy" with Lorina solely using the desk.
"Meow!" Dinah purrs as she rubs her head against one of the legs of father's desk.
"I wish that it was not showering outside. I do hate the cat being inside while I'm working," Father said as he looked down at Dinah.
"Me too," If it weren't raining I wouldn't be having this nervous conversation with Father. Why did he call me into his study again?
"Meow!" Dinah had now moved to the next leg of the table. Why do cats like to rub their heads on things anyways?
"Alice, take the cat out of the room, before she jumps onto my desk."
"Yes sir," I say as I set down the mirror on Father's desk to pick up Dinah.
"Oh, and darling, will you please give this letter to the maid," Father says as he picks up a letter from the many things on his desk.
"I will," I said as Dinah started to purr in my arms.
"Good, and, Alice, will you please make sure that Dinah stays out of my study for the rest of the day," Father added as he handed the letter to me.
"I will," I promise as I walk out of the study to go deliver the maid her letter.
A/N
My terms of clean are the same as Alice's dad.
. . .
B/N Where as my terms of clean are everything put away . . . except for books of course. Books belong wherever their little hearts desire. =D