I've been emotionally abusive towards my dry cleaner.
I drop off my rumpled clothes, cheery and grateful - but I'm really just happy to get the outfit off my hands for a few days...like dropping the kids off at the grandparent's. Then, I forget about them. When the dry cleaner calls to remind me to pick up my skirt, I delete the message because wah wah wah, I don't feel like leaving the house this week.
Finally, I return for the garment - but only when a new skirt needs to be cleaned. Then I act all surprised and embarrassed that they've been holding on to the original skirt.
Sometimes I like to be punctual and humane with my dry cleaner - just to throw him off my game. I'll lull him into thinking my neglect really was a fluke...and then I'll be thoughtless all over again. Why? Dunno. Because I'm a horrible, lazy person?
Two days ago, I was feeling in a dry-clean sort of mood. But the cleaner? He was gone! Everything was pulled out of the store - nothing but patchy white walls and scuffed formica flooring. The sign was still up, but there wasn't a forwarding address in the window or anything else indicating what happened. He was just. gone.
Immediately, I felt guilty. Because of me and the 50 other customers who owed $10 that month, the very nice man running the shop had to close. (...or so I suspect...) What a lousy feeling.
So now I'm on the hunt for another cleaner. I promise promise promise I will be good to him. No more neglect. No more lazy bones. No more disrespect. I'll even try to get my garment stains to be extra-interesting...an apparition of the Virgin Mary, Micky Mouse, or George W. perhaps.
We never know what we have 'til it's gone, gone, gone.
PS: In a completely unrelated story, I had back-stabbing dreams last night (a frequent dream theme, in which I dream of being violently stabbed because while I'm asleep in bed, my back is arched in an uncomfortable way). And lo and behold! Today! The Ides of March! I'm so impressed with myself right now for being intuitively literary in my sleep. Happy Ides, Everyone!
