THE MOTHER'S DAY FANFIC CHALLENGE

the mother's day challenge: i have a fic too... it's a little *ahem* longer than it's supposed to be, but i guess it's still okay. this is based largely on my own experience, and my present mood today.
 

"Oatmeal and Pinstripes"

by ami

Jessie Bannon sank wearily into a basket of folded laundry. She had wanted to get a job of her own so that she would have to depend on her father for cash. Since there were few jobs for 15 year olds, she had chosen housekeeping. *Big mistake,* she decided, staring at the heap of un-ironed clothes. *Cleaning houses is hard work!*

After battling the oatmeal from Hell in the breakfast dishes, she mopped the floors (not an easy task when the mop kept breaking), dusted the first and second floors, and scrubbed the bathrooms. She now reflected on the salary she had accepted. At the time, $7.50 per hour sounded wonderful. Now, she decided that meager sum might just pay for Band-Aids for her blisters.

Jessie neatly sent the hot iron over the creases in the pinstripe dress shirt, thinking happily about how someday she would be a good wife. Her pager rang, and she ran upstairs to answer it. She saw on the little digital read out that it was only Jonny, with the message, "Aren't you done yet?"

She growled and marched back to the basement. The light odor of singed polyester assaulted her nose as she came down the stairs.

Jessie darted down the stairs just in time to see the pinstripe burst into flames. Quickly, she sprayed it with a nearby fire extinguisher. Jessie wrinkled her nose her nose when she saw the shirt, toasted black and coated with slimy flecks of extinguisher stuff. Needless to say, she panicked and grabbed the shirt and thundered up the stairs.

She half-dialed Mrs. Evan's number, then remembered that it was her day off. Then she dialed her mother, in South America. The phone clicked on the other end, "Mom! I'm in trouble!"

"What is it honey? Is someone out to get you?! Where are you?"

"I'm over at the neighbor's house on a housekeeping job! I just fried a nice shirt when I was ironing! What do I do?"

"Is it salvageable?" her mother asked timidly on the other end of the line. Jessie looked dubiously at the wrecked shirt, "No. It's burned and coated in the stuff from the fire extinguisher!"

Estella's voice took on a conspiratorial air, "Then run next door, get one of your father's shirt's and replace it."

"But won't dad get mad?"

"Just blame it on me," Estella said, "Now get going!"

"Okay. Bye! And thanks, Mom!"

Jessie hung up the phone with hope. $7.50 per hour might just be a good way to start saving up for a really great Mother's Day present...

THE END.