Eyes like a warm hearth

When I wake there is no sense of discomfort, no pain, no hurt. There is just this feeling of contentment. Before I know it I have already stood up and started to put away the luggage I discarded yesterday. Was it just yesterday, it feels like way longer, like a different life. The pain from yesterday is only a distant memory, like something which happened years ago.

Dad has vanished from the couch, he's probably already back to work. But he could have at least picked up after himself. There are still empty beer cans laying about and the couch smells like wet dog. I cringe my nose in disgust and decide to do something about the state of this house.

I open the living room cabinet to take out the cleaning supplies. The living room is very dirty and I will need the strong stuff to get the stains out of the couch and the old rug.

While cleaning I hum a little song, something about dwarves and mountains.

Today is a good day, the sun is shining and the birds are chirping, funny how I have never noticed before how beautiful the morning is. How the sun shines through our old and dusty windows, I should clean them as well, and how the dancing dust, send awhirl by my broom, sends beautiful reflections through the room. I start to move with the beat of my own humming and just enjoy the beautiful day, content in doing something productive. I should clean more often, it is fun.

In what feels like minutes, but judging by the movement of the sun has been hours, the ground floor is sparkling clean. I swiftly move on to the upper floor, starting with my own room, I can barely believe I wanted to sleep in this pigsty just yesterday, it is so filthy. A sleeping room must be pristine, otherwise, there is no way a princess could get a restful sleep in it.

Wait … Princess, what am I thinking of, there is no way a princess would ever come to my house... But still, I really need to make sure my room is clean at all times, even a simple maid knows that cleanliness is important. One's property reflects the owner and no one would like to be perceived as unclean.

My thoughts are taking weird turns today, I never cared much about cleanliness before. In a city like Brockton Bay, there is simply no advantage to staying clean. A clean and neat appearance makes it only more likely for you to be mugged. But still, I will take more care of myself in the future, and while I can't do much outside the house, there is no reason to allow the filth of the city into our private quarters.

With the conviction to clean the house at least a few times a week in the future I walk over to my parents, no it's my Dad's room now. But I can't enter, even with my new sense and drive for cleanliness there is no way I can enter this room. Too many memories, too many days in which this room was my sanctuary, I don't want to see this place empty. Better to keep the memories than to taint them with the new reality. I think Dad feels similar because the door is constantly closed now.

The bathroom is more pressing anyway. I quickly change course and start cleaning the bathroom. It is not like I was lying anyway, this place is filthy, bordering on unhealthy. I didn't even notice that the floor tiles were a completely different shade before. Now they look completely new. But that is not even the worst part. The worst part is the mirror, it looks like it has not been cleaned in years, probably because neither my Dad nor I wanted to see just how much of our inner pain could be seen from the outside.

I start using chlorine on the mirror in the hope to get off the worst of the grime. It is slow going, but I am starting to see a blurry black haired shape through the few semi-clean spots. The more I clean the more distinct the shape grows and I start noticing something odd. I am certain my eyes weren't this red when I last looked into a mirror and I am sure someone in the camp would have asked me about it if I had had such red eyes yesterday, it is not the most subtle of colors.

I am frantically cleaning now, but there is no mistake, my eyes are read now. And that is not the only thing different about me. My lips are bigger, more filled and of a beautiful red color. My skin is almost pristinely clean and free of all blemishes. I remember having pimples on my left cheek just yesterday, but today there are gone, completely. Even my hair is more full and somehow even darker than I remember. The only thing I can think about when I see myself fully in the mirror is:

"hair as black as ebony, lips as red as roses, skin as white as snow, eyes like a warm hearth."