Sidewalk Marching

Tono looked at the mountain of clothes that were stockpiled in the basket he had. Even if the basket was as wide as a mini inflatable swimming pool for kids, it would take at least 5 to 10 plastic bags to carry them all.

Although even if he could carry the lot of clothes, how many washing machines would it take to clean all of them?

So much for getting good grades and behaving in school, Tono thought about his parents asking him to manage the clothes while they were out for breakfast.

He then heard a knock on his door. As it got louder he rushed to the door, agitated. "Yes?" he said politely, but there was no one in particular.

Looking down, he saw a gold coated flute with a red ribbon, and a letter. A present?, he reached out the flute and the letter.

Good morning citizen,

Play this flute in front of your mountain of clothes and you just do the rest, have them follow your pace.

From,

Nimble

"The same Nimble people been talking about on TV and the Internet?" Tono wondered. The flute seemed normal, no different than the ones in a music store.

But then again it wouldn't hurt to try and see what happens.

Taking away the ribbon, Tono blew the flute in front of his clothes. It was a small sound, and nothing happened. He took a deep breath and blew harder, and the clothes were now floating. Shirts, trousers, jeans, pants, undershirts, they were all formed in various lines, each line with 10 pieces of clothes. Tono's eyes widened.

"Reminds me when I led marching band practice." He chuckled before it clicked to him. "Steady!"

The clothes found themselves steady, straightened up. No clothing was wrinkled, but even they needed a wash still. Tono grinned. "Follow my pace. Hup! 1, 2 ,3" he marched with his right foot followed by his left. The clothes followed suite.

"Onward! Follow the leader." he said as he went out of the house and onto the street. He went onto the sidewalk, on route to a small laundry service just a few blocks away in town. He took a few moments to look behind and see that the clothes were in sync with his speed and pacing.

He ignored all of the other people and bystanders who saw the event unfolding.

"Why are there clothes following him? How is this happening." some would ask, mortified by the weirdness.

Tono opened the door to the laundromat, and saw several washing machines that were still empty. In addition, he saw the confused clerk.

"Um, are you washing all of your clothes, sir?" the clerk, a lady in her 20s, asked.

"Yes." Tono replied as he turned to the line of clothes behind him. "Okay. Preferably 10 pieces for each washing machine. Bottom row, you help the other clothes get onto the washing machines above. Before all of that,," he spoke to the clerk. "I think I have about 40 pieces of clothes to be washed today, I'll take the 3 days."

The clerk replied as she took note about the amount of clothes. She tried not to be distracted by the sight of clothes obeying Tono like a marching band leader.

"Okay?" Tono asked the clerk who nodded. "Okay clothes, execute your orders!"

The clothes huddled up in front of the washing machine. Shirts floated above to open the upper washing machines, while the jeans used their legs to open the lower ones. Each of the clothes took turns getting into the machine, up until the last clothing piece. It was harmonious, peaceful and ordered."

"Thank you Nimble." Tono whispered to himself just before he had to pay for the laundry service.