Scrittura Magazine
The Queen of Clean Tom Tolnay
From the far end of her spacious living room, Marietta Parsons could spot an ant–the tiniest species of ant–flattened on the rug, or the faintest spider’s web in a corner of the dimly lighted kitchen, or a wisp of dust on a bedroom dresser in the house she shared with her husband Ralph, her eleven-year-old son Jimmy, and June, her nine-year-old daughter. It had always been her special gift that no smudge of dirt or crumb of bread or snip of cheese could escape her all-seeing eyes and all-smelling nose, and once she had zeroed in on such a blemish, she would immediately set forth to eradicate the aberration. Even walking from the family van carrying a bag of groceries to the front door of her suburban house, she would eye dead leaves scattered over the concrete walk with disdain, with despair. Moments after entering the house, she would emerge with a broad-whiskered broom, which she would wield vigorously to sweep those revolting dried up leaves out of her sight. ‘Out of sight,’ she would often say to herself, ‘out of mind.’ The latest filth she’d come across in the increasingly dirty world which surrounded her was a streak of lipstick on her husband’s white business shirt, which he’d draped over the padded chair in their bedroom the previous night. Though it was nearly 10:30 a.m. when she discovered this affront, her husband was still wound up in sheets and blankets, having tip-toed into their bedroom past 3 a.m. Marietta pinched the shirt by its shoulders and lifted the soiled garment off the chair, drawing it close to her eyes. No doubt about it–a swath of lipstick was smeared across the collar. ‘Ralph,’ she called. When her husband did not stir in his slumber, she raised the volume: ‘Wake up, Ralph!’ This outburst brought him to consciousness. He rolled onto his side and, through narrowed eyes, saw his wife holding his shirt away from her body, as if it were contaminated. ‘What is this on your collar?’ Marietta demanded, even though ‘the queen of clean’ as her husband sometimes called her, knew precisely what it was. Ralph was so sluggish from being startled awake before his time, he was unable to focus on what she was pointing at. ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘When I sent you off to the office yesterday morning, I made sure you were
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