Cheer Up

If there was one thing Lulu hated more than anything else in the world, it was housework. She hated laundry. She hated vacuuming. She hated mopping. She hated doing dishes. She often told her husband Jack that they needed a maid, but money was tight at the moment, and they couldn't afford a maid.

Today, she was mopping the kitchen floor and loathing every minute of it. She begrudgingly pushed that wet, heavy mop around the tiled kitchen floor until it was shiny and clean. She wore a bandana head scarf, a pink blouse, and dark blue jeans.

Once Lulu finished cleaning the floor, she breathed a sigh of relief. She then brought the mop to the sink to rinse it out.

Then Jack came into the house and walked across the kitchen in his dirty boots, leaving muddy footprints all over the floor.

When Lulu turned around, she gasped in horror.

"Look what you've done!" she shouted at him. "You just ruined my clean floor!"

Jack looked down and realized what he had done. He quickly removed his boots to avoid making any more mess.

"I'm sorry, baby," he said.

Lulu was angry. She looked around at the dirtied floor. "Well, I'm not cleaning this up."

Jack frowned. It worried him to see Lulu upset.

"Sorry," he apologized again.

She threw the mop at Jack. "You clean it up! And be quick about it."

Jack obeyed. No questions asked. They both knew who wore the pants in the family...and it wasn't Jack.

He immediately got to work cleaning the floor.

After he finished mopping, Jack went to the living room and sat on the couch with his hands folded in his lap. He just sat in silence and stared down at his hands, feeling badly about himself.

Once Lulu had cooled off, she came over and sat on the couch beside Jack.

They sat in silence for a minute.

"Oh, Jack, don't feel bad," Lulu said, soothingly. "I didn't mean to yell at you."

Jack glanced at her with humble eyes. "So, you're not mad at me anymore?"

A smile appeared on Lulu's face. "I could never stay mad at you...you big lug."

Jack was relieved to hear that, but Lulu could tell that he was still feeling down.

She cocked her head, giving him a playful look. She poked his cheek.

"Show me a smile," she ordered.

He looked at his wife and gave her a small smile without showing his teeth.

"Come on, you can do better than that!"

She slipped her hand under his shirt and tickled his belly to make him laugh.

"That's better," Lulu chuckled.

Jack blushed and shyly lowered his head, now smiling big and genuine. His wife loved to take advantage of his ticklishness. She would always cheer him up that way.

"I'm sorry," she said, patting his knee. "I shouldn't have lost my temper."

Jack wrapped his large arm around his wife and pulled her close, giving her a gentle kiss on the head.

Lulu was pleased to see that he was feeling better, but she wasn't convinced that he was feeling completely better. He needed more cheering up, and she knew just what to do.