5: Dry Cleaners

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It was a cold Saturday evening in December. Harry had just pulled into the driveway of his small suburban home and turned off the engine. After grabbing his keys, he got out of his SUV, went around to the back door on the passenger side and opened it up. He gasped when he saw his four year old son standing up out of his car seat.

"Benjamin Malik. How many times have I told you to stop unbuckling your seatbelt before I do? I know we are home. But it's daddy's job to unbuckle you. Not yours. So leave it up to me to do it. Okay?"

Gift bags and boxes on the backseat caught Harry's eye and he immediately smiled.

"So tell me. Did you have fun at the birthday party grandma threw for you?"

He nodded.

"I'm glad. Today was your special day. You turned four. How does it feel to be four?"

He reached forward to tickle Benjamin and made him laugh. But his laughter made Harry stop and observe him with love.

"Gosh... Every time you crinkle your nose like that, you look like your Papa. In fact, you look more and more like him everyday. You know that?"

The boy shook his head.

"Well you do. Now come on let's go inside and then I'll come back out and get your gifts."

He lifted Benjamin up and put him on his hip. But as he got ready to walk up to the front door, Benjamin suddenly puked out of nowhere right onto the front of Harry's winter coat.

"Ew!" Harry said and he groaned. "I knew I shouldn't have let you eat so much cake and then go play so soon."

He quickly ran up to the front door, unlocked it and sat Benjamin down. "Just go wait for me in the bathroom. Stand there and don't touch anything. I'll be right back."

Having being thrown up on so close to his face, Harry could smell it and it did not smell good. But he wanted to go ahead and get the gifts inside before he took care of it. So once he got all the gifts, he locked the SUV and game back inside. Then he rushed to the bathroom where Benjamin was still standing as he was told.

He knelt down in front of him.

"Do you still feel like puking?" He asked.

Benjamin nodded.

"Well, let's get you out of these clothes, get your face washed and mouth rinsed out first. And then I'll give you a pepto tablet to settle your stomach."

As he started to take off Benjamin's coat, he got a whiff of the vomit again and looked in the mirror to see how bad it really was. That's when he realized there was a pinkish colored stain on his otherwise tan colored coat as well as Benjamin's blue puffer coat which had obviously come from the red fruit punch he'd had at the party.

"Oh great. Successfully dodge a nosebleed today, only to get vomited on. Hooray for me."

He could easily wash Benjamin's coat in their washing machine at home. But his own coat was wool and it was going to have to go to the dry cleaners as soon as possible. Hopefully they'd be able to take the stain out. If not, he might need a new coat.

➡️ ➡️ ➡️

Of course though, it was just Harry's luck that the night happened to be Saturday. The dry cleaners was never open on Sunday. So he had to wait until Monday before he could finally bring it in.

When he walked in, one of the workers was at the counter handing a man a suit covered in a plastic garment cover.

"Have a good day. Come back and see us."

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