Aeon Nether & Idol Effigy

Chapter 19- Settling

*^Kathleen Ashmore, Picture from Pinterest advertising recipe from her website (Kathleenashmore.com)^*

Clang.

My neck swerved towards the direction of the loud and obnoxious sound. The loud sound came from where the washing machine was kept.

My Uncle was there. He seemed to have been checking the boiler and just came out to face me.

"Are you hungry?"

"Of Course, uncle."

A soft snickering sound now filled the apartment, before the Uncle continued.

"You need to bathe first. Come on!"

"Come on?"

"Look at you... You'll probably drown trying to take a shower by yourself." His face and voice dropped slightly lower to fit the sad feeling that he was supposedly feeling. He's good at acting though, it made me feel sorry for him.

He was the first person in both 'lives' that seemed to give a damn about me and offer some kind of reassurance that seemed genuine. Not the kind that you'd later hear complaining that you haven't found work yet or asking why they had to put up with you when they only share blood with you.

His nagging didn't make me sad in a bad way, so I answered.

"Fine", muttering in a clear voice I looked around the kitchen again in embarrassment at not being able to clean myself.

I wasn't going to admit it, but in my past life I was also very clumsy. There was a running joke in my family that they'd come into the bathroom constantly to check that I hadn't died.

I won't deny that I often sounded like I was dying in the shower. My voice wasn't that bad, but I always sang awkwardly, because the shower head was close to my mouth. We never raised the shower head higher, although we talked about fixing it after I got a job.

Anyhow, I constantly battled almost drowning whilst crouching in front of the showerhead that didn't wash my head if I didn't crouch.

So, I let the uncle lead me to the bedroom and pick clothes out by himself.

After having picked out a pouffy white dress and pink leggings that he recently supplied me with. He picked me up after that to help me take a shower.

...

It was a really bad shower. I had some expectations beforehand of having a shower. I thought this uncle guy would just use the showerhead as a kind of hose or treat me somewhat carefully. You know, stuff you'd expect someone to do when interacting with a 4 year old that's had a rough start to life.

But no.

The shower was long. I was scrubbed with a scrub brush and loofa until my skin was red. My hair was also cleaned thoroughly until my scalp was emitting squeaky sounds with even the slightest touch.

When the shower stopped and I was being dressed up, I threw a throw away comment at this guy who asked me to call him uncle.

"Uncle, you told me to call you uncle, but you clean like an aunt."

"Well, I didn't know you also knew an aunt that cleaned stray mutts for a living", he quickly retorted.

After that I decided I learnt my lesson and kept quiet for another 3 hours.

Within those three hours I waited for the uncle to cook me my meal whilst watching some TV.

Apparently, I was told that I needed a full meal since my diet for the past years was largely dungeon based. He said it shouldn't be painful and will help me settle back onto Earth and will help in the future.