Lina's Breakfast

I'm back from college for a few weeks now, and hoping to work on rewriting my novel. I should be posing more often for a little while.

This is a short story I wrote from a crazy prompt my professor gave me this semester. Enjoy!

Lina’s Breakfast

The dog jumped on her bed, startling her awake. “Get off!” Lina grumbled.

He responded with a whimper.

“Rick, get Piglet off me,” she growled, pushing back at the creature who was trying to shove his oversized body against her. Suddenly she slipped off the side of the bed as the Dane continued to push. She landed with a thump. “Richard!” She scrambled up and glared at the other side of the bed, which was conveniently empty.

She scowled, wondering where he went. After last night he should’ve at least had the decency to keep the dog away so she could sleep it.

Piglet stuffed his wet nose into her hand, whining with worry.

“What?” she snapped at the big black and white dog. “What’s your problem?”

He pressed closer against her, staring up at her with his baby-blue eyes.

Pushing him off the bed, she started to climb back into its warmth, muttering about the skittish Great Dane. She paused as she caught a whiff of bacon and coffee.

Her stomach growled. Was Rick making her breakfast? Frowning she grabbed a jacket and ran her fingers through her hair as she headed down the stairs. Piglet sulked behind her, sticking close with his tail tucked. She snorted at the pathetic dog.

“Rick, making me breakfast won’t be enough to make up for yesterday...” She froze in the doorway with her jacket half-zipped. Her heart began to race as she tried to comprehend what she was staring at.

A big red nose with oversized blue polka-dot shoes and a rainbow afro of insultingly bright hair stood in her kitchen, his painted expression beaming at her. He gripped a pan of bacon in one hand and a spatula in the other. “Good morning!”

A scream ripped from her throat as she leaped forward, snatching the ceramic vase on the table. “Get out!” she screeched, hurling it at the clown. It missed by a couple of inches and smashed against the refrigerator with a splintering crash.

He ducked behind the skillet, stumbling backwards over his colossal shoes and yelled as sizzling bacon grease streamed down his hand. “It’s not what you think!”

“Get out!” She grabbed the coffee pot and doused the bumbling intruder with the scalding black liquid.

“Yow! Mrs. Roberts, please! Rick let me in!”

She paused in the act of grabbing for another makeshift weapon. “What?”

He backed up a few steps, holding his gloved hands up in surrender and gulped. “Richard paid me.”

Crossing her arms, Lina gave the man in his sopping, bizarre get-up the fiercest glare she could muster. “For what?”

“To make you breakfast. That’s all.”

She scowled deeper at the man with ridiculous runny make-up in elementary school colors.

“I swear it!”

Stumbling forward a step as Piglet shoved his oversized nose into her leg, she dug her fingernails into her palms. “Get out. Now,” Lina growled.

The clown bobbed his head up and down and quickly waddled out the back door, his mop of hair mangled and dripping.

            As the door slammed shut behind him, Lina drew a shaky breath as she stared down at her trembling hands. Her heart still pounded as she reached down and patted the dog. “He’s not gonna get you, don’t worry, Piglet.”

            The dog peered up at her, tentatively wagged his tail, then trotted forward to sniff at the mess. Ceramic pieces sprinkled across the floor lying in the pool of coffee and splattered bacon grease. She shook her head. “That man...”

Stepping over the mess, she picked up the phone and dialed her husband’s number. He didn’t answer, which didn’t surprise her after what he’d pulled, but it was too early for him to have left for work yet. “Richard Roberts, if you don’t get home, clean up this mess and make me some coffee by the time I’m out of the shower, you’ll be sleeping in the garage till February.” After leaving the message she put the dog outside and made sure all the doors were locked before heading upstairs.

Lina squeezed her wet hair again with the damp towel then pulled it up into a ponytail and headed downstairs to check the situation.

The radio played the morning news and Piglet bounded over, greeting her with a woof, his rope-like tail wagging back and forth. She ruffled his black ears and peaked around the corner, not taking another chance at being surprised. Rick’s back was to her as he pushed the mop over her much cleaner wooden floor. On the table he’d arranged a bouquet of roses in a new vase, a plate with waffles and bacon, and her favorite mug filled with coffee.

Taking the mug, she swallowed some of the fresh coffee as Rick turned around. A large grin spread across his face, then faded under her frown. “Good morning, dear.”

She narrowed her eyes up at her juvenile husband and said nothing.

He walked over to her with repentant look in his gaze. “I had to prove to you that I was better than a clown.”

“Not by much,” she muttered.

Grinning, he pulled out the chair for her, “I know. Sorry for scaring you. But you really freaked Andy out.”

“Don’t care.” She took the seat. “He scared Piglet.”

“Everything scares Piglet.”

“I know.”

He sat in the chair next to her and gave her a remorseful look. “I’m sorry for standing you up on your birthday. I’m an idiot. I’ll never do it again.”

She averted her gaze into the mug and sighed with defeat. “You’d better not, or next time I’ll dump the coffee on you.”

“Yes, dear.”

He always got her with those big brown eyes.