The clean sweep of the broom challenge
Teresa was savagely angry. She slams the door behind her. Then she sets the broom in the corner. With any luck she wouldn’t need it again today. After removing her outdoor shoes, she begins to clean up her muddy tracks on the floor. This takes her all of ten minutes, however it is just long enough for her to realize that she left her keys outside.
Panic races through her system, as she thinks of encountering them again. She used all her courage for the first battle. It was a hard won victory. Well…she made it back inside the house. Which, in her mind, was a decisive victory. But her keys were outside. Outside with them.
Teresa lived in a nice neighborhood. She lived alone, and has lived here for many years. In fact, Teresa purchased one of the first houses built in the neighborhood. Until recently that was one of the best decisions she ever made. With this in mind it was the raccoons that had changed things. In fact, when she thinks back on it now, she owed it all to those damn raccoons.
The clean sweep of the broom challenge
Once she has the floor cleaned she makes some hot chocolate. The day was very cold and breezy. It’s possible that helped her. She wasn’t too sure. It had been a furiously savage battle. Well…she swung the broom furiously. The raccoons were somewhat afraid. However it took some serious yelling to get her point across. She was screaming at the top of her lungs as she chased them back into the woods across the street.
Moreover she had cursed them, while screaming and smacking them with the broom. She was going for the clean sweep. Damn things had ruined all her gardens, and plucked every one of her flowers. Not to mention the daily vandalizing of her garbage cans. Teresa was livid when she saw them pulling up the remaining flowers in her garden. She grabbed the broom, and the war was on.
She rushed from the house waving the broom and screaming,
“You cursed furry pests, be gone!” She was chasing them for real, and still screaming.
“Confound it, be gone, be gone! Better you be yard gnomes than bandits, now be gone!” She punctuated each word with a swing of the broom. Each swing connecting with a furry hide was very satisfying. The raccoons raced into the woods, and Theresa returned to her house on an adrenaline high.
The Broom Challenge
The next day Teresa was preparing to leave for work. The incident from yesterday was still fresh on her mind. Additionally her keys were still outside. After careful consideration last night, she decided to leave them there. She had no interest in a second battle, with those pesky raccoons. Besides they had no interest in her keys either. As she gathers her things and walks past the broom in the corner, her mind recalls fresh images of swatting raccoon tail, and she grins.
As she walks into the bright sunshine, she squints her eyes. The day is very bright and her sunglasses are in her car. Therefore she shields her eyes and begins looking for her keys. They appear, right in front of her, in the hand of a very small garden gnome. The eyes are flat and without depth, however the smile is unmistakable. Then the little hand of the gnome, shakes the keys for her. And the smile widens.
Teresa blinks, but doesn’t scream. In fact, she simply takes the keys and smiles. Then she looks around her yard, and feels no surprise to see several small yard gnomes, busily tending to her gardens. They all turn their little heads toward her, and smile that flat wide grin. Now that’s how you do a clean sweep, she thinks, and she takes the keys from the helpful little gnome’s hand. Time to get to work, and she smiles all the way there.
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