A Borrower's Anthology

Spring Cleaning

Having the house orderly and free from infestation made the life of a borrower much easier. When pesticides were sprayed by those companies--stomping through in their white gear--it meant the amount of cockroaches and house centipedes was reduced to a paltry total. They were always hardest to kill with their incredible speed or tough outer shell. Once the fumes were sprayed, however, there was no outrunning the gases. No amount of legs would outpace that noxious wave.

Fortunately, the house only needed to have its perimeter sprayed outside--not in--to keep the insects manageable. Instead, death rolled through the house not by a series of chemical droplets but sometimes in the sound of a vacuum cleaner.

When the buzz was nothing more than a low hum, the borrowers didn't have to fret about it too much. More often than not, Mrs. Henderson kept to the first floor living room and kitchen. Upstairs, she said it was her children's responsibility to clean their own room by the time she double-checked her way. And her way was much more thorough and far more nerve-wracking. Despite not moving the wall paneling, she was able to find those particular cracks or crevices where the suction of her vacuum's hose could get any extra debris out. Their furniture wouldn't be pulled through, thank god, but if the power on the nozzle was fierce enough, it easily tampered with some of their pulley systems and furniture. The last thing any of them wanted was for an odd noise to attract Mrs. Henderson's attention. They already worried enough about making sure the panels didn't look too off-center to warrant remodeling.

The early afternoon had begun with that low thrum; it wasn't enough to rouse Nick from bed, nor did it rush his Aunt and Uncle in, but it was in the back of all of their minds nonetheless. What did spring him up from bed however was the series of taps at their wall. First there was one, then a pause of about three seconds, and finally two more knocks. That was Darius' knock. Nicholas frowned as he sat up and shuffled out of bed.

Philip and Darius had created a system of knocks as a code for the borrowers whenever something occurred in their house. A single, hard knock against the walls meant to stay put. Three knocks in a row meant something was happening to the room and they needed to relocate for the time being until it was safe. So what did Darius want him to come out for on a day where they all should have been staying put?

Peering out from the panel, the first sight to greet Nick was indeed Darius' face, but it wasn't completely angled at him. Half of his attention faced the doorway. His hand was still angled beside his headboard, but when he went to knock again, this time it ended up knocking against Nicholas. It pushed a little air from Nick's lungs. The change from hardwood to soft body though earned Darius' gaze then.

"You spooked by something?" Nick asked, hearing his own uncertainty leak through to his voice.

Darius' face didn't lose the furrowed eyebrows, but he did bite his lip. "Remember when we had to hunt down those mouse traps my mom had?"

How would Nick have forgotten it? That had been a long and careful night; disarming a mouse trap was a lot easier said than done when one was practicing stealth. The traps were noisy. One of Nick's hands subconsciously drifted to his leg as his shin twinged. "Did she put more down?"

"Not exactly, no, but she's hiring a pest control service just to make sure everything's fine, so they'll have to come into the house."

Nick's heartbeat lost its rhythm for a moment. "Today?"

"Tomorrow. We're--wait, don't go yet." Darius' finger and thumb grasped Nicholas' arm before he was able to return into the wall. "Philip's already telling Michelle right now," Darius said. "We were thinking about having you guys stay with us for a couple nights. It's the weekend--we won't be going anywhere."