Disclaimer: The characters of the Stephanie Plum series belong to Janet Evanovich and are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Challenge: Perfectly Plum Wednesday Challenge – Week 2 - "You want me to put that where?"
Young Carlos Helps With The Groceries
By TT
Carlos stood near this dad as his father unloaded the groceries from the bags.
His mother had tripped over a toy on the stairs and sprained her ankle. Now she had to stay in bed with her foot on a pillow for over a week and Carlos’ dad had been in charge of shopping and taking care of the kids while their mom recovered.
Since it was summer, there was no school, so Carlos had gone shopping with his father. Between the two of them they had gotten everything on the list and put away in the proper places; everything except the toilet bowl tablets.
“Honey,” his father called, “Where do the toilet bowl tablets go?”
“In the linen closet next to the tampons,” came her shouted reply.
Carlos’ eyes widened as he saw his father pale.
“You want me to put them where?” he demanded, his voice higher than normal and somewhat strangled.
Carlos backed away a little. He didn’t know what tampons were, but if they could make his father act like this, he was pretty sure he didn’t want to know.
“We’ve been married for fifteen years, had children and you’ve spent enough time down there that you should be well over this by now,” she snapped at him.
Even though Carlos couldn’t see his mother, he knew she would look irritated. She used that same tone of voice on him whenever he did something wrong.
He watched as his father squared his shoulders, set his jaw and headed toward the linen closet. The only other time he’d ever seen his father looking like that was when a drunk man at a party was bothering Carlos’ mom. Grandma Rosa had said it was his fighting stance.
Present
Ranger’s eyes widened in horror. “You want me to put it where?” he asked, his voice slightly higher than normal and sounding just a touch strangled despite the fact he was doing his best to control it.
“In the cupboard under the sink next to the tampons,” Stephanie replied from where she was sitting on the couch, her ankle propped up on a pillow. She had sprained her ankle the previous night when a skip she was distracting decided to try a dance move for which she wasn’t ready.
Ranger felt a light sheen of sweat cover him and he grasped the bottle of shower gel nervously, trying to encourage himself to just put it away and be done with it. After all, he had faced rocket launchers and not flinched, so why did something as simple as coming close to feminine hygiene products cause him to break into a sweat?
He must have stood there a little too long because the next thing he knew Stephanie was looking over her shoulder at him.
“Oh, for Heaven’s sake,” she exclaimed, her exasperation obvious. “You spend enough time around that area of my body and I’m sure other women’s as well. They’re just used in your favorite playground. They’re not going to suddenly sap your manliness. Get over it and put the gel away already.”
Ranger just looked at her for a moment, hearing her mumble something about men and their stupid fear of a simple hygiene product.
Taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it, Ranger squared his shoulders, raised his chin and set out on his mission.
End