“Can you just put a cement floor with a drain in the center of it so we can just hose it down every day?” She wasn’t really kidding. A garden hose and a drain would be the smart move in just about any room in this place.
“No, but I mean, get brown or Kool-Aid red floors just to be safe.”
She had done that, sort of. If she put it in their house, it was tough and could withstand a lot.
But their bedroom carpet was different.
She’d had Dean paint the walls a creamy white. Everything in there looked like the inside of a cloud. But when it came to the carpet, she hesitated.
“You want the white plush? Get the white plush.”
Dean wanted her to love the redone bedroom. He wanted her to feel it was hers now, not Jackie’s. Every part of the house was all of their house, but this space, he wanted to give her this space.
J.J. relented and selected a plush white carpet for the primary bedroom. It was like walking on a fluffy robe. Dean had installed it that morning, and she’d spent a criminal amount of time making her bed. She’d found all the linens at T.J. Maxx in Jackson. The entire set, plus accent pillows, was under one hundred bucks.
It was rare their bed was made. J.J. and Dean staggered their work shifts as much as they could manage. If she was in bed, Dean was up early on a job. He would get the kids down to sleep many nights as she took evening clients. They saved on childcare that way. Though it meant someone was always going in or going out of that bed.
But this day, this first day with the new primary bedroom, she had everything just so.
The kids were asleep. She was tucked in her new comforter atop her gorgeous plush white carpet.
She fell asleep in her little cloud. She was content, happy, and satisfied now that this was her house, not the remnants of Jackie’s chaos.
“Mom. Mom.”
J.J.’s eyes flew open. There was little Austin. Standing at her bedside, barefoot on her arctic white plush carpet.
“What?” She’d gone from some dream state to fully alert by the second uttering of Mom.
“BLUURGG.”
Pinkish-red former Kool-Aid combined with chicken nugget remnants shot out of Austin’s mouth at a high velocity.
“Wait, oh!”
But it was too late. He’d christened the brand-new white carpet.
She scooped him up and carried him to the bathroom. Throwing up scared little ones, and Austin was no different. He cried and threw up again at the same time.
She reassured him he was okay. He didn’t feel warm. This wasn’t the flu. It was a tummy issue, she decided.
J.J. cleaned him up, got him to sip some water successfully, and then sat on the floor next to him in his room for a bit. The giant bowl used for puke or popcorn was now perched next to his bed. He fell asleep. She touched his forehead to reassure herself this time.
Again. No fever.
Poor thing. The midnight drama had tuckered him out an, and was sleeping soundly now. An hour after the initial wake-up call, she padded back to her room.
“What happened?” Dean asked. He’d slept through the entire situation.
“Austin lost his dinner all over the new carpet.”
She looked down. She hadn’t thought twice about the carpet in the flurry of settling Austin down.
Dean sat up and looked at the spot. “Ew, is he okay?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m afraid that carpet isn’t.”
