Christmas In Reverse

by Jeff Baker

“Okay…OOOMPF! Watch the carpet!” Cliff Rogers grunted as he and Terry Slater edged the sofa back to its usual position under the living room window.

“Yeah…got it!” Terry said, carefully edging the end of the sofa against the corner. “Just gotta watch my feet!”

“You’re the one going barefoot!” Cliff said with a grin.

“No shoes on the carpet, remember?” Terry said grinning back. “There! Got it perfect.”

The two forty-somethings who still thought of themselves as young men surveyed the sofa pushed against the corner of the wall.

“Not perfect,” Cliff said. “The little cabinet goes in the corner there, remember? Next to the plug for our chargers and you Mom’s old lamp?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Terry said, glancing over at the stacks of furniture in the dining room which covered and blocked the table they’d pushed against the back wall. “And I think the cabinet is under all that stuff.”

“Swell.” Cliff said. “We can get that all done. But I’m taking a break!”

Cliff plopped down on the sofa and Terry sat down right next to him.

“But we have made progress,” Cliff said looking around the house. “All that furniture we had crammed into the living room and kitchen yesterday.”

“And all your folks’ and my folks’ stuff was, well, still where it was.” Terry said with a laugh.

“Yeah.” Cliff said. “I wish you could have met my Mom. She would have liked you.”

“Thanks.” Terry said, holding Cliff’s hand and reaching over to kiss his husband.

“Look at that stuff,” Terry said after a minute. “It’s kind of like Christmas in reverse! And we have to put all the presents back where we found them!”

“And it’s 95 degrees outside. Ho-ho-ho.” Cliff said.

In another moment an orange streak bounded up to the couch and jumped onto Cliff and Terry, stretching onto their laps and kneading with her paws in their chests.

“Hey, Scooter!” Terry said. “No, we didn’t lose the cat food! Or your bowl.”

“Where was he?” Cliff asked. “I thought he was outside?”

“Hid under the bed as soon as we put it back in the bedroom.” Terry said.

“Bed sounds good.” Cliff said.

“Yeah. After we get that stuff…”

“I know! I know!” Cliff said with another grin.

“Hey,” Terry said to the cat. “We’re getting up. You want to help?”

Scooter looked from one of them to the other, then hopped off their laps and down the hallway to the bedroom as they started getting up.

“Oh well, once more unto the breach?” Cliff said.

“Yeah.” Terry said. “Order pizza later?”

“Sounds good.” Cliff said.

“Okay,” Terry said. “Grab that end of the couch and I got this end. Move it back just…about…yeah.”

—end–