Margo loves our new stick vacuum. She also hates it passionately. The love comes from its convenience: it’s light, easy to grab, simple to clean, and stores away like a dream. At any moment, she can whip it out and suck up whatever life has dropped on the floor.
But here’s the problem—it reveals everything. It’s too much. Every crumb, every speck, every dust bunny that once lived in peaceful obscurity has now been hit by high-beam. Margo hates that part. Hates it because it proves we’ve been living in filth. What she used to clean once a week now seems unbearable after just 24 hours.
The irony? We never noticed the grime before this. We were blissfully dusty, innocently unclean. Now, she can’t unsee what’s been there forever. The stick vacuum didn’t just change how we clean—it changed how we see the world beneath our feet.
Has our life become easier or harder with the acquisition of a stick vacuum? That depends on whether you prefer ignorance or enlightenment. For now, Margo vacuums every day, muttering under her breath like she was betrayed.
I just keep my feet off the floor and thank the gods of lithium batteries.
–Michael (Dark Fiction. Author of SEETHINGS (the first book), free for a limited time)
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
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