400-word Short Story

Written by: Rae

Emmalie scowled at her cat. The little booger had hopped up onto the bathroom counter and was this close to knocking over all of her makeup products and toiletries.   

    Emmalie had a bad day. Sure, maybe she shouldn’t be thinking that way, but it was true. Her Mom had called and told her that her and Dad couldn’t make it to dinner that night because “Bingo night was rescheduled to tonight!”, which was frustrating considering that she had slaved away with prepping a fancy and fabulous five-course meal the night before. Now what was she supposed to do with all that food?

Second, Emmalie’s sister had volunteered to collect coats for her church. She’d done very well, collecting over 40 lightly used coats and jackets. The kicker? Emmalie’s sister had dropped all of those items off at Emmalie’s because “I have guests coming over tonight! Oh, and by the way, the church doesn’t need those anymore anyway. A department store donated 100 brand-new coats earlier today, so they don’t need our used ones anymore. Good luck getting rid of them!” Oh, Emmalie had a few choice words for her beloved sister. Not to mention she was supposed to have guests too. Now she had 40 stupid pieces of clothing to get rid of.

Those two things combined with traffic, missing lunch because she needed to meet a work deadline a coworker thrust upon her, and her cat, she simply wanted to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and a book, or just take a nap, she really didn’t have a preference at this point. Emmalie was done with the day. 

Emmalie’s cat, the little furball,  meowed threateningly at her. Emmalie felt a drop of sweat roll down her cheek.

The phone rang.

The noise, sadly, startled her cat.

The sound of all her 37 makeup products and toiletries hitting the floor seemed to go on forever.

Emmalie straightened her back and speed-walked over to her phone across the hallway. She didn’t want to think about cleaning that up right now, that was a problem for post-phone-answered Emmalie.

“Hello, Emmalie speaking.”

Long phone call and story short, her best friend’s boyfriend’s brother’s church wanted to ask if she could possibly spare some clothes or food for the homeless, because it was supposedly going to be below freezing tonight.. Emmalie told them she’ll keep it in mind.

Emmalie let out a sigh as she slowly lowered herself onto her living room couch.

    Now what was she supposed to do with all her extra food and clothes?

Wait…

Food and clothes?

Emmalie launched herself across the room to her phone. She had somebody to call back.