The Redecorators

To fill some space I decided to post a little short story I wrote a few years back.  It’s not long at all, and was a cathartic exercise to exorcise some annoyance I had been feeling about certain kinds of tv shows.

Without further ado -

—-

The Redecorators
By James Yoho

Andrew and Melissa awoke to the sound of polite but insistent knocking. As the married couple slowly and reluctantly roused themselves from bed, Andrew took it upon himself to go to the front door. Neither could guess who would be visiting them so early in the morning on a Sunday.

The knocking continued uninterrupted as Andrew pulled his robe around him. His annoyance subsided with each step he took as he woke more. He really wasn’t one to get upset. In the bathroom he could hear Melissa starting the shower. “Join you in a second, hon,” he called back.

As he opened the front door he felt a strange sense of unease pass down his spine. Andrew dismissed it readily and smiled at the couple who waited patiently on his front step.

“Mr. Johnson?” asked the woman who stood in front. She looked to be in her late thirties, or a very youthful looking early forties, with stylishly cut short platinum blonde hair and dimples that dominated her face when she grinned. Andrew felt a bit unsure of all this… the woman did not dress like the police or a religious fanatic and yet he didn’t like her. He wasn’t sure quite why, but he felt as if he were about to be judged.

“Yeah, I’m Andrew Johnson. Something I can help you with?”

“We are here to help you, actually. My name is Dolores, and my associate here is Frank.”

Frank stepped forward as he was introduced and Dolores stepped aside to give him room. Andrew found himself shaking the stranger’s hand.

“Hello, Mr. Johnson.”

A good head shorter than Andrew’s height of six feet, Frank was either bald or he shaved his head completely. He did have a well groomed goatee of graying hair, however. Frank’s smile seemed even more threatening than Dolores’s, and despite the friendly blue tint to his eyes Andrew sensed something raging angrily behind them.

Frank moved back and it was Dolores addressing Andrew once more. The two moved as if they communicated in some unseen way. “We represent the Redecorators, Mr. Johnson, and your home has been selected for a complimentary make-over.”

As benign as it sounded, Andrew still felt that something was wrong. Melissa hadn’t mentioned entering any contest or drawing, and he knew for certain that he hadn’t. Before he could inform them that his family did not need nor want a home make-over he felt a small tug on the sleeve of his robe. Turning and looking down he saw Michael, his eight year old son, staring up at him.

“Who’s here, Dad?”

Suddenly they were in the foyer and closing the door. Andrew looked back at Dolores and Frank with more than a little annoyance. Neither paid him much attention as they made a big show of looking around the room at family pictures and the furniture. Andrew took hold of his son’s arms and looked Michael in the eyes.

“Go wake your sister, but stay in her room.”

Michael looked confused but nodded and went off to obey his father’s instructions. Down the hallway and into the door on the left he went, leaving his father to deal with the strangers.

Satisfied his son was safely away, Andrew turned his attention back on the intruders. To his dismay he found that almost all the pictures were already gone and half of the furniture as well. Dolores and Frank looked at him as if trying to scrutinize whether or not he belonged there.

“I don’t know who you work for or why you came to my house, but you have three seconds to leave before I call the police.”

Dolores went back to checking out the furniture while Frank passed Andrew and started down the hallway. The man headed towards the door Michael had entered moments earlier. Andrew started after him in an instant, suddenly worried for his family’s safety. He grabbed Frank’s arm just as the man turned and faced the door to his daughter Jenny’s room.

A moment passed as Frank looked at the door with some intensity. A strange sensation slipped through Andrew’s mind, and he let go of Frank’s arm. He stood, looking with worry upon the door as Frank walked, unmolested, further down the hall to the sounds of the shower running.

Andrew looked after Frank, confused, before turning back to see Dolores finishing up with the living room. She adjusted a picture on the wall, one of Andrew with his arm around a strange woman… not Melissa. Faintly, some part of his mind heard Melissa’s cries of protest that suddenly died out. Dolores smiles at Andrew, the hidden energy behind her eyes almost transforming her face into something demonic.

Frank came back down the hallway, leading the woman from the new picture on the wall. Andrew recognized Linda, his wife that he had just married last week. This was their new home… the one that Dolores and Frank had been hired to help them decorate, that’s right. Suddenly Andrew wondered why he had felt so threatened earlier, and then he didn’t even remember the feeling.

“Linda and I want to thank you for everything you did here. The place looks great!” Andrew reached out his hand to shake Frank’s, then Dolores’s hands. “We really appreciate all your hard work.”

Dolores smiled at Andrew and Linda, in turn, as Frank got the door. “Oh, it’s our pleasure. This place looks much better now than it did with the previous family that was here, believe me.”

Andrew and Linda waved happily to the Redecorators as they pulled away.

Linda pulled Andrew aside after they were alone. “Honey, I have some good news for you.”

“Yeah?”

“Remember how we were going to save that second bedroom for a child?”

—-

It’s probably pretty obivous what kind of tv shows were vexing me at the time I wrote this.