I believe in spirits. Why not? If the Lucky Charms can have their leprechauns and the Spielbergs can have their poltergeist, who is to say that I can't have my Dirty Clothes Fairy?
Like most fairies, this one is a creature of the night, doing its work unwitnessed while everyone sleeps. This morning, the TV room was a wonderland of bags, baskets, and hampers all brimming over with bedsheets, sweatpants, lingerie and socks. It must have been fairies because the lone college student that came home late yesterday for a semester break could not possibly have produced this much dirty laundry by herself. I know that because she lives in a dorm just 2 floors above the communal laundry room and where are all those containers of change we keep giving her going if not to the washers and dryers?
This particular sprite is not limited to working with undergrads. On top of the heap nearest the stairs is a button-down oxford shirt with a 17" collar that reeks of the distinctive essence of cold smoke and stale beer so characteristic of the graduate student returning home in the wee small hours. Isn't it nice that the Dirty Laundry Fairy associates with grad students, too?
A more cynical mother might view that last as an opportunity too good to pass up for someone who is still wrestling with the concept of time management when it comes to his own laundry control strategies, but not me.
I believe.
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