(fictional story about fictional characters)
(I know this isn't my usual subject matter, but I was watching reruns and The Brady Bunch, S4, E23, "A Room at the Top", came on. This is a story that was begging to be written.)
Just a week before, the whole family had gathered to celebrate Marcia's 18th birthday; and now they were all gathered again but for a far less fun reason. Mike, the patriarch of the bunch, had decided that this would be the perfect weekend to clean out the attic. After this weekend, Summer would start in earnest and everyone would be busy with their own agendas. Greg, Marcia, Jan and Peter all had various summer jobs; Bobby had Little League and play-dates with friends, and Cindy...well, Mike wasn't exactly sure what little girls did all summer. They had started the task very early on Saturday morning because the day was predicted to be a southern California scorcher, and there was very little (actually none) circulation in the attic.
It was hard, tedious work, with a lot of complaining by everyone (yes, even the Bradys got irritable); but usually they ended up laughing at some long-hidden gem in the attic. Load after load of stuff was trudged down the flights of stairs to the Brady garage, where it was sorted into two piles: one (the largest one) for the trash hauler, and the other for "treasures" they were contemplating keeping. Most of the second pile would later be added to the first pile. They were determined to finish the project on Saturday so they would have Sunday to relax.
When they were nearly done, Greg corralled his father and asked: "now that all the old junk is out of the attic, do you have any plans for the space."
"No, I guess we'll just use it to accumulate NEW junk," his father laughed.
"I was thinking that it would make a good place for a bedroom," Greg suggested, "You know after this summer, I'll only be home on weekends and it would be really nice to have some privacy from Peter and Bobby. They can be super annoying, and you know a guy my age needs some privacy. I can put some poster up and it'll be fine."
Mike DID know what Greg meant...he had kept magazines under his mattress when he was Greg's age himself. "That idea is not half bad," he slapped Greg on the back, "it will cut down on the little squabbles you have. I'll tell your mother."
Out in the garage at precisely the same time Marcia was talking to her mother: "hey mom, I was thinking that the attic would make a groovy bedroom. I could put up some curtains and posters and make it my own sanctuary. A girl my age really needs some privacy. I love Jan and Cindy, but sometimes I just need to be alone...you understand."
"Of course," Carol agreed, "I think that sounds like a fine idea...I'll let your father know."
Upstairs in the boys' room, Greg had broken the news to Peter and Bobby, who were overjoyed with the prospect of getting rid of their bunk-beds. When the dust from the thorough sweeping had finally settled, they even volunteered to help him lug his stuff up to the attic. They just dropped the boxes in the middle of the attic and abandoned them. When Marcia carried her first box up to her new bedroom, she was perplexed when she found more boxes. Just then Greg appeared on the stairs carrying a small end table made from a milk crate. "Why are you cluttering up my new bedroom," she asked.
"You mean MY new bedroom," Greg told her, "dad said I could have the attic."
"Well mom promised it to me," his sister defiantly answered, and stood at the top of the stairs with her arms akimbo.
"Well I'm the oldest and I asked first," Greg informed her, crowding by and setting his crate down.
"No I asked first, and you don't get everything just because you're the oldest," she told him.
Just as it was starting to turn into a shouting match, Mike and Carol appeared on the stairs and Mike spoke up: "OK you two; your mother and I made a mistake and didn't consult each other before promising the attic to either of you. I never occured to us that either of you would want this hot, stuffy old space, until you asked."
"OK, so who gets the attic," Greg inquired, the sweat dripping off his brow.
"We're going to let you two reach that decision...and no arguing," Carol told them, "whatever you decide is fine with us...we trust you to come to a reasonable and fair decision."
When the parents had left the attic, Greg sat on his crate and Marcia sat on the top step. The truth was they really did like each other and didn't want to hurt each others feelings, and Greg started to talk. "After this summer, I'll only be home on weekends because Freshman year I have to live in a dorm on campus...it's the rules. So after the summer the attic will be all yours. I can stand Bobby and Peter on the weekends, I guess. Next summer and next school year, a couple buddies and I have already started to make plans to get an apartment off campus. So I'm only asking for the attic this summer."
"Thanks Greg," Marcia said, acknowledging his sincere effort to reach a solution, "but you just have no idea how annoying Cindy and Jan can be sometimes. This is my senior year and I really need some privacy sometimes."
"No, I get it," he replied. Glancing around, he suggested: "you know, there really is a lot of room up here. We could probably split it down the middle and make two rooms."
"Greg, that's genius," Marcia agreed, "and we'll really only be sharing it for the summer."
"OK, now for logistics," Greg began, "if we split it lengthwise, one of us will get both the window and stairs; and if we split it sideways, one will get the window and the other will get the stairs. How about we split it sideways and I'll take the back half with the window. You'll get the stairs because it's a well known fact that females visit the bathroom much more often than males."
She made a face at him and smiled: "thanks...that sounds like a fair decision; but I'm still making curtains for the window."
"Now...how will we separate the spaces...we can't build a wall," Greg admitted.
"The other night mom was watching some old movie about a couple who had to share a bedroom, and they hung a sheet on some rope," Marcia informed him.
"Wait, I have a better idea," Greg proclaimed, "we can string the rope, then hang shower curtains so we can easily push them aside when we want to go through...and for some ventilation, since I have the only window. I'll bet mom has some old shower-curtain hooks and the curtains are only a couple bucks apiece. What do you think?"
"Sounds groovy," Marcia agreed, "as long as you announce yourself before going through my room...you know, in case I'm changing clothes or something."
"Deal," he agreed and stuck out his hand for her to shake.
"You know, if we get moving, we can stay up here tonight," Marcia suggested. "I'm going down to change my clothes...it really is H-O-T up here." They had all worn old sweat-pants and sweatshirts for the dirty attic-cleaning job, and were now over-dressed for the stifling space.
The next time Greg climbed the attic stairs, his arms were full and Marcia was already up there hanging some posters and fabric on her walls. She had changed into a pair of incredibly short cut-off jeans and when she stretched toward the roof, the bottoms of her perfectly round ass cheeks peeked out. Her scarf was gone and her long, blond hair fell down her back like a waterfall. Greg stopped dead in his tracks and thought: "holy crap...my sister is a fox...when did that happen?"
He felt guilty for staring and when she caught him, Marcia asked: "what...don't you like the fabric?"
"Uh...no...I mean yeah, as long as it's on your side," he responded, "hey, look what I found. Mom had the extra curtain hooks and extra shower curtains. Dad got me some rope from the garage and there is a big old carpet rolled up down there. I bet it's big enough to cover half of each space if we put it down in the middle. It'll be nice not having to walk on the boards."