An old-fashioned story where Elton and his wife Renate make the sweetest, deepest love...
(Circa 1987, England.)
Renate paced around the living room, looking frantically for the vacuum cleaner someone misplaced around the house.
"I know it's here! I just saw it last week!" She muttered, looking through every closet in every room now. Her husband Elton would be home any minute and she wanted the house to be spick and span for him.
After she was unable to find it in the closets, she looked under some blankets, behind couches, and in just about every stupid and senseless place she could find for it. However, it was nowhere to be found.
"Ugh, well I hope he's not in a bad mood tonight. I really wanted things to look clean around here." She thought, heading for the feather duster that lied on the fireplace in the next room over. She would dust off the lamps and end tables for them to relax beside as he came home.
Elton finished a show three nights ago in Australia and was coming home for a little break before he went off to do another one, and she wanted his home to be as nice and cozy as possible for him. After all, what did the phrase 'home sweet home' come from anyways?
After dusting off many of the lamps, Renate rushed back to the fireplace and put the feather duster down, then thought of what else she could do next.
"Candles." She thought, realizing there were unlit candles all around her for decoration. Why not put their warm, intimate atmosphere to use? She was feeling a little romantic anyways.
Rushing to the kitchen, she found a lighter in one of the drawers and returned to the candles quickly. As she lit each one, she was paranoid that she might be hearing Elton's footsteps by the front door, waiting to come inside. Pressured, she stepped up her pace even further.
Once the candles were lit, Renate put the lighter back and began working on the couches. They were hairy from the dogs' fur-
"Oh shoot!" She suddenly remembered. I left the dogs outside! She ran to the back door to call his favorite Shepherds in, who were gleefully running and frolicking in the dark grass.
"Bruce!! Brian!! Get back here!" She called for the the young dogs, and they obeyed eagerly.
"Good boys!" Renate praised, petting them as they came inside and licked her cheeks.
"Your Elton's coming home soon, so I'd advise you two rambunctious pups to settle down for him. You know he doesn't like it when you jump on him!" She told the dogs, who looked up at her curiously, wondering if she had a biscuit or something instead. Laughing at their faces, she pet them once again.
The dogs calmed down to snack on some bones while Renate worked on cleaning the living room especially for Elton. She knew the feather duster wouldn't get the fur off the side of the couches, so she grabbed a roll of duct tape in the kitchen to help.
First she carefully placed the tape on every inch of the couch where there was fur, then she ripped the tape off quickly to make sure all the fur came off, similarly to waxing. The trick worked marvelously! After removing the fur, Renate threw the filthy tape pieces away and fixed the pillows on the couch so that they were lying tidily on the couches' corners. Then she went to the laundry room to fetch out a freshly washed, warm blanket over the couch to cuddle in.
An insanely soft, feathery red blanket was waiting in the dryer for her as she opened up the door. Everything smelled of clean, fresh linen and cotton, and Renate couldn't help herself but to bury her face in the comfy, silky surface of the blanket and smell its glory.
"Ahhh, he's gonna love this." Renate muttered, closing the dryer door and walking back to the couch to throw it over. Once the blanket was neatly laid upon the couch, she thought of what else she could do to make their home a little more welcome.
"He'll want some warm coffee to sip as he unwinds probably." Renate decided, hurrying over to the kitchen to prepare a cup. She grabbed his favorite mug, a Watford Football Club design created especially for him for being chairman, and got the coffee machine running with it.
While the coffee was making, Renate realized a close friend left her and Elton a bouquet of red and white roses for their anniversary day recently and it was still sitting in their bedroom. She figured she would bring it downstairs to add a more lovely touch to the the living room coffee table. She bounded up the stairs, remembering he would be home shortly.
To her surprise, when she got upstairs and into their bedroom, the bed was a mess!
"Damn! This whole house is in complete disarray!" She groaned, "I don't remember leaving it like this."
Agitated with all the mess she had to clean, Renate made the bed as fast as she could while not being noticeably sloppy, and folded each corner of the bed skillfully like wrapping a present. Once the bed was made and she adjusted the pillows, she grabbed the flowers that were on their dresser and took them down to the kitchen to change their vase.
She put the old vase in the dishwasher to clean, then grabbed out a beautiful, new heart-shaped vase she bought recently at a French furniture store when she was in Paris recently. It costed nearly a grand, but it was made up of pure crystals and silver lining throughout. She knew he would love its pretty rim glistening along in the light with the luscious roses.
Renate filled the delicate vase up with fresh, warm water and organized the roses carefully so they looked almost professionally arranged. Soon after, the coffee was done, and it was steaming hot. She removed it from the machine and turned it off, then added some sweeteners and such to make it the way Elton loved it.
Picking up the vase and mug, she slowly walked over to the coffee table as to not drop anything and placed the mug down on a coaster. Then she put the flowers on top of the fireplace, but nearby a standing lamp so it would be seen. She closed the blinds and then-
"Hey darling, I'm back!"
Bruce and Brian ran to the front door like their life depended on it, greeting their favorite person the the whole world with many licks and kisses.
"Ohoho, good boys! Did ya miss me!? I missed you! Oh yes I did! I missed your nosy noses sniffing my bum and following me all over the house!" Elton giggled to his faithful companions in a baby-talk manner, something he adopted shortly after owning pets.
Renate walked over to the doorway and leaned against it with a smile, tilting her head and putting a hand on her hip. She silently watched her man play with the dogs for awhile, not even the slightest bit noticing her in the doorway until he began to actually walk through it.
