The drawer who wanted to be a washing machine



  The Drawer Who Wanted To Be a Washing Machine!!!

  By Gwynne Whitehorn

  Illustrated By Gwynne Whitehorn

  Copyright Gwynne Whitehorn 2013

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  This is not a story about a boy, or a little girl. In fact, this story is not about a person or about an animal. This story is about a drawer.

  This drawer was very unhappy.

  He lived in a warehouse. A warehouse is a very large place where you put annoying things away, like paperwork or big objects that no one else wants.

  In this warehouse, there were thousands upon thousands of drawers like him. This drawer was unhappy because he lived in the dark. In this place, there were no windows at all, no light and no noise.

  Nothing at all.

  Just silence and darkness.

  Can YOU imagine living in the dark all the time? Well, you would be pretty scared and so were all the drawers, especially the younger drawers!

  The younger drawers would whisper to each other so they were less scared. But the place was so full of dust and webs and dirt that they would sneeze and that would scare them even more! So they stopped talking altogether.

  Let me tell you, this wasn’t a happy place. But wait til you hear the rest: the older drawers were cranky, rusty and mean. They often moved their old shells to make scary rattling sounds.

  The younger drawers would cry and squeeze each other for comfort.

  To make things worse: in this place all drawers were grey. And when the older drawers talked, they talked about the same boring thing. They talked about what was inside their shells.

  You see, inside the drawers, there were thousands of dragons.

  Wait! That doesn’t sound right. Did I say dragons?

  I meant paper sheets…even more boring! Some were printed, some written! All boring stuff really and lots of them! All drawers were ordered alphabetically.

  This place was so big: it was a labyrinth! There were corridors of drawers looking all the same. People got lost. For this reason, there were signposts in every corner so people could find their way in and out. Still people hated the place.

  So they never turned up. This made the younger drawers sadder. But when people did come, there was much excitement in the air.

  All lights were turned on. And as people chatted and walked up and down, drawers listened carefully.

  They loved to listen to the news of the outside world. And when people were gone, it was like a big celebration and drawers whispered for days about they had heard.

  However, nothing cheered our drawer. He was different from every other drawer. You see, he had a dream for himself. He wanted to be a washing machine.

  He had heard someone saying how great the new washing machine was and since that time, he kept thinking how great it would be to be a washing machine. Of course he didn’t know exactly how a washing machine looked like or how it worked even. Maybe it had handles like him. Or maybe it was shaped like an hour glass with large brushes in the middle. Or maybe it worked like a slide. But surely it cleaned spiders and dust. Of course you, dear reader, know that a washing machine has buttons and only clean clothes but this drawer had never seen a washing machine before.

  He didn’t like living in this closed and very still place. So one day that he felt particularly gloomy, he started to turn the paper sheets round and round. At first it tickled him. He wasn’t turning all those sheets of paper very well but he kept at it and soon he was doing a very nice job. However his fellow drawers started to complain.

  “We can’t sleep!” they cried.

  But he didn’t care. Soon they began to laugh and make fun of him.

  “You’re completely crazy!” they said.

  But he wouldn’t listen to them. In his dreams, he imagined having many handles: some would turn things fast and some would turn things slow. Then all things would come out fresh, airy, and beautiful again and that made him happy.

  Day in and day out, he turned all the paper sheets, turn, turn, round and round. He had fantastic fun doing that. Sometimes some papers fell out on the floor but he didn’t care much about that.

  Unfortunately one person did. It was the boss of the warehouse. His name was Mr Bottleneck.

  You see, once a week, Mr Bottleneck would check if every corridor was in order.

  On that week Mr Bottleneck was doing his inspection as usual and when he saw the mess, he wasn’t happy.

  He immediately reported this to all his employees. Mr Bottleneck had three employees: Robert, Sally and Margaret. When the employees saw how angry their boss was, Robert, Sally and Margaret were very surprised.

  It was very strange indeed. They checked the corridors every day and none of them had noticed the paper sheets on the floor.

  Robert who was the most serious of them three said:

  “This is just a draft! I’ll double check this next week.” But the following week when he noticed the paper sheets on the floor, he was quite surprised. This was very odd indeed. However he picked up the paper sheets and put them back in the drawer and forgot about it all.

  But of course our drawer had to do his training. So on Friday when Mr Bottleneck arrived and saw the mess again, he wasn’t impressed at all. He warned his employees again.

  “Whoever played this game has to stop!” screamed Mr Bottleneck quite upset. The three employees assured him that it wasn’t them.

  Robert said: “I won’t go there anymore!” So next, Margaret offered to take care of it. With her clicking shoes, she walked up and down the warehouse. As soon as the drawer heard her coming his way, our drawer stopped his training. But it was too late.

  There were already loads of paper sheets on the floor. When Margaret saw all the mess on the floor, she grew worried. Quickly she tidied them up. She gave another glance on the floor. All clean! Relieved, she went home pleased with herself.

  However on Monday Mr Bottleneck arrived to do his weekly inspection and when he saw all the mess again: Oh boy, he was furious!

  “This better stops or I’ll be firing people next!” he shouted before leaving.

  All of a sudden, everyone went very quiet. Nobody wanted to go back to that part of the warehouse, in case it would be all messy again. They didn’t want to be fired. Yet courageously Sally offered to go.

  Sally was the youngest of the three employees. She had long hair and wore slippers.

  She began to walk very quietly up the corridor where the mess usually appeared. But as soon as she saw the paper sheets on the floor again: she started to cry.

  “All this mess again! Maybe there’s a ghost!” she said terrified. “Oh I’m going to be fired and what will I do when I get fired? I like this job! Oh someone is playing a very nasty trick on us!” she cried.

  Upon hearing this, our drawer got very sad. He didn’t know he had upset people. But he couldn’t speak to Sally. There was a very strict rule between drawers. No drawer was allowed to write to humans. And if they did, this drawer would be cast away from other drawers forever.

  But our drawer didn’t care. Quickly he drew a note and let it fall to the floor just as she was leaving.

  Sally saw the note and read it.

  It said: “Sally, don’t cry! I’m sorry. I promise I’ll tell you what’s happen
ing if you listen to me.”

  She looked around. The corridor was empty.

  Then another note fell. She picked up the note.

  “So do you want to know the secret of this place?” said the note.

  She looked right and left but there was still no one around. “Yes,” she said out loud feeling a little foolish to be speaking alone.

  To her surprise when she looked on the floor, another note had fallen. She read the new note.

  It said:

  “There is a curse on this drawer. Move it away, replace it with another one and everything will be okay again.”

  Sally was very surprised. All the same she wanted to get this problem fix. The very next morning, she went to her boss and explained that one drawer, in section Y, was cursed and should be replaced. She even offered to pay for a new one.

  Well believe it or not, Mr Bottleneck said she wouldn’t have to. As long as she would get rid of it herself, he would pay for a new one. Sally agreed and left Mr Bottleneck’s office very happy.

  Sally kind of liked this drawer now. To her, it wasn’t cursed at all. It was her lucky drawer and besides she knew what do with it.

  She asked her colleague Robert to put it in her car. Our drawer was a little curious as where he was going but he didn’t say a thing.

  Sally brought the drawer home and she started to clean it nicely. Then she painted in pink because she liked pink very much and never liked grey much. And she installed the drawer in her utility room.

  And guess what? She put it next to her washing machine and dryer. She decided that this was going to be a nice closet to put all her fresh and clean clothes.

  Every day the drawer welcomed square pieces of textile she called “trousers” and soft “jumpers” and beautiful “scarves” after they have been to the washing machine and drier. The clothes had all sorts of fragrances: lilac, rose, mint and citrus and all of sorts of colours and shapes as well. But what the drawer liked the most was to listen to the birds outside and watch the sun rise and set. In his wildest dreams, the drawer never thought he could be happier. He loved his new place and lived happily ever after in Sally’s house.