Words for Wednesday September 9 :: June, the Solitary Hero - 2

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over as a moveable feast with many participants supplying the Words.
When Delores closed her blog forever due to other problems, Elephant's Child (Sue) took over the role of coordinator.
Now, after Sue's demise, River has taken the mantle of coordinator upon her shoulders.

No matter what, how, where or who the aim of the words is to encourage us to write. Poems, stories, subtitles, tales, jokes, haiku, crosswords, puns, ... you're the boss.
Use all Words, some Words, one Word, or even none of them if that makes your creative juices flow. Anything goes, only please nothing rude or vulgar.

This month the words are given by River at Drifting through Life

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please leave a comment on River's blog, then we can come along and read it and add a few encouraging words.

It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

Please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

And for today we were given:
Klutz 
Cream cheese 
Twilight/gloaming 
Buzzing 
Trouble 
Dominoes
     and/or:
Her/My house has many rooms, some are less immaculate than others.

I had to continue the story about June, my solitary hero from last week. I do not know yet if anything will ever come off it, but it's fun trying to write about a hero relying only on her own powers. I never did that before, there's always been friends, family an allies for even my most "alone" heroes, even the time-travelling Peter had allies almost from day one. I have to continually stop myself from letting her befriend somebody, find an unexpected ally and so on ... I suppose this exercise will do me good, but will it make for a good story? Only time will tell. 

I continue from here:
June, the Solitary Hero ~  Part 1

And I can use the sentence: Her house has many rooms, some are less immaculate than others as a motto for this tale. I used none of the other words, maybe later this week.

* * *

Next morning June woke up quite late. For the first time in years, she had slept through the night. After she had taped the shutters fast with the green tape, the night had been dark and silent. It was a whole new feeling. She felt rested and energetic. After a leisurely breakfast of freshly picked blackberries sprinkled upon the yoghurt-and-granola that was her staple, and a nice cup of steaming hot tea she was ready for anything.
    First on the list were the gutters. The real estate agent had warned her that the house while totally healthy, was sorely neglected as it had not been tended to for almost three years.
    Cleaning the windows, discarding dead plants, and scrubbing kitchen and bathroom had taken up the first day in her new house, and cleaning and rearranging the bedroom all of the second. But today the sun was out in splendour, it was time to do some outdoor works before autumn and the rains came.
    She found the ladder on its hooks behind the shed. She had taken over practically everything from the former owner, a retired accountant with no known relatives. She had thrown out beddings, mattresses, personal items, and most of the clothes, but kept almost anything else. The retiree had obviously been a tidy person but gone quickly downhill before his demise. All the heavy stuff was where it was supposed to be, but lighter items like plates, pots and pans, kitchen and work utensils from the house were often misplaced.
    She leaned the ladder against the wall and climbed up. The gutters sure needed a cleaning. She threw big flakes of blackish muck to the ground, and using a garden trowel she was scraping out the last of the debris from the sunwards sprout when she heard the gate to the road open ... it could do with an oiling. Dressed as she was in one of the former inhabitant's worn shirts and with her hair tied back under an old straw hat, she obviously looked enough like him to deceive the mail-man. He started and hailed her with the former occupant's name: "Hey Charles, I see that the rumours of your death were greatly exaggerated."
    She turned around, and the mail-man realised his blunder: "Sorry, Ma'am. Are you the new owner?"
    "Yes," she said. "I'm June Cullen, How do you do?"
    "Nice to meet you, Ms. Cullen. I have a letter for you and some for Charles ... what'll I do with them, now?"
    "I have the address of his lawyer if you want to take care of it. Or you can leave them in the big envelope on the dresser in the hall. Then I'll deliver them to him when I next go to town."
    "You'd better take them and better take a look at some of them. There's bills too, and maybe you should do something about them. I'll put them into the big envelope for you."
    "Thanks," June said, "I'm neither fit for company, nor letters today, I promise better next time."
    The mail-man looked at her and sent her a lopsided smile: "You could have done better. See you in a week's time."
    June finished her job by pouring a pail of water into the gutters. It cleaned away the last of the muck and drained nicely down the spout. Satisfied she climbed down.
    Entering the house, she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror and had to laugh. The mail-man was right. She could surely have done better. Her face was striped and splotched with black muck from the gutters, same as her shirt and hands. The straw hat sat askew, and her trousers were wet and torn. She could do with a bath.
    "I did not even ask him his name," June thought to herself. "Next Wednesday I'll have a cup of coffee and a cake ready for him. I really was impolite today. I have much to learn."

... to be continued, maybe