It’s All Right, Janice Lee (Random words)

Use one or more of the following in a piece of writing: popcorn, bathroom, mechanic.

***

The smell of burnt popcorn flooded out of the house when Janice Lee opened the front door. “Good God Almighty, Dwayne,” she yelled, “what in the hell are you doing?” She tossed her briefcase onto the love seat and headed for the smoky kitchen.

Her husband’s silhouette appeared. “It’s okay, Janice Lee. I called the mechanic.”

“The mechanic? What in blue blazes for?”

“In case there’s something wrong with the micro–”

The smoke detector screeched into belated awareness.

“Oh, Lordy.”  Dwayne ran from the kitchen.

Flames danced behind the microwave’s glass door. Columns of smoke escaped from the vents on either side. Janice Lee grabbed a dishtowel and yanked the big cord from the outlet. Coughing, she pushed open the kitchen window and ran to open the back door.  ”Dwayne, where the hell are you?”

The flames had disappeared but the smoke detector wailed on. “Dwayne, can’t you turn that damn thing off?”

Dwayne appeared in the doorway, arms wet to the elbow. “It’s all right, Janice Lee. I’m running water in the bathtub, ‘case we need to take shelter from the fire.”

“Lord God,” Janice Lee said, “I married an idiot. Get me a chair, Dwayne. Somebody’s gotta get the battery out of that thing.”