Positive Reinforcement - Part 2 - Preview

Complete a chore and receive a reward seems to be the new norm in the Flagston household. :D

Pulling into the garage after an exhausting week at his nine-to-five office job, Hi can’t help but notice that something is a little off. His usual weekend duties like mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, and cleaning out the gutters…all of them are done. Hi switches off the ignition and grabs his briefcase from the passenger seat before climbing out. Even the garage is immaculate…the floors swept, his workbench cleared of tools, the usual spiderwebs above the garage door having been brushed away.

Hi pushes the close button for the garage door before going inside to greet his wife, the motor whirring away above him. Lois’s station wagon gleams in the dim light, usually a mess of children’s handprints and road dust, now freshly washed and polished. Through the door and into the adjacent laundry room, the man of the house stares around the tiny room. Where mountains of dirty clothes and linens usually lay, he finds baskets full of clean and folded laundry atop the washer and drier.

Lois: Is that you dear?

Hi responds with an uh-huh as he steps into the kitchen, all of its smudged appliances and slightly dingy cabinets now clean enough to…well, clean enough to eat off of. A pot bubbles away on the stovetop, something smelling of lasagna baking in the oven. Hi sets his briefcase down on the kitchen table, noticing that there’s already a place setting for three.

Lois: Dinner’s almost ready, dear.

Hi responds with another uh-huh, still not sure what to make of all this. He usually comes home to absolute chaos…screaming children and a barking dog, toys and school books scattered everywhere, video games blaring away on the living room TV.

Lois: Your folks have the kids for the weekend. So, it’s just you, me, and Chip.

Hi finally makes his way into the living room, finding his wife lounging at the end of the couch, a women’s magazine in hand as she plucks a bon-bon from a nearby box. Instead of her usual mom-slacks and blouse combo, Lois looks as if she has just gotten out of a long soak in the tub…her hair wrapped in a towel and wearing only a fluffy bathrobe. Lois smiles up at her husband, batting her eyelashes, looking at him as if nothing were amiss.

Lois: How was your day, sweetie?

Hi leans down and kisses her on the cheek, still looking around the eerily quiet room.

Hi: Tiring. Uhhh… Am I…

Lois: Yes, dear?

Hi: Am I missing something here?

Lois: Whatever do you mean, dear?

Complete a chore and receive a reward at the $5 tier level. :D

Original Sketch by Rage Grenade

Colors and Edits by Phillipthe2