Early Risers

Something I found when trying to sort through my "stuff". The first a short piece about washing day
And then a bit of flash fiction - story in exactly 100 words. Hope you enjoy them...

Early Risers

5.0 a.m.- rise 

Fill copper  - Six buckets of water
 light fire under wash tub,

Add soap shavings- Sunlight Carbolic,

Breathe in fresh, clean scent,
Throw in a  bit of soda to prevent scum.

It's Monday - washing - the entire day.

New to me, being  used to the modern machine.

But mother-in-law's routine.

Whites in first - boil,

Open windows for steam to escape.

Next coloureds; 

Lastly work clothes - the grubbiest.

Wooden tub for hand scrubbing,

Washboard for more soiled items.

All laundry rinsed  - fed through rollers of mangle.

When all is finished,

A tired satisfaction...

No time for anything else.

Even dinner is cold meat from yesterday,

With bubble and squeak from Sunday leftovers.

Ironing

Keeping everything normal Sheila starts ironing. It is Tuesday, after all. She'd kept up the regimental routine her mother-in-law had instilled in her all those years ago. Each day had its particular job - Monday, washing day, Tuesday, Ironing, - a useful distraction on this significant day.
Automaton like, she picks up his shirt, the one she bought him last Christmas. She knew then that she would be here today. The iron sweeps backwards and forwards. Smiling, she plans how she will go to the the greenhouse later and dispose of his  body and his  mug containing the evidence.