The Tidy Drawer

One Sunday morning Dede's Mom came upstairs to see Dede in her bedroom. There was so much mess on the floor she could only poke her head around the door. Dede sat in the middle of it all reading a book.

"You need to have a clear up in here." Mom said.
"Why?" Dede asked.
"Why?" Mom repeated. "Because things get broken or lost when they're all willy-nilly like this. And it will be difficult if you want to use them again. Come on, have a tidy up now."
"But I'm very busy," Dede argued, "and it's boring on my own. Can't you help me?"
"No I can't, I'm busy too. But I'll give you extra pocket money if you do a good job." Mom said.

When Mom came back later all the toys and clothes and books had disappeared.
"I'm impressed," said Mom. "But I'll inspect it later."
"It was easy," said Dede. "Can I have my extra pocket money now?"
"All right. Get it out of my change purse. It's in the kitchen tidy drawer."

In the kitchen Dede went over to the dresser and pulled open the tidy drawer. She hunted for the purse.

"Any luck?" Mom asked.
Dede shook his head.
"It must be lurking at the bottom," Mom said. "Let's have a proper look."
She pulled the drawer out and carried it over to the table. Dede kneeled up on a chair to look inside. There were lots of boring things like staplers and string but there were lots of interesting things as well. 
"What's this?" Dede asked, holding up a plastic bottle full of red liquid. Mom laughed.
"Fake blood, from a Halloween party years ago. Your Dad and I took you to that, dressed up as a baby vampire. You were really scary."
"I remember this," Dede said as she pulled out a plastic bag. "This is from my pirate party." Inside there was a black, false moustache and some big gold earrings.

She stuck false moustache on Mom's top lip then found a paint brush in the drawer and painted a red scar down her cheek using the fake blood. Mom clipped on the pirate earrings.

"It's fun doing this together," She said.
"Maybe. But we still haven't found the change purse." They both looked at the big heap of things spread over the kitchen table.

"Well, you know things will get lost, or broken, when they're all willy nilly," Dede said.

Mom looked at her suspiciously. "Let's go and inspect your bedroom shall we." Mom said. Dede followed her mom upstairs and into her bedroom. Mom kneeled down and lifted the bed cover. Underneath were heaps of Dede’s toys, books, tapes, clothes and shoes, empty plastic cups and wrappers and a half-eaten sandwich on a plate. She was blushing and said, "It's my ”tidy drawer” mom. Like mother like daughter,” she grinned. She wrapped her arms around her Mom and gave her a kiss. "Let's sort this one out together now.

Since then, the room and the kitchen are always tidy because of the “tidy drawer” they had.

Glossary;

Poke=Menjulurkan; willy-nilly=kacau balau; hunted=mencari; lurking=tersembunyi proper=sebaik-baiknya,teliti; kneeled=berlutut; string=benang; Fake=palsu; scar=goresan; heap=tumpukan