Laundramats are dangerous places.

It's not just the smell- the heavy funk of fabric softener and cloying scents of the soap to give you the comfortable delusion that if your clothes smell better, they are some how rendered sterile and thereby clean.

I will not try to tell you about how my fingers itch to clean the machines before I use them. Or how many times I like to try to run a garment through a machine before I am comfortable attempting to place it next to my skin.

The danger does not lie in the possible conversation with anyone in the establishment or in the race to get usable machines and ensure that no one else so much as touches my garments or the machines I wish to use. Visiting the laundramat makes me wish it was socially acceptable to pee over everything and say, "THIS IS MINE. BACK OFF." But, alas, it is not so. I can't even sprinkle the borax in a border around my turf to keep the ants out like I can at home.

The real danger is the small children so trustingly exploring. So willfully abandoned. Young mothers who bring their children and expect the entire landromat to assist in the discipline and guarding of their children. I am torn between tossing sweets into the dryer, luring one into my car, or encouraging them to help me fold my sheets. I content myself with making fish faces as they run screaming by.

There are a pair of twins, not even a week old that some one has brought. She fusses over one of the babies while she loads her machines and waits. The other is asleep in a carrying basinet, placed very close to me. Already, two women have complimented me on my sleeping treasure. No one would blink if I just carried the babe out to the car. No one would notice. There are no cameras. Some already think it is my son. Perhaps I could name him William or Hubert. No one would ever know. The young mother fusses over one of her babies. Who would give a thought to her spare?

Laundromats are very dangerous places.

I will nag Frank again to fix the dryer. I will tell him of plans to fix it myself instead, and that will achieve my goal.  ¶ 2:21 PM