FEATURED STORY
RECENT STORIES
STORIES BY TOPIC
NEWS
TRANSPORTER
Take me to a...
SEARCH
Enter any portion of the author name or story title:
For more options, try our:
SUBSCRIBE
Sign up for free daily sci-fi!
your email will be kept private
TIDBITS
Get a copy of Not Just Rockets and Robots: Daily Science Fiction Year One. 260 adventures into new worlds, fantastical and science fictional. Rocket Dragons Ignite: the anthology for year two, is also available!
SUBMIT
Publish your stories or art on Daily Science Fiction:
If you've already submitted a story, you may check its:
DAILY SCI-FI
Not just rockets & robots...
"Science Fiction" means—to us—everything found in the science fiction section of a bookstore, or at a science fiction convention, or amongst the winners of the Hugo awards given by the World Science Fiction Society. This includes the genres of science fiction (or sci-fi), fantasy, slipstream, alternative history, and even stories with lighter speculative elements. We hope you enjoy the broad range that SF has to offer.






Keeping House

Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but now lives in Pittsburgh. She writes both fiction and poetry, and has won the Rhysling Award and the Elgin Award. Her credits include Analog, F&SF, Strange Horizons, and 119 haiku in Science. She has an antiquated website at marysoonlee.com and tweets at @MarySoonLee.

In a well-run household, such matters as laundry and dusting and the scouring of pots need not concern the mistress of the establishment. Discarded silk robes will discreetly wriggle their way to the washing tub. Each morning after breakfast, the soap will jump in, and the garments will scrub each other. If, on occasion, the younger ones splash over-vigorously, excited by the bubbles, their elders will calm them.
The cook prepares the meals, but neither lays the table nor cleans up afterward. The chopsticks and china proceed to their accustomed places beforehand, then move to the kitchen at the meal's conclusion. There they line up, pots to the rear. In our household, the oldest brush supervises. His bristles are frayed. His handle is worn. He no longer enters the sink. Yet even the rowdiest platters hush when he speaks. Hanging from his hook, he directs the entire operation, from the heating of the water to the polishing of the tea bowls.
It is veterans such as this who govern the household.
My great, great, great grandmother's bronze phoenix lamp is the undisputed matriarch of our home. During the day, she hurries from room to room. No speck of dust escapes her attention. No rug dares to rumple itself. At night, she positions herself by the pool in the inner courtyard, her reflection bobbing in the water beside the mirrored moon.
When I have difficulty sleeping, I join her by the pool. In spring, the sweet scent of azalea blossom is a counterpoint to her sharp wit. In autumn, the maple leaves twirl in the wind. In winter, I sip warmed wine while she recites a poem by Li Bai.
Household items serve from an innate sense of place, of duty. They never ask for payment, will not even ask for repairs on their own behalf--though they may mention if a colleague is chipped or torn. Do not take such service for granted. Bow your thanks for any task particularly well done.
Our housewares are partial to flowers, so I visit the market twice a month, returning with potted peonies or late autumn chrysanthemums.
On Tomb-Sweeping Day, I burn offerings for their ancestors as well as my own. Ghost money, paper flowers, in memory of chairs and cushions and vases long since gone.
The End
This story was first published on Thursday, October 11th, 2018


Author Comments

One night the opening words of this story came to me, and the following morning I sat down and wrote it. I have a fondness for anthropomorphization, and liked the idea of items such as brushes and china plates willingly doing the housework. (Maybe this is because I don't like doing housework myself!) This story is short and slight, but I tried to give it a sweetness to honor the faithful household items.

- Mary Soon Lee
Become a Member!

We hope you're enjoying Keeping House by Mary Soon Lee.

Please support Daily Science Fiction by becoming a member.

Daily Science Fiction is not accepting memberships or donations at this time.

Rate This Story
Please click to rate this story from 1 (ho-hum) to 7 (excellent!):

Please don't read too much into these ratings. For many reasons, a superior story may not get a superior score.

5.0 Rocket Dragons Average
Share This Story
Join Mailing list
Please join our mailing list and receive free daily sci-fi (your email address will be kept 100% private):