“Tell me again why...” Glen started, and I just shook my head at her.
“We can do it,” I encouraged but didn’t move an inch to pull the mattress out.
God, we couldn’t really do it. My arms felt like noodles at this point, and the memory of how heavy the mattress had been was still fresh in my mind.
Glen turned to look at me. “Oh yeah, we sure can. Maybe if we drag it across the ground? Good thing you’ve wrapped it in plastic.”
“Dad’s idea,” I muttered. I wouldn’t have bothered, but if we were indeed going to have to slide it the plastic would come in handy.
“Good one,” Glen said.
Neither of us moved for another minute, until I cursed myself. “Okay, last spurt. Let’s go, let’s go.” I clapped my hands and bounced on my heels, getting ready for said last spurt, while Glen snorted, and then folded over in laughter.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” she repeated through giggles.
“Shut up and help me with it.” I dragged the mattress to the edge of the van bed, waiting for the second set of hands to latch onto it.
“Give me a moment,” Glen said and I peeked at her from behind the mattress with a raised eyebrow.
She had her phone camera directed at me and a wide grin on her face. “You are tuning in with Hallie and Glen in the middle of a moving mayhem. Hallie here thinks we can most definitely, with all our sanity attached, get this mattress to the twelfth floor. Thoughts?”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you have to?”
“Yes, I most certainly do.” She nodded emphatically, the phone wobbling in her hands slightly along with the movement, and I cringed at the thought of my image on it already looking less than stellar without the added effect.
“Okay, if you really have to know, we’ll certainly not make it if you don’t put down that phone and help me with it.”
Glen’s lips formed an adorable pout. “Ouch, someone’s getting cranky. I just thought it could be fun to document this milestone.”
I rubbed my face, groaned, then pushed at the mattress I still held onto, so that it wouldn’t hang too much over the edge of the van and drop onto the ground before I let go and faced the camera.
“You’re right. Exhilarating,” I mumbled. “It’s just that I’ve been at this moving business since this morning and you’ve been at it for the past hour and half, so you have no idea how cranky it can make you when your best friend pulls out a camera when you’re looking like a horror show.”
“You look fine,” Glen said. “Let’s talk about how happy it makes you to move in with me instead.”
I snorted. “Only if you turn that camera around and show it your own glorious sweaty self.”
Glen clicked her tongue and puffed. “Okay, fine.”
She turned the phone around in her hand, smiling at the invisible audience. “There, happy?”
I grinned. “Thrilled!”
“So, we have this mattress to somehow get out of this truck,” Glen went on as if the previous debate hadn’t even happened. “Where are them big strong men when we need them? Hm? It is a distress call!”
“Don’t forget the bookshelf behind it,” I reminded Glen who had turned the camera toward the van to showcase the magnitude of the mattress. She swung it right over at me again, however, and I took it like a champ. “But other than that and the bed frame, we’re basically done. And you know what? It hasn’t even been raining today, which actually makes this entire process more enjoyable. Now, would you put that phone down and help me? I’d like to get this done before my body gives out on me, and I think that’s just about soon.”
Glen giggled again. “Yes, Mum.”
We had the mattress up on one side for the least ground contact after we hauled it all the way out of the van. Glen was pulling, I was pushing, and the plastic was covered in scraped against the asphalt as we manoeuvred across the car park. Somehow it had grown in size and weight since I’d dragged it into the van with Dad.
“Are you even pulling it?” I huffed, putting all my weight against it and feeling like I was trying to dislodge the entire mansion block.
“Wait! Wait! The steps!” Glen screeched in response, and I almost dropped my half of the mattress. Although, it was barely even off the ground at this point, maybe hovering by about a millimetre.
Oh gosh, the steps! I hadn’t even considered the steps. There were but two, but if we weren’t able to lift this thing off the ground on equal flooring, the steps were an obstacle we might not be able to surmount.
“You’ve got to come on this side!” Glen decided after another second of stumbling, so I left my side of the mattress leaning on the ground and joined Glen on her side.
