She had been keeping away from Anathema for much longer now, only stopping in her den for various items and letting her owl rest. She left him home this time without her owl and just riding her newly acquired horse, bareback. The unnamed mare ran fan, almost too fast, but she quickly learned how to hold on to the horse without hurting her or falling off. Letting the horse take her to Halifax had been much faster than getting there herself, which usually took days, but riding the mare there took her only a day.

She led the horse, by talking to her in low-speech, to Hydrostone where she had seen a house before. The row-house had been in great condition despite its long years of just sitting there collecting ‘dust’. She had yet to see what the upstairs looked like, but today she would see it. ”Whoa… Whoaaa….” The mare slowed in front of a few row-houses in a row. Rio jumped off of her new friend and tied her to a nearby tree. ”Sorry girl, you can’t come with me. Just hang out here while I do some stuff.” Then she decided to untie the horse, and told her to come back when she howled for her. The horse snorted and trotted away, but Rio knew she’d be back.

The black femme wasted no time in walking up the few stairs into the house she had once been in. It was the same as the last time she had seen in, untouched. Rio closed the door behind her, and continued into the house figuring she would start with the kitchen first. She found a broom and a mop in a nearby closet and set them against a wall. Then she tackled the kitchen. She started with underneath the sink, finding a few big black garbage bags. She opened one to its fullest capacity, and set the others on the dirty, dusty counter. Then she opened the fridge.

She almost keeled over the smell was so bad. She backed away trying to find what was making it smell that horrible, but it seemed to be everything. So, Rio started with the food that seemingly sat there for years, untouched, and not enclosed in anything. She almost didn’t want to touch it, but she did. She threw everything that stunk horribly in the black garbage bag, which filled it up almost halfway. The fridge still stunk, but not as bad, and she closed it. She would clean it out after she got all the rotten food out of the house. Then she moved toward the cabinets, throwing everything that was human food related out into the garbage bag. She continued this process throughout the rest of the cabinets, throwing all the cups and plates away, but leaving the bowls. She rummaged through the draws and threw all the useless knives, forks, and spoons away. Wolves ate with their hands. She basically threw everything that wasn’t usable to her kind, away. The garbage bag was full, and she tied it and threw it off the porch into the street. She would burn all the garbage later.

When she went back into the house and closed the door behind her, she went for the kitchen again. She grabbed a rag that she found in the ‘cleaning closet’ and some solution, and sprayed everything in the dirty refrigerator. Even though it didn’t work and held no use to her, she didn’t want it smelling up the house that she was going to be living it. She needed to clean it for her own comfortable living purposes. The solution stung her nose, and she snorted and sneezed for about two minutes, nonstop. When she could finally breathe again, she wiped what she could of the smell away. It took her a good fifteen minutes to clean the whole damn thing, even though it was smaller than most. When she was done, it still had the death smell, but at least it wasn’t as strong. She closed the fridge door, and that was that. She was done with that for now. Then she went to the cabinets, dusting and wiping out what she could reach of the dust in, on, and around them. She did that in each one and then the bottom cabinets as well. She dusted off each pot that she left in there, and as well as all the dishes she had already done.

When she was basically done with all the insides of everything, she went to wiping the surfaces of the counter tops, top of the dead appliances, and the sink as well. She sprayed everything with the solution, even though it was strong on her nostrils. The scent it left behind once everything was clean was nice, so she didn’t mind suffering while she disinfected the kitchen. When all the appliances and countertops were free of dust, dirt, and grime and were sparkling, she moved to the floor. The floor was linoleum, like most kitchens, and consisted of a lot of dust, dirt, and now crumbs from all the food she just cleaned out. She grabbed the broom and started in a far corner of the kitchen. At first, she couldn’t sweep, but as soon as she realized the rhythm of it, she was sweeping away. She piled what dirt she found in the middle of the room, and picked that up with the dustpan. She opened another garbage back and threw that in there, too.

When the kitchen floor was as swept as it would ever be, she leaned the broom back on the wall and took the mop. She stopped for a second, unsure of what to do. She needed water, but was afraid to try the faucets and human contraptions in this house. She tsked when she realized she could use the solution she had been using. She unscrewed the top of the bottle and poured it all over the kitchen floor, still leaving some for the rest of the house. She screwed the top back on and placed it on a table in the living room. Since the kitchen wasn’t all that big, she didn’t really have to walk in to mop. Instead, she stood from the living room and mopped the floor, with her back to the front of the house and the door.

The black housewife continued to mop the kitchen floor, and when she was done, she stopped. She couldn’t continue to mop a dirty living room floor. She got out her dusting rags and started dusting what furniture she could in the hallway/dining room. She started with the living room foot rests, since there was nothing in the hallway/dining room. There was no existing table and no existing furniture in the corridor either. Nothing to clean. She quickly moved into the living room dusting every piece of furniture that was dustable. This was when she heard Vitalia neigh.

Rio peered out of the one window that faced the front, but saw nothing. So, she quickly walked toward the back of the house and peered out. She saw a male putting on some pants and grumbled quietly to herself. She threw her dusting towel back into the dusty living room and opened the back door that led her into her backyard and into Vitalia’s space. The mare snorted happily as Rio neared her, and softly patted her on the nose. Rio’s eyes never left the stranger, and when he came back up to gaze into the yard, she found herself startled by his handsome appearance.

”Oh! Hello.” He even surprised her, but it seemed in a good way. He didn’t seem to want to hurt either of them. (Rio had become good at reading body language and auras these past few months.) She carefully stepped toward the gate, making sure she didn’t step in any horsey land mines. She had to clean the yard soon. She put her fingers on the top of the tall fence and peeked over at him. ”Who are you?” Her voice was cute and curious, and just her periwinkle eyes reached over the fence. That was all she needed. She eyed him nosily, taking in all the details about him. He seemed tired, and she wanted to offer him some hospitality, but the house was still a huge mess.