Lilah’s boss

“Twinkle twinkle little star

Take the trash out of the car.

Put it in the big trashcan.

Hand it to our nice trashman.

Hmm hmm hm hm hmm hm hmmm…”

Lilah hummed as she pulled an old sock from behind the backseat of her family’s minivan.

“For the last time stop singing that silly song!” Lilah’s big sister Karlee grumbled as she plunged her hand under the driver’s seat looking for more trash. “Ewwwwww!!!” She shrieked pulling her hand out all covered in green slime. As she spread out her fingers the substance spread out like webs between her fingers. Shuttering, Karlee turned and wiped her hand on Lilah’s t-shirt hoping to maybe bring her little sister’s spirits down to where they should be. No one should be allowed to sing while doing chores. But of course, Lilih giggled and playfully tossed an old hamburger wrapper in Karlee’s direction. It bounced off her chest and Karlee’s jaw dropped as she watched her little sister skip past her to pick up the trash, twirl in the opposite direction and pretend to slam dunk it into the trashcan.

“Ok, what gives?” Karlee folded her arms and blew a stray piece of hair out of her face. “You are acting like Mom and Dad just doubled your allowance or something but really, you are stuck here doing chores all day. On a Saturday,” she added, exasperated.

Lilah smiled knowingly. “Oh, I have my reasons,” she replied. “Chores can be fun if you are working for the right boss.”

Karlee snorted. “Boss? You are eight,” she pointed out smugly. “If you have a boss at all, it’s me, your big sister. And my first demand as your boss is for you to finish cleaning up the backseat of Mom’s car – alone.”

“Okay,” Lilah smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t mind cleaning it out by myself if you would rather do something else.” Karlee looked shocked for a second. Then, throwing her arms down and stomping her foot, she glared at Lilah before storming back toward the house. “But the boss I am talking about is way bigger than you!” Lilah called just before Karlee slammed the front door shut.

Ten minutes later, Lilah was still humming to herself when she heard an awful ruckus coming around the side of the house. She looked toward the direction of the noise just in time to see Karlee being dragged into the front yard by their over-energized Labrador, Burly. Karlee tried to appear in control of Burly as she jogged up to Lilah and shoved the leash in her hand.

“Today is my day to walk Burly but since you love chores so much, I’ll let you do it instead,” Karlee said as Lilah shut the door to the freshly cleaned minivan with her free hand. She watched Lilah break into a cheerful skip as her and Burly headed for the sidewalk. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, she shouted “Is Dad your boss?”

“Nope! My boss is bigger than Dad,” Lilah answered over her shoulder as she and Burly disappeared around the corner. Karlee stood there for a minute before scratching her head and going back inside.

Lilah was still skipping as her and Burly burst through the front door thirty minutes later. She took the leash off Burly and flung herself on the couch next to Karlee who was pretending to watch TV. “What should I do next?” Lilah asked turning to Karlee. With her arms folded and her eyebrows furrowed, Karlee seemed to be enjoying watching her favorite TV show even less than cleaning out Mom’s van.

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask your secret boss what to do next?” Karlee bit back. “You’re the one that’s so eager to do chores all of a sudden.”

“Not eager,” Lilah protested. “I just don’t mind it. Like I said, with a boss like ours, it can be fun.”

“Ours?” Karlee repeated. “So now this boss is my boss too? No thank you. I have enough bosses already with Mom and Dad. Wait, is your boss Mom?” she said quickly turning to Lilah.

“Nope! Bigger,” Lilah hopped off the couch and began putting away the games they were playing with the night before.

“Oh, I get it. You mean older,” Karlee scooted to the edge of the couch. “So, it’s Grandma, right? She’s making you do all these chores?”

“No, bigger than grandma. Or even Grandpa,” Lilah quickly added, anticipating Karlee’s next guess.

“Will you just tell me?” Karlee begged getting down on the floor with Lilah.

“You really want to know?” Lilah’s eyes sparkled. “Alright, it’s God!”

Karlee looked skeptical. “God?” She hesitated. “God is your boss?”

“Yep,” Lilah replied. “Last week I heard that we should do everything we do like we are doing it for God and that way, even the boring stuff will be fun and seem important.”

Karlee thought about it for a second. “So, you aren’t putting away our toys cause Mom or Dad or I asked you to. Instead, you are doing it cause it’s important to God,” Karlee’s eyebrows relaxed and she felt her anger slip away. She slowly stood up and placed one of the games on a high shelf she knew Lilah wouldn’t be able to reach. Smiling, she turned to Lilah. “How does that silly song go, again?”