"Okay, let's start from the beginning," Anne said, taking in the chaotic scene before her. "What exactly happened here?"
Jonathan squirmed under her gaze, his eyes staying locked onto the floor as he wrung his hands and shuffled from one foot to the other.
"Well," he said quietly, "Lulu got wet."
Anne raised an eyebrow and looked over the mess that had been her bathroom. The curtains lay crumpled on the floor next to the wet sink, the pale yellow fabric torn in a few places. Towels were spilled out of the linen cupboard and one of the doors was hanging crooked from its hinge. The hamper was toppled onto its side and the days' laundry lay scattered across the floor. And everything, from ceiling to floor, had managed to get wet.
"O-okay," she said, keeping her tone neutral. "So what happened after the cat got wet?"
"Well...she got scared. And then she tried to climb up the curtains, but they fell down." Jonathan's eyes darted to the fallen curtains as he continued, "That scared Bear, 'cause he had his paws up on the sink to drink out of the faucet."
"You were letting the dog drink out of the faucet?" She did her best not to appear horrified.
"Well, I wasn't letting him do it. He did it while I wasn't looking. And when he got spooked, his tail hit the cupboard door open and it banged against the sink really hard, which scared him more and made him run. And that scared Lulu more and she jumped into the cupboard to get away."
"So that's why the towels are spilled?"
"Yeah..."
"And what about the hamper?"
"Bear knocked it over while he was running away."
Anne tried not to laugh as she pictured the series of events that occurred. She wasn't looking forward to cleaning up the mess, but it must have been quite a sight when it all happened.
"Well, I'm not mad," she said, giving her son a hug. "But I'm pretty curious about one more thing. How did the cat get wet? She doesn't even like the bathroom because she hates water."
Jonathan squirmed again as he answered, "She got sticky when I pet her, 'cause I had jelly on my hands from my snack. So...I tried to give her a bath to get clean."
This prompt was provided by @mariannewest and can be found here.
Image sourced from Pixabay.