"So, we just stay put in the laundromat, that's all." replied Keith. "I doubt there'll be anyone else in there. The place hardly ever gets used since most people have their own washing machines these days."
"I am NOT taking all of my clothes off in a place like that!" insisted Martin. "The pond and the mudhole out at Davy's farm is one thing, but not here!"
"Not all your clothes," said Keith. "Keep your underwear and shoes. I'm going to do the same thing, so if anybody does see us, then we'll both look like a couple of idiots. But no one's going to see us, okay? Can you really see anybody that we know bothering to go into a laundromat?"
Martin sighed. "I guess not."
"And which would you rather do?" asked Keith. "Hang around in one place, with me, in your underwear for a little while, or go home and try to explain that mess?"
Martin almost cringed. "Okay. Underwear, then."
The two boys cautiously but quickly entered the laundromat. Keith looked around. The place was quiet. No other machines were running, and as expected, there was no sign of the old guy that ran the place behind the counter. "Okay," said Keith. "Let's pick out a machine near the back of the store, away from the window and closer to the arcade."
Keith and Martin carried the laundry basket in, and scooted towards the back. The laundry machines were massive, and Keith noticed that they were combination washer-and-dryers. This was a new development from last year. All you had to do, apparently, was throw your clothes in, put the money in, and that was that. The machine would do the rest from start to finish.
"Okay, let's get started," said Keith, first reaching into the pockets of his jeans to extract several dollars in change, part of it provided by his grandmother for the laundry, the rest rounded up by himself for video games. Then he pulled a small cel phone out of the other pocket. His grandmother had loaned him this in case he needed to contact her. He tucked the cel phone into one of his socks he was wearing, and stuffed the extra change into one of his shoes.
"Are you sure no one's going to come in here?" said Martin.
"Relax. Even if someone does, they won't know us, and I'm here with you." said Keith. "Besides, people do this in laundromats all the time. I've seen it."
"You sure?" asked Martin.
"Of course I'm sure." What he didn't tell Martin was that those times he'd seen it, it had been on some television sitcom his grandmother was watching, and invariably the people doing it got into some sort of trouble. "Besides, we don't have much choice."
"I… guess not." said Martin, unbuttoning his shirt and removing it, and then very reluctantly unzipping his pants and pulling them off. Keith did likewise with less hesitation.
They loaded the clothes into the massive machine, Keith tossed in a packet of detergent his grandmother had given him, closed the door, put the money into the slot, and started it up. "How long do you think it'll take?" asked Martin.
"Uhhh", said Keith and tried to stuff his hands into his pockets and then he noticed that there were no pockets since he wore just a pair of light blue underpants. He folded his arms instead and thought back to the time he once had been here. "I think about maybe… half an hour?" He didn't sound nearly as sure as he would've liked to, and admittedly he wasn't. Laundry wasn't exactly something he paid much attention to.
"Okay", said Martin and scratched his bare arms. He was still somewhat dirty and the dirt was itching.
"We'll just have to wait for the machine to turn off. Come on, there's a restroom next to the arcade. We can get our faces cleaned off in there. And our arms."
It didn't take too long to wash off. There was a long roll of paper towels in the restroom, and a few minutes later, Keith and Martin and cleaned the road mud from their faces, arms, and even hair. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the clothes to be clean.
It was when they exited the restroom that Martin first spotted the sign on the wall, which had been well above the boys' heads when they walked in. "Oh, no. Keith…"
Keith read the sign. "NEW SAFETY FEATURE — LAUNDRY MACHINES LOCK FOR SECURITY UPON ACTIVATION. FULL LAUNDRY CYCLE… 3 HOURS."
"Three hours!?" exclaimed Martin.
Keith felt bad. He honestly hadn't realized. But it made sense. Three hours was a pretty long laundry cycle. At least he guessed it was. The price, he supposed, of having a machine that did the washing AND the drying all in one. And it also made sense for the machines to lock upon activation, since most people wouldn't want to hang around the laundromat for that period of time. They'd want to go elsewhere and run errands or something, and come back just in time for the machine to finish up. But they'd also want to know that their clothes weren't going to be stolen or anything in the meantime, hence the automatic lock.
Of course, most people wouldn't be stuck in just their underwear.
"Ohhhh, man! Is that for real? What do they mean by 'three hours'? How can anybody stay here and wait for THREE HOURS?!" exclaimed Martin, turning a bit red, half from anger, half from potential embarrassment. He looked a bit weird in his white underwear combined with black shoes and socks, and he knew it.
"Are you expected home anytime soon?" asked Keith, sincerely concerned. He was already trying to think up some excuses for Martin's behalf.
"No, not really," said Martin. "Aunt Matilda was going to be visiting all day. Mom said as long as I was home by dinner that was fine. But Keith, what are we going to do? I mean… three hours?"
"Nothing." said Keith. His major concern had just been addressed. No one was going to miss Martin that soon. "Nothing we can do. We'll just have to wait it out." He put his hands on his hips, trying to look more decisive, but this made him feel even more weird. Funny, how skinny he suddenly felt while standing in underwear in a somewhat public place. The feeling made him shiver a little though the air was pretty warm. But he couldn't very well let on that he felt almost as uncomfortable with this situation as Martin did.
Martin scowled, unconvinced. Keith sighed. "Look, we've got the arcade. Okay, most of the games are older than we are, but that just means we probably haven't played them before, so that can't be too bad. And there's a soda machine in there, and another one with candy and crackers in it, so we won't starve. Try to see it as an adventure."
"In our underwear," said Martin sourly.
"This from the kid who survived being tossed into an interplanetary brig on a spaceship with less than that?" said Keith, trying to sound cheerful and encouraging. "Come on, what's a couple hours in a laundromat in your Fruit-of-the-Looms compared to that?"
Martin cringed. "Don't remind me. That was awful."
"But…?" asked Keith, trying to sound upbeat.
"Okay. I guess that was worse than this." said Martin.
"And you survived that." concluded Keith. "So you can survive this. Now come on, let's see what sort of video games this place has."
They were just about to head over to the arcade area when the door to the laundromat opened, and trouble walked in. It was a huge lady that could have been a cousin of Martin's aunt Matilda. She carried a bright colored plastic basket with clothes in her massive arms and headed for one of the machines. If the lady was alone, there was the chance that she might go away after she had unloaded her laundry. But unfortunately, there was somebody in her company, a girl of about ten or eleven years.
Keith swore. "Couldn't they pick another day to do their laundry?" he whispered.