The Dubious Potato

Natalia Rahlia was lounging around her bedroom, reading one of the thirteen novels that comprise the Series of Unfortunate Events. It was a lazy Sunday, the type that makes a person wish they were elsewhere, perhaps wrangling goats or feeding tigers in some faraway exotic land. Unfortunately, Natalia Rahlia was trapped in desert suburbia without even a mini-vacation in the previous months to make up for such boredom. As she read, some part of her brain worked on the issue gnawing at her conscience.

It appeared to Natalia Rahlia that she'd spent her summer doing a whole lot of nothing besides the things that were immediately urgent. Some of those immediately urgent things included summer school, emptying her backpack of all the rubbish that had accumulated in its dark and dusty depths over the course of an academic year, feeding the cat - who appeared to not have been fed since the previous August -, cleaning her shower, and buying an aluminum water bottle. Needless to say, summer assignments were handled with care as well, and Natalia Rahlia was now busy at work on her second assignment. She was not too worried; by her estimation, she could have this particular assignment completed within the span of two long weeks, and that would be if she was lazy.

But when she looked back at this summer, what would she remember? What great change had she made to benefit mankind? What mark had the heat-filled and heady months of summer left upon her living quarters?

The smell of Brazilian Carnival, certainly, courtesy of the folks at the Febreze factory. A few more inexpensive sheets of paper that were passable as decor, perhaps, and at least two new pairs of shoes.

It didn't seem like enough.

Natalia Rahlia frowned down at The Penultimate Peril, deciding that, in these penultimate weeks of summer, something must be done. Drastic measures should be taken. Things should be painted, laundered, and shaken of their cobwebs if the Earth were to continue spinning on its axis, if winter were to come, if Natalia Rahlia wanted to feel accomplished in anything besides painting her toe nails yellow.

And with that, it was decided. It was decided that Natalia Rahlia was a sort of idle dwarf and that no steps would be taken to change her status as lazy short person. She didn't even care that she was getting her kicks from taking photographs of dubious potatoes - changing things was too much effort, even if she was uncomfortable with her own status as dubious potato.

THE END.