Two Old Rugs Survive Their Trip Outside [a short story]

I woke up thinking about an old rug, it kind of looks like it’s being hung up to be cleaned, and there’s something about its value or price, that it’s expensive or unique and so it expects to be treated better than any other piece of furniture. But, I guess in its old age it forgot that it had an exact twin which was hanging right next to it. The twin wasn’t surprise that the first rug had “forgotten” that it was part of a pair and that both were of equal value, even though the first one had been in the front room and the twin had been in a back room. I guess it had been such a long time since either rug had been taken out to the backyard to be cleaned that both had forgotten that they weren’t out there just to enjoy the wind and the sun, but some time after they’d been hanging out in the backyard, seemingly despite their age and “value,” part of the cleaning process was that someone, probably the teenager, was going to come out to the backyard with a baseball bat and smack the living crap out of the two.

So, after several hours of enjoying the sun and the afternoon breeze and the sound of the birds in the neighborhood trees, the two old rugs were rudely reminded of the harsher part of the cleaning experience, when the teenager, not very happy himself that he was being forced to do this chore, instead of playing his video games, intended to take out his frustration on these two rugs which were many decades older than he was. The first rug had expected some kind of respectful recognition for its age and value, but instead was cruelly reminded that in the eyes of this teenager it doesn’t even have the value of the time the teenager is being forced to be away from his video games. He thoughtlessly, with the kind of raw rage that can come so easily to teenagers, started to beat the crap out of these rugs because, in the teenager’s mind, it’s because of them, just existing, that he isn’t playing video games and interacting with his friends online, and there’s a lot of pent up rage in that thought for him. And the rage seemed to go on and on and on, for a very long time, even though the rugs had no real concept of time. The teenager had a lot of rage to work through.

In the end, the teenager exhausted himself and dropped the bat, and squatted down next to the hanging rugs. He eventually dropped to the ground, he was that tired. Then, once the moment passed, he realized that the rugs hadn’t done anything to him or intended him any injury and the teenager was sensitive enough to feel like maybe he shouldn’t have hit them like all of this was their fault. He felt kind of bad that there wasn’t a better way or quicker way to dislodge all of the dirt and grime that had been accumulating in the old rugs. This was just something that needed to be done and neither party really “enjoyed” the experience. Also, after some time neither party would even remember the event. So the teenager got up off the ground, picked up the baseball bat that was lying beside him and softly patted the two rugs to show no harsh feelings before going back inside the house to look for something to eat and goof around on his computer in his room. The rugs were surprised at the teenager’s gentleness after experiencing his previous rage and were just glad all of that was done and tried to enjoy the rest of their time outside with the fading sun, the late afternoon breeze and the evening birds taking up their songs. Then just as quickly as they’d begun to relax, they both hoped that someone would remember that they’re out hanging in the backyard and wouldn’t be left out there overnight. Damn. JBB

Sources:

Two Old Rugs Survive Their Trip Outside [a short story] by Joseph Bruce Bustillos (2025-10-08), https://josephbrucebustillos.com/2025/10/two-old-rugs-survive-their-trip-outside-a-short-story/
Image: baseball bat on rug by Joe Bustillos (2025-10-07), https://josephbrucebustillos.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/baseball-on-rug.png
Story partially based on a dream journal post, Two Rugs Hanging Out in the Backyard by Joseph Bruce Bustillos (2025-10-07).

Tags: dream journal, Joe Bustillos short stories, short stories, The life of things, writing projects