Friday Five: decay, archive, confine, sock, chalk

Welcome to The Friday Five writing prompt sponsored by Long and Short Reviews! Five different words each week to get the creative juices flowing. To visit the other participants, click here.

Today's words are: decay, archive, confine, sock, chalk

Sister Mary Francis sat in the confines of the convent laundry room watching the linens tumble in the industrial-sized dryer. She realized it was a good and proper thing for all the nuns to take turns with laundry duty. She couldn't imagine working with nothing but dirty clothes all the time.

She sighed. Thankfully this was her last day of laundry rotation. Next week was her favorite assignment - working in the archive. It was funny how different they all were. Sister Margaret loved the clean crisp smell of the laundry and complained that the archives always had a dusty decaying aroma. Sister Mary Francis shook her head. How on earth could someone find the scent of old books offensive? She didn't understand.

The buzzer sounded on the washing machine that held the dark habits, and Sister Mary Francis stopped her daydreaming. This was the last load and, after hanging the habits to dry and folding the sheets she would be finished. She opened the top of the machine and stifled a cry. The dark habits were streaked with white as well as specks of lint. Taking them out one by one, she soon discovered the culprits. Not only had a white sock gotten caught somehow in one of the sleeves, she discovered a box of white chalk in the pocked of her very own habit. It was going to be a long afternoon.