October 2024 Flash Lit 10:3 - Elbow Grease

“What’s next, ankle butter?” Noah griped.

 

“They’re old, Noah.  You’re not supposed to understand them,” his brother Ryan said.

 

Noah, scrubbing at the hood of the blue Jetta with a sponge, kept muttering.  “Shoulder salt, knuckle sugar, wrist rub, back bacon…”

 

“Back bacon is a thing already,” Ryan said.

 

Noah did not throw the sponge at him.  “Knee jelly, hip paste, neck ketchup…”

 

“You’re running out of them, I hope,” Ryan said.  “And move.  I have the hose.”

 

Ryan rinsed off the car and began to towel it dry while Noah squeegeed the windows, whispering, “Eye cream, nose mustard, ear garnish.”

 

Whatever it was they used, their grandparents’ car shone at the end.