Spring Cleanup Reward 300-word flash

Mrs. Minki is shocked and insulted.

Spring Cleanup Reward

Mrs. Minki was a stickler for early outdoor clean-up. When the snow was newly gone, she was out there in her toque and Hudson Bay jacket, surveying her yard. She made us all look bad!
“It’s too early to plant and too late to shovel,” she said.
Regardless, she would be out there with her old corn broom removing webs and ice worm nests from the sides of her house with purposeful vigor. The sock top she’d put on the straw this season was multicolored and festive. As she swept away wet detritus and other mysterious things, she left colored stripes all over the place, like a toddler gone mad with markers.

But these colored marks did not disappear when they dried.
“I can’t get rid of them, I’ve tried soap and water, lye, bleach. They are there until they wear off.”
The Spring Neighborhood Beautification Committee got wind of her paintwork. It was I who’d entered her without telling her as a surprise. The prize {b} money for first place was a rich windfall I was sure she could use.
As her neighbor, I was outside the day judges came around. They ignored her careful perennial plantings and oohed and ahhed about her colorful house exterior. Seeing how excited they were; I was certain she’d win.
“I don’t know what to think about this strange call I got this morning,” she said to me. As I listened to her talk about a contest she’d never heard of and that she’d won.

I had to tell her about entering her, because the outside of her house looked beautiful.
“You did? This is so embarrassing, I’ll have to decline because you didn’t ask first.” She was right, I should never have done it that way. I miss her friendship.