She knew something must be wrong.

My daughter came home from school the other day, went to her room, came right back out and asked incredulously, “Why is my room clean?”

There are some things you must know before I go any further on this subject.  They are:

• A teenager’s room is rarely clean.  Even my son, who used to line up his socks in his sock drawer when he was little, turned into a TS (Teenage Slob) the day he hit teenage-hood. 

• A TS’s mother knows better than to even try to keep it clean.  We would end up fed-up heaps of nerves if we did.  Even people who are hired to clean houses get irritated with TSes.
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• A TS doesn’t know how to put clean clothes away or put dirty clothes into the hamper.  This is why Moms find clean, folded clothes in the laundry.  
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• A TS rarely sees the floor in his or her room.  You could change out the carpet and they’d never know it.
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• An unmade bed is a good thing to a TS.  This way they can dive into bed at a moment’s notice to take numerous naps during the day. 
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• A TS will groan and whine if the Mom asks him or her to clean said room.  And procrastinate.  And beg for mercy.
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• A TS’s idea of clean and a Mom’s idea of clean are two different things.  A clean sweep of everything into one big pile in the corner is good enough for them.  This would be when the clean clothes get tussled into the heap with the dirty clothes and wind up being little wrinkled balls.
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• A TS will put these wrinkled clean clothes into the dirty clothes hamper without an ounce of remorse.

So, you can understand the shock a TS must feel upon discovering their room is clean.  It can mean one of several things.

It could mean that we’re having company.  That’s bad news to a TS, because if company is coming over, Mom will be asking the TS for incredible favors, like sweeping the driveway and changing light bulbs.  As if a TS has time for those things.

It could mean that we’re moving, and the realtor called to say she’s showing the house.  This is also bad news to a TS, because Mom will be asking the TS to KEEP the room clean.  Impossible with a capital “I”. 

It could mean that Mom finally got fed up with the condition of the room.  This is really bad news, because now the TS is going to get a lecture about how hard Mom works and how all she asks is that the TS keep this one room clean.

If any of the above are true, Mom also might ask the TS to move out for a couple of weeks.  A tent in the back yard is a bad sign.

So, my daughter was worried.  There was no tent, but she was concerned, nonetheless.

I smiled at her.  I was relishing the discomfort I saw in her eyes.

“Why is my room clean?!” she asked again, this time with fear in her voice.

I thought about pulling her leg, but didn’t.  “Oh, the phone man had to come do some work to our inside wiring.  I was embarrassed to have him see your room, so I straightened it up,” I finally confessed.

Relief swept across her face.  Life as she knew it was not going to change after all.

She went to her room, unmade her bed, and dove in, leaving her dirty socks in the middle of the floor.  It wouldn’t be long before she had her room back the way she liked it.