The boy hardly ever takes a bath

There was a boy named Tom who never took a bath. "Why should I bathe?" Tom thought. You go into the bathroom, turn on the water, and it pours over you. You stand there naked for five minutes doing nothing, then you spend another minute getting dressed. In total, you waste six minutes instead of playing games. Adults often make a big deal out of trivial things.

Tom also doesn’t eat vegetables. He likes to eat french fries and sausages. Every day Tom gets up at 9:00 AM and plays games until noon. After that, his mother makes him a plate of rice with sausages and lots of french fries. Sometimes his mother substitutes it with grilled sausages or ham and adds a bit of vegetables. But he thinks it can't compare to sausages and throws out all the greens his mother includes.

Anyway, he still has to bathe once a week, and each time it takes him six minutes. His mother has to bribe him with game cards or in-game vouchers that she worked hard to earn and pay for with her credit card. Occasionally, his mother also makes him drink a disgusting, bland green detox drink that she calls a detox. Tom tries to drink that and bathe once a week because nothing is more enjoyable than leveling up quickly in the game and giving his game character a new outfit.

One day, his mother came home with a babysitter.

"Hey Tom, say hello to John."

Tom greeted him without looking up. His mother looked at Tom fondly and continued:

"I'm going on a business trip for three weeks. I've asked John to take care of you every day and make food for you. I told him to remind you to bathe, and if you listen, I'll buy you a game disc when I return."

Tom agreed and hoped his mother would leave quickly so he could immerse himself in his game. By noon, John arrived and gave Tom his lunch. Tom opened it and saw a plate of salad. He said, “I don’t eat salad,” and John replied:

“Eat it, and tonight I’ll bring you sausages and french fries.”

Tom took his lunch into his room and left it in a corner. He ignored his hunger and focused on the video game. By 3:00 PM, his stomach was rumbling. The hunger was like a smoldering fire that flared up at 5:00 PM. He looked back at the salad, swallowed, but found the dish bland and an unappealing shade of green. John was sitting in the living room, drawing, occasionally glancing at Tom. Tom also glanced at John now and then but saw no sign of dinner being prepared. “What a long day,” Tom sighed. He couldn’t concentrate on the game anymore; his eyes were tired, and he switched to auto-play while occasionally looking over at John. “What a long day,” he sighed again. By 7:00 PM, Tom finally had his dinner, which included sausages, and felt happy again.

John said he had to go home to do his homework and reminded Tom to stay in the apartment. Tom said he would stay in his room and was happy to do so. But deep down, Tom kept waiting for John to come back, though the babysitter never appeared. He felt a little scared and slept peacefully in his room for the first time alone. His mother was always home with him at night, and this was the first time he was alone. Unable to sleep, he lay awake in his room, trying to read a book from a corner of the bookshelf, but the book had no color and lacked any exciting scenes. Tom decided to play the game until he got sleepy. “A very wise decision,” he thought, as he always wanted to play games without being told to go to bed. By midnight, he was extremely hungry, and the house was eerily quiet. He got up from the chair, walked through the house, and missed his mother. His mother always asked him if he was hungry and was always worried about him. Tom went to the door, pressed his ear to listen, and heard such silence that he could even hear a dripping sound somewhere. His stomach felt like it had someone drumming inside it. The salad, sitting in the corner of the room, seemed to beckon, but he reminded himself not to try such bland food. He paced back and forth and continued playing the game. The sausages from 7:00 PM felt like they had happened a long time ago. Suddenly, he heard a noise in the room coming from the salad. He stayed silent, and the noise grew louder.

From the salad plate, Tom saw the lettuce leaves stand up, with cucumber slices and carrot pieces starting to move and rise, turning into a murky green color. He wanted to scream but thought he was hallucinating. A pencil darted past his ear and chased after the shape that was forming. Then he saw his Rubik's cube, abacus, and model blocks running towards the salad monster, turning into a mossy green. Gradually, he saw a green monster in the room, emitting a musty smell. Tom ran to his mother's room, but the monster followed him step by step. Dishes, vases, and everything else followed it. It started to grow teeth—17 teeth and three rows of teeth floating on its body, chewing up everything it consumed. The monster moved slowly through the apartment, attracting all the objects. It looked at him and grinned with its yellowing teeth. "It knows it will eat me, and it will eat me eventually," Tom sweated, searching his mother's closet but finding no phone. His phone had been sucked into the monster. He was too scared to cry or scream because he was so hungry. He watched the monster, now half the size of the room, turn a dark brown color like sausages and smell like a trash heap. It began to approach Tom. The apartment was empty, with all the belongings sucked up by the monster. Tom was the only one it hadn’t eaten yet. The stench followed it with every step, and black, sewage-like liquid dripped from its body. Tom was in tears, calling for help, but no one heard his cries.

Three steps.

Then two steps.

He couldn’t move. Sometimes, you’re so scared that you can’t move.

GULP GULP GULP.

Tom couldn’t open his eyes. The monster vomited garbage and sludge all over him. He smelled like a rat in a sewer.

He couldn’t open his eyes, but he felt that the monster had disappeared. He crawled slowly across the floor, dragging himself to the bathroom.

You enter the bathroom, turn on the water. You stand there naked, doing nothing. You begin to feel refreshed as the water covers you, like standing in a shower of ice cream. Tom just stood there. More than anything in the world, he just needed to bathe.