Chapter III

“What are you doing here?  Haven’t I told you several f*****g times to leave me alone?”

 

                Once again Charles was greeted by the bright smile he had grown tired of in under ten seconds.  Debunking the weightless image presented by her figure, the woman lumbered through the room under the weight of an assortment of tools and products usually found only on a janitor’s trolley.

 

“I’m sure you have, but I was talking to my friend Kathy today and I remembered how disgusting the walls of this room looked so I took it upon myself to come on up and give them a good scrubbing.”

 

“What?  Are you crazy?  Who cares about the damned walls?”

 

“I do obviously.  I hope this cleaner works, I’m not sure if it’s right for the job.  Anyway, how are you doing today?  Did the nurse give you any trouble over my last visit?”

 

                Wearing designer shoes and pants, the woman seemed oddly out of place to Charles.  With the meticulous make up and fashionable attire, she stood out strikingly against the stained and cracked walls she had gone about preparing for the cleaning agent she brought with her.  Filling the bucket with water from the sink, she proceeded to add half a bottle of cleaner.

 

“I hope that’s enough.”

 

“Why are you here?”

 

“I told you, I’m here to clean your walls.”

 

“What’s wrong with you? The walls don’t need cleaning.”

 

“False.”

“I can’t be bothered with this s**t.  I’m going to sleep.”

 

“Ok.  Sweet dreams.”

 

                Rolling up her sleeves, she dropped a rag into the putrid green liquid within the bucket.  Pulling out the rag and squeezing out the excess cleaner, the woman began rubbing the wall �" resembling  a lover waving good bye to a departing ship.  Continuing this process in silence, the woman soon realized that such broad scrubbing was only resulting in creating a puddle at her feet.  Wringing out the rag much more forcibly than before, she began to concentrate short powerful stokes on small, contained areas of the wall.

 

“So, I was talking to my friend Jessica today.  We were eating at our favorite café downtown.  It’s this little place off Tucker Avenue that serves these delicious parfaits.  They are kind of expensive and go straight to my thighs, but they are just so good that I could care less.  There is also this amazing garden across the street which has such beautiful flowers during the spring.  I especially like the tulips and carnations.  There are so many different colors I just can’t help be excited about the possibilities of next season’s batch.  I wonder if anyone has actually genetically engineered some flowers to be really crazy colors and patterns.  Like zebra stripes or neon pink.  Those would be such beautiful flowers.  Of course, it would kind of be a waste for such bright scientific minds to be preoccupied with making flowers even more beautiful when they could be finding out ways to cure incurable diseases.  Frankly, I don’t believe in incurable diseases.  Nothing is impossible, I think.  At some point or another, something considered impossible is proven possible.  I mean.  Think about it.  At one point no one believed that man could fly.  But look at us now.  We are not only flying, we are flying faster than the speed of sound.  We are not only flying, we are traveling to the stars.  The way things change is just amazing.”

 

“Shut up. I’m trying to sleep.”

 

“Anyway, Jessica was talking about her new boyfriend Paul.  They have been dating for about three weeks now.  I haven’t met him yet but from what I hear he seems like a nice guy.  I mean, it’s hard to judge someone from another person’s stories, especially if the stories are slightly biased.  But Jessica is a good girl, so Paul must be good too.  Although, my friend Emilia was a great girl as well and then she met this guy named Harry.  He was such a giant a*s hole.  He drank too much, smoked too much, yelled too much.  Apparently fucked just the right amount though.  Of course that was because all the excess lust was going to the women he had on the side.  Poor Emilia, she has never really recovered from that.  Four years and she still can’t trust men.  I don’t blame her, men are pigs.  I’ve had my fair share of rotting pre-wrapped bacon too. 

 

Wow, these walls are really stubborn.  I can’t seem to make any headway with them.”

 

“Maybe you should just give up and leave me alone.”

 

“Anyway, Jessica said I could meet Paul next week when we go to that café again.  I wonder what he looks like.  I hope he is not too tall, Jessica is kind of short.  Although, it would be really adorable to see her get up on her toes to kiss him as he bends at the waist.  Of course, Derek had a girlfriend like that once, he said it gave him major back pains.  He stopped kissing her after a while because it was too much of a hassle to bend all the way down.  It kinda killed the relationship, ya know?

 

I think the only problem with Paul is that he works at the same firm as Jessica and me.  I’m not too sure how I feel about employee relationships.  It can cause so much worthless drama and problems.  I hate to get bogged down in that kinda stuff when I could be focusing on my casework and doing my job.  Did I mention I’m a lawyer?  Well, I am.  I passed the Bar two years ago.  On my first try too.  The firm I work for isn’t the biggest, but it is respectable and brings in lots of business and good clients for me to make strong business connections with.  I want to start my own firm at some point, but to do that I need money and, most of all, clients.”

 

“That explains why you are hanging out at hospitals all the time.”

 

“False.  I’m not that kind of lawyer.  I take up civil liberties cases and civil rights issues.  Of course I have to do some dull company work to pay the bills and such, but I really want to make a difference in the world with what I do, not just help line the pockets of the some over privileged jerk in a with an overpriced suit.”

 

“Whatever you say, you lawyers are leeches.  Nothing more, nothing less.”

 

“I find that offensive.”

 

“I find that I don’t care.”

 

“Well, it looks like this just isn’t doing the trick.  I guess I’ll have to try something else a little stronger next time.”

 

“You do that….”

 

                Before Charles could finish his breath in preparation for the next round of insults, the woman had already collected her things and was out the door.  Leaving the room as quickly as she had entered, Charles would have thought her a hallucination if not for the balloons hovering in the far corner.

Reviews

[Sweet_pale_cacophony]

Do complete this write andrew...:) i am looking forward...
Wearing designer shoes and pants, the woman seemed oddly out of place to Charles. With the meticulous make up and fashionable attire, she stood out strikingly against the stained and cracked walls she had gone about preparing for the cleaning agent she brought with her.
i liked these lines...i like the way you write about walls...perhaps it connects with me in a way...i remember writing a poem on walls.