Love it or hate it…..let me know…please :) This is going to a multipart story...And it is rather slow to start..I think you will still enjoy it though...I hope so anyway:)
We had just moved into town and I was desperate for a job. The money that my husband was making at the new job just wasn't helping us enough to compensate for the move. After paying the security deposit and first and last months rent at the new apartment and the money required to have our power turned on, all the moving fund had been spent and still yet we didn't have a phone. The cost of gas was a lot higher here than where we had moved from and I just seemed to get the opinion that the cost of living period was going to be higher.
So, after mentioning my concerns to my husband, he finally agreed that I should go out and try to find a job, at least to help us get settled in this new place. Well if I could find a job that paid at least a decent wage and could find a day care that would take the kids after school for a minimal amount of money.
I did manage to find the day care that at least seemed reasonable, now if only I could find a job that would allow me to work and make a little extra money once the daycare cost was covered.
That was a whole new problem in itself though because not only was I new in town and really needing some extra money, I had been a full time mom for the last ten years. I didn't feel I had very many qualifications other than that, since my past jobs had been based in the fast food chains. I really didn't want to go back to working as a cashier or flipping burgers, plus I already knew that they didn't pay enough to make it worth my while.
So, I went and bought a few different news papers and began my search through them, looking for possible places that I may be of service to someone growing more frustrated each day as I realized that most every thing advertised there was for people with prior experience and other things that made me unqualified for them.
Then, I found an advertisement that a cleaning service needed someone willing to go to other peoples houses and clean up. Well, after being married for as long as I had been, I decided that it would be at least looking into even though I had no professional cleaning experience, figured that a husband and two kids at least had to be some kind of training in that field.
I called them up and set up an interview for the very next day, and then went in to find out about the job itself. The pay was not very good to start with but it turned out that if someone was impressed with your services then that person could hire you and pay what they felt you were worth, more or less just a temporary service. You could easily be sent to hotels and individual houses and they may offer you more money if they liked what you did for them. I figured that I should give it a shot since it would at least cover the day care and give me a little extra money for food and other living expenses every week and the possibility that someone would like what I did and offer to pay more was definitely a good reason to at least try it out for a short time anyway. Worst came to worst and I could still check the papers until I found something more appealing to me.
I was hired the next day and found out that I would be working 5 days a week, Monday thru Friday. My schedule was to be, at least as a start, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at a nearby hotel where I would receive training on the first day and then be on my own for the most part after that and on Tuesday and Friday would be working for an individual which I was to go and meet tomorrow and find out exactly what he would be requiring of me as far as what I would and wouldn't do.
So wearing my standard issue gray and white maid's uniform that would be my only outfit for the five days a week I was employed with this temp service, I head out to meet the man whose house I would be cleaning up.
I ended up running a little late for our nine o'clock meeting the next day. I arrived fully prepared to explain how I had taken a wrong turn and became lost, but upon arriving fifteen minutes late, I sensed your disappointment at my tardiness so strongly that all the excuses I had been prepared to explain seemed to be just that, "excuses".
First opinion by me of the tall dark haired man in front of me when I showed up was that he was a man use to being in control of things, who would not want to have anyone interrupting the day by being late. The set of your face, albeit not an angry or ugly face just seemed to show that you expected others to do as you said and I noticed instantly that I felt like a child about to be scolded by an angry parent.
Instead, you said simply, "You're late. It isn't always going to be a big issue because when you are here I will be working; at least most of the time so I wont know you was late. If we have a meeting, you need to be on time or I will have no need of your services. You are lucky today that I have time off from work so you did not cause an inconvenience." and then moved into discussing my job of cleaning your house and what was to be cleaned.
I listened as best as I could, feeling still so much like the scolded child, though at no point had you seemed to be truly angry, I felt it inside me that from now on, I had better not make the same mistake again. I wasn't sure I liked feeling that way, but needing this job so much, held me back from saying anything.
I was glad when the meeting came to an end, and I was free to leave without my tardiness being mentioned again. As I walked out the door I took a few shaky breaths to release the feelings that had arose in me while in your house. I somehow felt that things would have gone much more politely if I hadn't disappointed you to start with. Almost felt that if I hadn't been late, there would have been more time for "hello and nice to meet you" and maybe other polite conversation. Instead I was late so, I was not to waste time anymore. I knew also that I would never take a chance on being late again.
Today was Tuesday and my first time going back to clean the house of the man who had been on my mind so much. Part of me wanted to be there cleaning your house and other part of me really wasn't sure that I could handle the job, at least not if I saw you to much.
I arrived there and you were already gone. I was somewhat surprised and also a little disappointed that I wouldn't see you. Shaking my head to get the confusing thoughts out of my mind I began to clean up the house. Starting in the kitchen where there was dishes to be cleaned and sweeping, mopping, all the things that I was use to doing. I was trying to stop myself from thinking about the man who messed the dishes up.
Cleaning the house as I was, it was hard to not to wonder about the man who lived there. To not think about the man whose personal items were scattered through out the house, your shoes placed by the couch in the living room, jacket hanging by the door.
The next room I was to clean would be the most personal, and I wasn't sure that I really wanted to go there, your bedroom, where everyone keeps their most personal items.
When I am unable to put it off any longer, I head towards that door, ready to do my dusting and change the sheets on your bed or at least thinking that I was ready.
Your room was tidy for a single man a few drawers left open a little bit and the bed looking like someone had just crawled out of it. I felt sure though as neat as the bed was that the only reason it was unmade was because you knew I would be coming to change the sheets.
