I called in sick to my construction job to go job hunting. I'd been at it for a couple of hours with little success, early August is apparently not prime hiring season in my small beach town. Sitting at a bus stop, smoking a cigarette and waiting for a ride down to the next commercial area to continue my search, she walked past me. The bus stop was in front of an elementary school, which was naturally deserted in the height of summer. Her knee-length jean skirt and the obvious delight it concealed immediately captivated me. Shapely brown legs continued down to her black leather work shoes. Her blouse matched her skirt, light blue denim with a button down front and a colorful stitched pattern around the collar. I got a hold of myself and let out a low whistle when she was about fifteen feet past me. She turned and cocked her eyebrow in a skeptical, almost scornful way.
"Yes?" She demanded.
"You work here?" I blurted. I had no line, but had to try something.
"Yes, I am a secretary at the school." It was matter of fact, why she deigned to answer I don't understand.
"Well, what's your name, Ms. Secretary?"
"Mariposa. Can I help you with anything? I kind of have things to do." She answered, but still waited.
"I'm Jack, and I was just curious."
"And why are you so interested?" Why was she even still talking to me?
"A woman like you in a skirt like that always interests me." Oh God! What was that? Not a line, not smooth in the least. Just lecherous and gross.
And yet she didn't blow me off.
"Humph. Well, Casanova, I have work to do." And she turned on her heel.
Denied. Ah well, I didn't exactly put a great foot forward. Besides, what a random attempt. Completely spontaneous.
I lit another cigarette. Who the hell was going to hire me and save me from the meaningless manual labor I had gotten myself sucked into?
My bus wasn't coming for another twenty minutes. Ten minutes later I heard a thud and a curse. I turned around, and there was Mariposa, bending over and frantically trying to collect the papers that had spilled from a crumpled cardboard box on the ground, while trying to maintain her grasp on three overflowing manila folders under one arm.
"Can I help?" I hopped up and started collecting the quickly scattering papers.
She gave an exasperated sigh when she saw it was me, but consented to my help.
When the papers were collected, I grabbed the box and asked, "Where to?"
"Room 113, across the yard." She curtly replied and set off.
She moved at a brisk pace and I followed, burdened by the surprisingly ungainly box but nevertheless content to watch her sashay across the empty schoolyard.
Her hair was long and curly, black as coal to match her eyelashes and just below shoulder length. When we reached to door of Room 113, she turned and the breeze blew her hair so it framed her olive-skinned, heart shaped face.
"Over on the desk at the front of the room." She ordered as she opened the door behind her. Stepping in to the room I saw it was a math classroom. Multiplication tables and formula charts covered the walls. A mandatory American flag hung limp at the front of the room. The late afternoon sun filtered through yellowed windows and highlighted swirls of dust motes in the air, hovering over rows of deserted desks and chairs. I set the box on what must have been the teacher's desk and asked if there was anything else I could do.
"Only if you can make this stack of enrollment forms disappear." She answered.