The day had unfolded like most July days in Michigan, with the sun climbing fast and the temperatures, as well as the humidity climbing quickly too.
Rebecca Cheeks was on her way to meet the owner of a strip mall who needed some contract work done and he had called her on the advice of a fellow businessman. It was about 12:20 p.m. and her appointment was for 12:30. She was right on time.
Rebecca had taken the job, knowing that it might entail a week, maybe two weeks, depending on how well her results were appreciated. As she turned into the parking lot at the mall, she noticed a faded paint line along the sidewalk and paint chipped support poles supporting the overhangs of the businesses. She could also see the 4-5 large trash cans staggered every 25 feet or so needed a fresh coat of paint as well.
There was definitely work that needed to be done here, that was easily apparent. The work didn't really worry her.
She was a "Jack of all trades" or maybe a "Jacqueline of all trades" would be more accurate. After talking with the business owner, who had been referred to Rebecca by a mutual friend who had hired her for one of his work projects a few weeks earlier, she had learned that some of this project was going to be labor intensive. But this was work she had done to some extent before with another job and this type of work itself didn't worry her at all.
The businessman who had contracted her services, had recently purchased the strip mall, that he needed work done at, to keep the business owners who leased space from him happy, as well as staying in compliance with local ordinances regarding yellow striping along the edge of the side walks that ran along the front of the various businesses.
Along the way he told Rebecca there might be another odd job or two he would have her do, if there was time.
The strip mall was located on a relatively busy stretch of road that flowed north and south, on the southern edge of moderately sized city. "Grunt" work had never bothered the long haired beauty in the past. She enjoyed the work and the workout that many of these types of jobs would call for. As someone that had graduated from high school, but didn't have a college degree, Rebecca found work and created work skills through experiences she had developed on her own.
Often this came in the from watching and helping her father as a young girl and through high school. She also had picked up on a few work skills when a boyfriend or two along the way, had enlisted her help with a variety of jobs they would have, through their dating life.
Although married now, to a husband that made pretty good money, Rebecca had never felt comfortable not trying to pull her own weight when it came to money for the household. She had created a couple of part-time jobs through her skills as a seamstress, both in alteration work as well as making her own designs that she sometimes sold.
These jobs had helped her earn and bank money along the way and had stirred her creative juices to a fair extent. She liked both of those jobs for what they brought out of her, with her skills and for what they helped her develop when it came to taking those skills to levels even higher than she realized she was capable of.
There were other part-time jobs that she did along the way that fell within the realm of traditional "women's type work" as well as others that came from just rolling up her sleeves and just getting to work. It was while working on these "roll up your sleeves" type jobs that usually brought the most attention to Rebecca.
Her modesty didn't allow her to notice she was being noticed. But she was noticed.
This "being noticed" wasn't just because most of these roll up your sleeves jobs were in traditional "men's work" environments, although that was part of it. The being noticed came from the fact that Rebecca, was leggy and attractive, with long blonde hair and a body most women would love to have.
The fact that she could do the work that most men could and was very attractive, brought her much attention, some noticed by Rebecca, but most of it unnoticed.
As she stood there listening to Alex, the owner of the strip mall, go over what he hoped she could accomplish, she knew that if the weather cooperated, the work could be done in good time.
After he made sure that she had his cell phone number and office number, he wished her good luck and he was on his way.
When he finally left, she began to feel at least a momentary feeling of relief. The work itself was work that was something she could take care of in and of itself. She just wanted to get started.
As she looked around and observed the people traffic around her to the different stores and shops setup within the complex, she began to realize that there was more to the area than she had initially perceived.
The southern edge of Sagianw, Michigan, the area she was working in, was a mostly minority area. In the 15-20 minutes that she had been talking to "Alex" several black men and women had walked in and out of the various businesses that were apart of the strip mall, but no white's had been in the area at all.
That didn't matter to her one way or the other, what mattered was getting started on the work so that she could make at least a dent in the job, before the day would be over.
She had always felt that white, black, Hispanic, didn't really matter one way of the other, Rebecca made friends easily, was friendly and lived by the "golden rule" that you treat others as you would want to be treated yourself.
With that in mind, she walked over to her car and opened the trunk, grabbing her tools and supplies. The main job was to sweep the sidewalks, scrub any spill areas on the sidewalks, and scrape as much of the old paint off the curb-sidewalk areas, so she could put a fresh coat of yellow paint in a strip along the sidewalk.
She would also paint the poles and trash cans. Pretty cut and dried stuff. The few other odds and ends cleanup areas would be easily handled.
The next couple of hours moved along pretty quickly. Other than moving out of the way of an occasional shopper that didn't see her bent over scrubbing the problem areas on the side walk, that had to be scraped a little more aggressively than the norm. As she worked she could feel drops of sweat beginning to work their way down her neck both in the front and back.
Her tee shirt began to dampen with the build up of perspiration and she could feel it sticking to her back and chest as she would straighten up. She had worn jeans that day, even with the temperatures projected to be in the high 80's and her legs were beginning to feel sticky from the sweat building up.
Eventually she noticed that she was becoming a candidate for a wet tee shirt contest. Occasionally she would draw a whistle or two from someone, as she bent over and a flash of her black thong might appear creeping down the cheeks of her ass, as she put a little extra energy into her work. Rebecca was oblivious to this unintentional clothing geography shift.
The men that happened to be in the right place at the right time to see this, enjoyed it immensely.
She just smiled and kept working along her merry way. At 47, an appreciative whistle was good for her ego, as much of that as her humble nature allowed for.
With the pace she was working at, Rebecca thought should be able to finish her scraping by late morning to early afternoon the next day. The other odds and ends should be completed by the end of day two and day three would bring the start of the painting.
As she stood assessing her progress, Rebecca decided to take a well earned break and walked over to her car to grab one of the bottles of water she had in her cooler. She had munchies packed as well, but for the time being water was all that she needed.
After she opened the water bottle and took a good long drink, she twisted the cap back on and leaned against her car. It was now almost three o'clock and the heat of the day was reaching it's peak.
Several people moved in and out of the businesses and again Rebecca noticed that all of them were black.
