he turnedshe appeared out of the clear blue head downcloaked in an unzipped hoodie hood upher fists pummeling its pockets black curls cascaded down her exposed chestcleavage high enslaved by an black underwire bra

she must have glimpsed his shoes as he sidestepped to avoid her as small as she was she would have went ass over teakettle down in a heap had they collided    

her eyes came up at a suddensimultaneously drawing the hoodie closed

she was unhappy

he wasnt going to wish her Happy Twosday happy whatever day it happened to be  Evenin

her head declining Public bathroom?

not mincing words  Rear of the store to your right either of the last two doors

Thank you.

Youre welcome

                that was their transaction as they sidled past each other she borne on her momentum her legs churning to keep abreast of it

a flesh and blood automaton     

      

he didnt see her exit despite working the floor taking cases down restocking shelves

in the next hour and a halfthe store sparsely shopped he proceeded to his cleanup duties preparing to close

it seemed none of his coworkers were keen at keeping the restrooms clean the toilet paper hand towels restocked the mirrorglass unspotted the waste cans emptied 

somehow their maintenance became his responsibility

the last bathroom faired the day

the first didnt

              he laid the largest share of its degradation at mens feet either their inability to piss in a toilet or their haha perverse humour – they didnt have to cleanup after themselvesdid they – young men these days were boys -- he never underestimated the slop they could make

to bus the floors he prepared a bucket of Green Clean in hot water and mop he cleared the trashcans to sweep the floors a quick glance and its weight informed him the plasticbag holding the firsts can would have to be bundleup replaced

he swept 

he mopped

he returned the last bathrooms trashcan compacted its paperwaste saving on plasticbags

he pulled the cosmetic matteblack metal canister off the firsts trash WHAS THISbright blue at the top of the heap 

a torn cardboard that contained ClearBlue 

inside the ruined box were two nondigital tests swaddled in their opened cellophane

he wasnt curious of their results

he was curious why a woman would perform a pair of pregnancy test in a liquorstore lavatorythen hypergalled her privacy had been reduced to the locked brick-and-mortar stall

then he became curious if the woman might have been the unhappy the distracted the underwired bra it was a strange experience  it didnt happen every dayor ever before

Mygoodness what are people being reduced to these days

     

1923,  Twosday,  15  5. 18

1230,  Twosday,  22  5. 18