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
1923, Twosday,
15 5. 18
1230, Twosday,
22 5. 18
