It has been two weeks since my first encounter with that mysterious man. Ever since that day, trying to figure out his name had became my main priority. And since he never told me, it consumed me. Every day I would listen out for someone to call him-or even talk to him and say his name. But no. Everyone had to call him by his nick name, M. It drove me insane. But at least I got a taste of his name.
M.
Tomorrow it is my turn to be in the boy's district. I have been dreading this since the start of my job. Stella would have been doing this job with me, but of course she just had to get sick. So, stuck with doing the job by myself, I tried to fake being sick. However that didn't work too good since my boss saw right through me.
After pulling into the parking lot, I sluggishly treaded up the stairs. Slowly I opened the door and headed to the back of the building. My job today was simple. All I had to do was give the boy's their medicine, reapply tissue, and make their beds. The job wasn't hard at all. What I dreaded was the flirtatious commentary. Women who have worked where I am today told the other girls about their vulgar words. One even said that a man touched under her skirt. And what made it worse was that any aged person can be put in here. That would mean men as old as 70 were in here. Just the thought of an old man staring at my ass discusted me. The only thing that kept me sane right now was M. He would be in the district too. Maybe I could talk to him? Would he even answer?
*
Knees weak, palms sweaty. I made my way down the hall to the widest corder that had blue stripes along the walls. The doors were already opened, but that's not what made me nervous. Men. They peered at me with wide eyes. Some looked me up and down, some bit their lip. My knees grew weaker.
I tried to calm myself down but nothing worked. My heart beat sped up and I felt frozen. Oh gosh. How I wish Stella were here.
My mind ran wild. Every instinct told me to turn around and go home. Even with every urge in my body pulling me away, I stepped forward against my better judgement. The three feet walk felt like 10 miles; and it didn't help that my knees grew weaker. Every single man grazed their eyes at me. Butterflies erupted in my stomach and my body started to sweat. As I walked I tried not to look at the big bulky men around me, and instead look at the wall; but that didn't work. My eyes watched as they stared at me. Slowly I glanced around the perimeter. Some men had big heavy beards-others had clean shaven faces. A good amount had wrinkles on their face while others looked younger than me.
When I finally made it to the janitors closet, I turned on the sink, made my hands into a bowl shape to catch the water, and then rinsed my face to try to calm my nerves. My hands then grabbed on to the sink as I put all of my weight on my arms. Still, nothing worked to calm me down. My thoughts were all over the place. From my thoughts ranging to why the hell would my manager put me, a women, to work as the care taker for these men, to , where was M?
My nerves grew even more at the thought of him not being there. Sometimes the men and women in this building have the opportunity to go walk outside for however long they desire. I know it sounds selfish but I am hoping to God that he is not out there right now. He is the only thing keeping me sane.
***
It was not surprising that the day went by really really slow. I tried to only focus on my work by only thinking of replying tissue, and getting the men's medicine together. Finally, It was time for the men to go to their lunch, which I used that time to remake their beds. The aroma of the rooms wreaked of sweat and masculinity. I tried to overcome the smell of the rooms since I had about 100 beds to remake and 50 rooms to tidy up. Some men got finished with their lunch early just to come back to their beds and catch a glimpse of me. I could see the men staring at me from the main gathering area into rooms I would tidy up.
I learned to ignore the frequent stares and walked into the last room I had to fix. My feet made its way over to the bed as I examined the dirty tan walls, the off-white looking ceiling, the two twin beds in the center, and the dirty brown fan above swinging from left to right. It looked no different than any other bedroom in this place, yet I still liked to look around at how awful and doomed the building itself was. My hands reached toward the bed as my fingers grabbed the same medium sized tan blanket in every room. I swiftly picked it up, shook it off, and laid it back on the bed neatly. Gently, I grabbed the two white fluffy pillows; placing them against the head board. After I did the other bed, I quickly tidied up the rest of the room by putting trash and items laid on the floor where they belonged.
***
I inserted my 50th shot into my 50th "patient". My eyes began to grow heavy with each injection of medicine I gave. This whole day took a toll on me even more than I thought was possible. With a sigh, I changed the needle and added more medicine. Just before I inserted the next dose into the next patient, sneakers screeching on the floor abrupted loudly throughout the halls. Grunting and mens voices added on to the unforeseen act that was causing this noise. With swiftness, I stood up and rushed to the scene. The noise grew louder as I got closer. My heart pumped loudly as I turned corner after corner until I eventually made it to the center. I was nothing but flabbergasted as the sight in front of me took place.
It was M, on top of someone, pounding them into the floor.
