by A. L Long
~****~
“Good afternoon, Sensei Gainer,” they all said together.
“Good afternoon, class. Please take your places,” I replied, waiting for each of them to find their spot.
Walking them through the first round of warm-ups, I settled on the mat and began doing my own warm-up, which consisted of a relaxing breathing technique known as Qigong. This was the only technique I found to help me clear my mind and body of everything. As I took in deep breaths, my efforts were stopped as I heard laughter coming from the back row. When I opened my eyes, the laughter immediately stopped, and silence once again filled the space, allowing me to return my focus on my breathing. It was funny knowing that I had such control over my students that just my gaze could cause them to pay attention.
The kids knew that my heart wasn’t in the class today, just by the way it bounced off on them. This was the first time that I had lost all concentration. The only thing I could think about was what happened to me at that orphanage. I also kept thinking about all these kids. I wasn’t any older than they were. To have your childhood taken away like mine was, was unforgivable.
Looking to the kids, I decided to call one of my top kids to head the class with instruction, while I pulled my head out of my ass and cleared my mind. The only way I knew to do that was to get rid of this anger that was building up inside me. A few rounds with the stationary kicking bag was just what I needed to release some of this tension.
CHAPTER FOUR
Emma
Finishing my snack, which consisted of a bag of chips, a candy bar, and a soda, I decided to do something for myself. Grabbing a few bills from my bag, I headed down the street to Fifth Avenue. It was so nice to finally have money of my own, even though technically it wasn’t really mine. Most everything that I made at the Park Lane Hotel went to Red Oak Nursing Home where my mom had been staying for the past eight years. It was also the last time that I had seen her, but I always made sure that every penny I made went to the home to cover her monthly living expenses. The cheapest and the closest place I could find was in Illinois. As much as I hated not being able to visit her, I knew she was being well taken care of. And even though I couldn’t see her, I checked in with the staff every week to make sure she was doing okay. Sometimes, I would sneak a call using the hotel phone, or Courtney would let me use her cell phone when she was working the same shift as me.
As much as I loved my mom, I hated her too. Growing up, the only thing that she cared about was where her next fix was going to come from. She did some pretty shady things while I was growing up in order to get it. I always wondered what our lives would have been like if she never started taking the stuff. At first it was just to deliver it, then she started using it herself. That was pretty much how she ended up in the nursing home. Her deliveries came up short one too many times and she ended up paying for it. Now, she doesn’t even know her name half the time. She certainly doesn’t know me or that I ever existed.
Standing in front of Saks Fifth Avenue, I decided this was as good a place as any to pick out something nice for myself. The minute I stepped into the fancy store, I knew that I was totally out of place Looking down at my weathered jeans and faded t-shirt, an embarrassment came over me as I tried to seem small, hoping no one would notice me. Walking quickly in between some mannequins. I was definitely in the wrong place. This store was too ritzy for me. Getting to the entrance door, I exited, hoping that no one noticed me.
Walking down the block, I slipped inside another store. As I was looking around, a sales associate started walking towards me. I pretended to be looking at some clothes on a rack when she began rambling about this sale and that sale. Nodding my head as though I heard everything she said, I smiled and said, “Thank you,” before heading in the opposite direction.
When she was out of sight, I began to proceed to another section, where I spotted a cute little dress. As I pulled it off of the rack, I tried to think back to the last time I even wore a dress other than my uniform. Needless to say, I came up empty. Pulling the price tag from inside the back of the dress, I looked at it and was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t that much, at least not as much as I thought it would be. Heading back to the sales associate, I asked her politely for directions to the changing room.
Once inside, I stripped off my clothes and put on the dress. As I turned toward the mirror, I couldn’t believe that it was me that I saw in the mirror. The dress fit perfectly and besides the worn tennis shoes on my feet, I had to admit that I looked pretty amazing. Turning this way and that way, I saw the dress really hugged my body, showing off curves I never knew I had.
I ended up spending a little bit more than I had planned, but at least I had a few nice things. Leaving the store with several bags, I was too tired to walk back to the motel with my purchases. Hailing a cab, I got in and told the driver where to go. Looking out the window, I saw a familiar face exit a high-rise apartment building. “Wow,” I said out loud, causing the driver to look back to me in the review mirror.
“Is everything okay, Miss?” he asked with a hint of concern.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I replied.
I had no idea that the guy I had met in the park earlier would be living in such a ritzy place. Pulling my bags closer to my body, I thought about how nice it would be to have a place that I could call mine. I knew that with the money I intended on keeping, I could have a nice place and get off of the street. It was then that I decided to look for a place as soon as I got back to the hotel. Maybe I was a little quick to think about returning all but a couple thousand dollars. If I kept it all, I could be happy a lot longer, instead of only a couple of months.
~****~
I stayed up later than I should have the night before, and my body was feeling the effects of it as I stumbled out of bed and headed to the bathroom, where I knew a quick shower would wake up this tired body. Taking off my t-shirt and panties, I turned on the faucet to the shower and began brushing my teeth while the water warmed up. Gazing up at the mirror, the lack of sleep could be seen by the dark circles under my eyes. Rinsing the toothpaste from my mouth, I inspected my teeth, making sure they were gleaming white with no food particles lingering between them. Even though I didn’t have the best eating habits and knew that my body was lacking the nutrients it needed, I always made sure that my teeth remained healthy by brushing them and flossing whenever I had a chance.
As the warmth of the water cascaded down my body, I couldn’t believe how wonderful it felt. Taking the white washcloth, I rubbed the bar of soap against the dampened cloth until a good layer of suds appeared on it. Rubbing the cloth against by body, I closed my eyes and began thinking about Lou. I wasn’t sure why, but there was something about him that filled my mind. Even though I had never been with a man or even knew what it felt like to be kissed by one, all I could think about was how it would feel to be with him.
Lowering the soapy cloth down my body, I reached the apex of my sex. Sliding it between my legs, I closed my eyes and began imagining that it was Lou touching me, caressing me. Unable to get the satisfaction I needed from the cloth, I let it drop to the bottom of the tub and put my hand in its place. With my middle finger, I gently parted my folds and began moving it slowly back and forth. The moisture between my legs began to build as my finger began moving more freely. With my other hand, I pinched my nipple between my fingers, pulling and tugging on the hard peak, just enough to cause my nipple to tingle with excitement. Seeing Lou’s hands caressing my body sent a surge of rhapsody through my veins and just the thought of him sent me reeling. As I increased my movements, my body unleashed. Feeling the last tremble wash through me, my body began to relax with only the disappointment that it was not the touch of his hands upon me, but my own. I had never had the desire to be with any man, so why was Lou any different, and why did I feel the need to feel him touch me?
Coming back to reality, I finished drying off and put on my neatly pressed uniform. Combing my long hair, I grabbed a
hair-tie and pulled it back into a ponytail. As I looked in the mirror at my reflection, I could see that my complexion was a little bit flushed, most likely due to the self-indulgence I had in the shower. Normally I would nix the make-up, but I wanted to look my best in the event I ran into Lou again on my way to and from work. Since I knew exactly where he lived, or at least the building he lived in, I decided to take the scenic route to work.
Picking up my bag, I placed in on the bed. The last thing I wanted was to risk getting caught with all this money. Looking around the room to find a good place to hide it, I remembered seeing an old safe hidden away in one of the cupboards. I wasn’t sure if it even worked. Reading the directions that were affixed to the door, I punched in a four-digit code and pressed the lock button. Pulling on the handle to make sure it was secure, I re-entered the code to open it. At least now I knew that my money would be safely tucked away.
After placing the last bundle in the safe, I headed out the door and down the street. It was still pretty early in the morning to be walking, but I was no stranger to the streets. It never bothered me to walk alone when it was dark. The only thing good about living on the streets was that I learned how to take care of myself if anyone entered my space. Seeing as how this was a better part of the city, I felt pretty confident that I would be safe.
Looking up to the building where I saw Lou exit, I imagined which apartment was his and what he would be doing at this very minute. Lost in thought, I didn’t realize that I had stepped off the sidewalk and into the street until an annoying honk broke me from my fantasy. Stepping back onto the sidewalk, I heard the driver yell, “Get off the fucking street. Next time I’ll run your ass over.”
Giving him a sideways glance, I lifted my hands and gave him a double bird as my response. Another thing I learned living on the streets, never put up with any shit. Continuing on my way, I crossed the street and headed into Central Park. One of the places I most hated walking through in the dark was the park at night. There were so many greedy homeless people who slept here at night, just waiting until the night patrolmen kicked them out. A lot of them I knew, but the ones I didn’t tended to hide among the bushes to stay out of sight. When a passer-by came close to them, they found it a good opportunity to beg for food, among other things. I knew this all too well, being that I used to be one of those people.
Walking on the sidewalk, there were only a few people out this early in the morning. Most of them were doing their morning run. One thing that was nice about working at the Park Lane Hotel was that it was within walking distance of the park. Sometimes, I would even walk to the park and just sit on one of the benches overlooking the water on Turtle Pond. They say that if you go to the top of Belvedere Castle and look out, you can see the turtles in the water. I have never seen them since I could never afford to get inside the castle to find out.
As I entered the hotel, just like usual, the place was already beginning to come alive. Already one of the other hotel maids had been busy dusting the furniture, while another one was mopping the shiny floors. Slipping past the check-in desk, I noticed a couple of men who looked like they pumped one too many irons standing next to the elevators, as well as the staircase. I brushed it off and headed to the wooden door that led to the employee area where the employee lockers were, and the head of housekeeping office.
Opening my locker to stash my bag away, I overheard one of the girls talking to another. From what I could hear, they were talking about the incident that happened yesterday. Seems that one of the guests staying in a Junior Suite had been shot. I couldn’t hear all the details, but I knew when money was mentioned in the conversation, it had to be the same room that I helped Courtney clean. Unable to control my curiosity, I closed my locker and walked up to the two girls.
“So, it was pretty exciting here yesterday. I always miss out on all the fun,” I remarked, interrupting their conversation, hoping that they would say more about what happened.
“Yeah, it was pretty exciting. Some guy in the Junior suite on the 46th floor got toasted. They found some bundled hundred dollar bills all over the floor. We can’t even clean the room until they are done collecting the evidence. I guess they were checking everything for prints, even the money,” one girl confessed as she wrapped her apron around her waist and tied it in the back.
When the girl said, “Catch you later,” it didn’t register until she was out the door. My heart sunk to the pit of my stomach. All these thoughts began running through my mind. “I touched that damn money. My prints would be on those bills.” I felt like I was going to be sick. Walking back to my locker, I entered my combination and removed the lock. Grabbing the bottle of water that I tucked in my bag, I took a long drink. I only wished there was something stronger in my bag that I could drink.
Leaving the employee lockers with my stocked maid’s cart, I knew I needed to get my head straight. The last thing that I needed was for someone to notice that I was acting strange. Taking in a deep breath, I took the clipboard with my cleaning schedule, which was tucked between two piles of freshly washed towels. Scanning the pages, I headed to the service elevator and punched in the 30th floor. One good thing about working at the hotel was that Delores, who was the head of housekeeping, always made sure that the cleaning schedules were different every day. She felt that having a different schedule daily helped with the morale and the boredom that came with cleaning the same rooms every day. Personally, I think she did it to find out who was doing a better job at cleaning the rooms. Even though we never saw the reviews left by the guests, she always made sure we knew if there were any bad ones by giving us the shittiest jobs.
Exiting the elevator, I pushed my cart to the first room. Once again, I noticed a he-man standing just down the hall from the staircase. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I had a feeling it had to do with the guy that was killed. As I swiped my card to enter the room, I heard my pager go off. Pulling it from my pocket, I could see that the number for housekeeping was displayed. Walking through the door, I headed for the telephone, which was sitting on the desk near the unmade king-sized bed. Pushing the housekeeping button on the panel, I waited for someone to answer.
“Housekeeping, this is Heather. How can I assist you?” she asked in a cheery voice.
“Hi, Heather. This is Emma. I was paged,” I replied, wondering what could be the reason.
“Hold on, Emma. Let me find out who paged you.”
Holding the receiver to my ear, I looked out the large window that overlooked Central Park. It was still very early and the sun was barely beginning to come up. As I waited, I began to wonder if Lou was out there somewhere doing his morning jog. Turning away from the window, I began straightening the magazines that were scattered across the glass coffee table in front of the white velvet couch.
“Emma, hi… it’s Delores. I need you to stop by my office before you leave for the day,” Delores advised.
“Is there a problem, Delores?” I asked, concerned.
“No, no… nothing like that. I’ll see you then.”
Before I could quiz her any further, the line went dead. Hanging up the receiver, I headed back to the room’s door to gather the things I needed to begin cleaning the room. While I was cleaning, I kept wondering why Delores needed to see me. Even though she admitted that there wasn’t a problem, I knew that she was good at keeping things from us. Only on very rare occasions did she ever have our back. She could be a bitch at times, but when she wanted something she would become your best friend. I remembered the time that she wanted us to keep an eye on the gentleman who was staying in the penthouse suite for a couple of weeks while he was in the city for a meeting with some hotshots. I think she wanted to get her claws into him. It was just him that was staying in the penthouse and he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, which, according to Delores, made him free game.
Delores wasn’t ugly by any means. She was actually quite attractive. Even though she kept her hair pulled back, I could tell it was gorgeous. It was a
deep brown and fell to the middle of her back. She had blue eyes that were just as gorgeous as her hair. She wasn’t skinny, but she carried her larger frame elegantly. There was no end to the number of curves she had. But if there was one thing that set all of those enticing features to the wayside, it was her temper. I learned long ago never get on her bad side. She was definitely the kind of person that could make your life a living hell.
I will never forget how angry she got when she found out that the handsome man in the penthouse suite was actually married, and to top it off, a cheater. When he had asked her to join him for a drink, Delores thought for sure she had found her Prince Charming. He was a charmer all right. Charmed her right into his bed, and then he went straight out the door, right after he told her, “Thanks, it was fun.” I really couldn’t blame her for being pissed, but to take it out on her staff was just wrong.
After I finished cleaning the last of the rooms on my schedule, I got onto the service elevator to head down to Delores’ office. Even though my day went by in a blink, I was glad to get it over and find out what she needed to see me about. After re-stocking my cart and taking the soiled linens to the laundry, I headed to her office. I could see that she had someone in there and I wasn’t sure if she wanted to be disturbed. Since her door was shut, I lightly knocked on it. When she gave me the okay to enter, I opened the door. Sitting in one of the chairs adjacent to her desk was Lou. My face tightened as my teeth clenched together. Perturbed that he showed up where I worked, I could only wonder what the hell he was doing here.