You do not want to put anything in this trash can without asking first. Not because she'd get mad, but because don't you think her job is difficult enough without you coming and fucking up the whole system?
Esmerelda from custodial services emptying the wastebaskets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Esmerelda from custodial services refusing to make eye contact.
Esmerelda from custodial services sitting alone in the break room at ten thirty-five AM, eating a sandwich and drinking a paper cup of that fucked up vending machine coffee.
Esmerelda from custodial services saying in Spanish to her fellow Custodial Engineer Lupe: “I think the Muslims are clogging the urinal on purpose because they know we believe in Jesus.”
Esmerelda from custodial services calling Jesus El Señor.
Esmerelda from custodial services struggling to put a new five-gallon jug of water onto the dispenser.
Esmerelda from custodial services with a new pair of earrings.
Esmerelda from custodial services polishing her black custodial shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Esmerelda from custodial services reminding me of my grandmother.
Esmerelda from custodial services looking at me strangely when I say “buenos dias” to her.
Esmerelda from custodial services making me sad.
Esmerelda from custodial services and her two grown daughters part of this weird dynamic with this one lady from her church and her two grown daughters, a kind of unspoken rivalry with no particular stakes or points of comparison.
Esmerelda from custodial services remembering her quinceañera, neither bitterly nor fondly, much as one might think yes, I remember the first time I noticed I had a mole on the outside of my elbow.
Esmerelda from custodial services saying “it’s okay” when I try to roll my chair out of her way to afford her better access to the waste can under my desk, ashamed of the day-old banana peel inside it, wondering for the dozenth time why I don’t dispose of my banana peels in the kitchenette garbage can instead.
Esmerelda from custodial services taking off her rubber gloves at the day’s end, her fingertips puckered and prunish.
Esmerelda from custodial services, dreaming of having been an Alsatian tax collector in a previous life.
Esmerelda from custodial services, not sure she can jibe believing in past lives with her Pentecostal faith.
Esmerelda from custodial services, not sure she can jibe her practical short haircut with her Pentecostal faith.
Esmerelda from custodial services, waiting for the remote parking shuttle at 3:42 PM, her navy custodial uniform and black custodial shoes traded for a blouse, jeans, and white New Balance sneakers, certain that at that very moment, the Muslims are clogging the urinal again.
