MOP MAN

‘Look at this mop head,’ he said holding the the said article towards me as he stood by the extractor.
‘Goodness,’ I said.
‘That’s four flight of steps has done that, it is,’ he said.
‘That made it that dusty?’
‘Yes. Four flights. You think it’ll do more?’
He was short, had a fringe.
‘I’m Treat,’ he said. ‘Here from seven to eleven.’
‘Every day?’ I said.
‘Yes. So if you want anything just say, “Treat, treat,” or just, “oi, you.”’
‘I’ll use “Treat,”’ I said.
When he’d left the laundry I said, ‘is he an addition or a replacement?’
‘He’s a replacement,’ she said, ‘for the one left beginning of las year.’
‘That was quick. He seems alright.’
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘but I don’t know if he’s right for the job the things he’ll see at seven in the morning.’

NEED MY SLEEP

‘I’m so tired,’ she said.
‘How come?’
‘You’ve not heard the dog?’
‘No.’
‘You’re the other side aren’t you?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘So what about the dog?’
‘Barking all night,’ she said. ‘Well, from midnight until the morning, keeping me awake. It’d bark then stop and start up again.’
‘Yeh?’
‘Yes. He must put it on the balcony at night and it’s only a puppy.’
‘No wonder it barks it being so cold,’ I said. ‘Must be distressed.’
‘I know,’ she said, ‘leaving an animal outside at night...the things people do...I’d go down and say something but I’m single and don’t know who it is lives there so I’m a bit scared and I don’t want to leave a note, well, not without putting my name on it and I don’t want him to know it’s me and where I live...’
‘I don’t blame you,’ I said. ‘Have you told the council?’
‘Friend of mine did that and they told the person she was complaining about. They’re not supposed to but they did and she’s single and retired like me and she was scared.’
‘Oh dear,’ I said.
‘Well, yes, but I’ll have to do it. I need my sleep.’

WHEN YOU SAY HELLO

‘...you remember,’ she said, ‘it was the man with the dreadlocks...down one side.’
‘Oh yes,’ I said. ‘I know who you mean. Said, “hello,” in the lift...we both did.’
‘Used to live on the eleventh floor.’
‘Yes, I remember him getting in and out there. I’ve not seem him a while, now you mention it.’
‘He jumped off the bridge,’ she said.
‘No, oh no,’ I said. ‘I thought he was quite together. Some of them move in trash the place, leave or get thrown out. But not him, he stayed.’
‘Jumped last summer,’ she said, ‘To be honest I was scared of him at first, the way he looked.’
‘Yes,’ I said thinking of him.
‘...but he always spoke to me, was very polite...so I felt alright with him.’
‘That’s what happens when you talk to people,’ I said. ‘When you say, “hello.”’