Cleaner - Part Three

Topaz was climbing out of the pool as I approached. She scowled at me as she threw the towel over her shoulder. “Melissa, I thought I told you to scrub the hall floor by hand. I just had Roger check up on you.” (He was the butler) “He said you were using the mop.”

I was taken aback by her tone. It was imperious and patronising. She’d never used it before.

“If you expect to clean for me then you’d better get used to doing it right. I expect that marble to gleam, do you understand me?”

I mumbled “Yes.”

“Do you understand me Melissa?”

I lowered my head. “Yes miss.”

I hadn’t prompted this. Her hostility was purely of her own making. It made me feel subordinate – inferior.

I loved it!

Topaz slipped her feet delicately into her heels and walked gracefully round to the near side of her sun lounger. She looked gorgeous, smooth long legs and slender arms. Her stomach had only a slight roundness to it that accentuated her femininity. She tied her damp hair was into a bun at her crown, then casually and slinked one leg over the other.

I nervously twiddled my fingers, waiting for her to dismiss me.

“As you’re aware Melissa,” she said, “today the two of us will be truly swapping roles. I will be attending a party where I will announce my intention to make a comeback. You will return home to your squalid little house.”

“Yes,” I said, kept off balance by the way she was suddenly taking control of our interactions.

“Obviously it’s important that you don’t break from character at any point.”

“Yes.”

“Is that clear Melissa?”

“Yes miss.”

“Your ‘husband’ hasn’t seen you for several months – that will help matters – but if I hear that you have bungled things up then there’s going to be hell to pay.”

I made a flicker of eye contact but looked away. She was glaring right at my face and I didn’t like to meet her gaze.

“What that means,” said Topaz, the temperature of her voice dropping, “is that if you make any mistakes you might end up living my old life forever.”

I gaped at her. She sounded serious.

It was genius. I loved it!

I hadn’t prompted any of this. She was embellishing the situation with her own ideas. I knew she wasn’t really serious obviously, but it added an enormous amount of spice.

“Is that clear?” she snapped.

“Yes miss.”

“Good.” She uncrossed and recrossed her legs the other way. “Now get out there and scrub that floor. Once it’s done you can go.”

I turned to leave, relieved that I didn’t have to face her anymore.

“And Melissa?”

I looked back.

She picked up a magazine and started scanning it. “Do a good job this time. Your work has been really slack lately.”

I grinned. I couldn’t help it. “This is great!” I said, “You’re really playing the part. You’ll get a healthy bonus at the end of this Melissa.”

She turned her eyes up to me and glared. The muscles in her cheeks hardened. “Don’t presume to speak to me like that cleaner,” she snapped, “I think if you look in the mirror you’ll see who Melissa is and who is Topaz.”

“But I—“

She threw down the magazine and came up to me, grabbing a chunk of hair at the back of my neck. There was a free-standing mirror to my right and she swung me round, my face wincing from the needles of pain in my scalp. “Look!” she said, “Look there in the mirror!”

The reflection showed both of us, my chubby body cowering, face contorted with pain and fear, her athletic form standing over me, her features hard-edged with anger.

“Who’s fat?” she demanded.

“Me,” I whined.

“Who’s ugly?”

“Me.”

“Who’s nothing but a worthless cleaner?”

“Me!”

She threw me forward and I fell to the floor at the foot of the mirror. She came up behind me, dominating the glass, hands on hips. “And who’s beautiful – hmmm? Who’s a rich and famous model? Who owns all this?”

Under my breath I mumbled “You.”

“I can’t hear you Melissa!”

“You do.”

“That’s right.” She folded her arms. “Now I told you not to slip up and give the game away. You just called me Melissa. That’s your first life gone. If it happens a third time then you can say goodbye to ever getting your old life back.”

My knees were stinging from where she threw me down. I wiped my eye with the heel of my hand. “Yes miss. I’m sorry miss.”

“Now get up and get back to work. What do you think I’m paying you for.”

I struggled up, still not used to the extra bulk. I was carrying almost my own body weight again in fat. Any kind of challenging movement like that was difficult.

Topaz took her seat again on the sun lounger, laying back this time, legs crossed, magazine resting on her thighs. She ignored me.

I started to speak but decided not to. It was tempting to blow my last two “lives” here and now and see what she said and did. My face was tingling. But I didn’t. To be honest, I was afraid of her. I didn’t want to make her mad again. So I just backed slowly away and went out to scrub the hall floor on my hands and knees.