CLEANER: Chapter Five - Part Three

Hi Finnfans! 

You will be pleased to learn that my damn play has now finished and normal service here should now resume. I'm still not entirely settled as I'm moving house so there may be a few delays occassionally but I will suddenly have more time to write, and that's got to be a good thing. Especially for me. I'm desperate to get back to it. 

So without further delay, here's yesterday's episode of Cleaner... late, but hopefully still satisfying.   

Emma

 

DAHLIA

Now that Melissa was all dolled up I stood back and admired how she’d come out for a moment and then hurried back to the bed where my things were.

Melissa was distracted, looking away, but I hesitated before removing my robe to reveal the padded swimming costume underneath. But I was too eager to wait. I took it off and set it aside and reached for the new cleaning dress I’d bought myself. It was dull green with a hem below the knee and no sleeves. I lifted it over my head and pulled it on, smoothing it down, loving the way it felt around my fatter stomach. I’d really gone to town on clothes with shoes to match – probably a bit too far really – but I had the cash. What else was I going to do with it?

I put on the shoes to go with the outfit, rushing, pushing my feet in carelessly. With them on, I paused to just feel these new clothes – again, something well outside my normal wardrobe. With a quick glance at Melissa, I picked up the pinny. It was a little semi-circle of apron to be tied round the waist: cream with two dinky pockets. It felt so strange to attach it, especially with the unfamiliar curve around my belly.

But I wasn’t done yet.

I went to the bag I'd taken Melissa’s blond wig from and removed the brunette one I’d bought as well. It had cost me a pretty penny but it was the finest quality; very realistic. It came with a hair net that I used to pin my own hair back close to the scalp, then filled with trepidation, I lifted the wig up and put the back rim at the nape of my neck, closing it forward over my skull. I was careful to avoid the fringe getting caught and once it was on I smoothed it down, adjusting it from side to side until it was straight.

I’d had to wear wigs before as part of my modelling; though rarely. This was different from all of them though. The goal then had been for glamour. This hairstyle was plain and unassuming; bookish; mumsy even.

I looked at myself in the mirror, as dazzled as Melissa had been by the different person I was seeing. It wasn’t Melissa looking back at me but it wasn’t me either. I didn’t look like a rich model at all. I looked like a housewife. No. I looked like a cleaner.

“Here,” said Melissa, reaching into her handbag. “I brought you these. Do you still want them?” In her curved palm was a pair of glasses with brown frames and thick lenses.

I looked at them for a long time. I’d never touched a pair in my life – had always had, if not perfect, then passable vision. Now, with them as the icing on the cake, I suddenly felt a profound reticence coupled with a bludgeon of the absurdity of all this. But I took them off her. I opened them up. I lifted them slowly to my face and slid them on.

The mechanical weight of them was surprising. They weren’t like any sunglasses I had ever put on. They were really heavy. I blinked repeatedly, trying to clear my vision through them, but they were awfully severe. I could only see everything in front of me, but distorted. Nothing looked normal. I couldn’t possibly have read a book or a sign. Looking at Melissa, I saw an overweight blond woman in glasses. I couldn’t have picked her up out of a line-up. No way. There was a magnifying quality. My hands looked bloated before my face. It was crazy weird. I almost took them off. But I could see through them. I could manage. And I wanted to get the whole effect.

“How do I look?” I said.

“Like... You look like...”

I waited.

“Like someone... ordinary,” she said.

I smiled. That was exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be an ordinary person.

“Thanks,” I said. “Now shall we?” I gestured for the door.

“Absolutely,” replied Melissa.