Monday 25 April 2016

CLEANER II: Chapter Six - Part Ten

DAHLIA

I came awake very early or... no. No. I wasn’t sure really that I had ever slept.

Throughout the night I had remained on the dirty rim of unconsciousness, my thoughts not dreams or nightmares as such but similar enough; disjointed and disturbing enough; that they might have been.

It was still dark and that gave me the sense that sleep was, or had been, still continuing, but as I tipped up vertical on the side of the bed like a wibble-wobble doll that can never truly fall over, I felt that ghastly enclosing corpulence gripping every part of the slim woman trapped deep inside me; smothering her.

That beautiful Dahlia was surely still there beneath these sweaty bulges, pressed into the grimy crevices, struggling to climb free; but she was running out of air. She was dying. Reaching up with a single grasping hand for the light from the folds of this gargantuan body she was trapped in, desperate to get out of it while she still could.

My chubby hand scrabbled on the bedside cabinet for the crumpled pack of cigarettes I’d discarded there the night before. Several fags lay strewn amidst the rubbish and food scraps, the ribbons of spilled whisky, partially dried.

No cleaner ever saw the inside of this room.

My eyes didn’t focus – my vision was so piss-poor nowadays that in the dingy first light there was no hope of real clarity – but I found a dry, uncrumpled cigarette. The second lighter I tried gave me a flame.

My mouth filled with the filth of the smoke instantly and I drew it down into my lungs, stifling the Dahlia trapped down there, reaching for fresh air, clotting up her lungs and dowsing her as the chemicals in the fag dowsed me, dulling my thoughts.

I sat there, half tilted on the bed, blotting out the clean air and sucking this filth into me over and over again. With the first one finished it wasn’t enough. The stench and dismal corruption weren’t enough. I scrabbled for another fag and put that in my lips, cursing the whisky dampness as it wouldn’t light; found another; lit that.

I shambled to the window and creased back the curtain half an inch, my breathing laboured, my grimy eyes squinting out at another day of drudgery and increasing self-hate.

I looked back at the whisky bottle on the side of the bed. There wasn’t much left to it. Dregs. But it was enough.

I lumbered back and slumped down then drained the thing, chasing the vibrating inebriation down with more cloying smoke.

I found my pebble glasses and got dressed. The clothes were soiled – they always were – but not enough to be a problem for the work. Cleaners in an establishment like this weren’t expected to be perfect; not once the first splashes of the day had had chance to settle. I did my hair, getting it as straight as I could; knowing I was letting life destroy me; knowing that I shouldn’t feel this low regardless of which path I took.

I’m just tired. I told myself that. I’m just utterly and completely exhausted.

And it didn’t help, the weight I was carrying; that at some level I still couldn’t be entirely used to.

I felt awful, and that couldn’t continue. I couldn’t let myself go on like this; whichever life I chose.

Melissa’s life hadn’t been this bad. She had lived an ordinary life as a cleaning woman back in England with her husband; content in her simple ways with the down-to-earth constraints of her everyday life. It was that touchstone with Robert that I lacked; that I’d had only a grainy simile of with the cook. There had been no love there between me and Vasilis; not even real affection. With all the guilt and doubt I was feeling, was it any wonder that I had spiralled; that I was still spiralling? Even my friendship with Melissa had been tenebrous at best since coming to Greece; we’d been so busy playing our allotted roles.

It shouldn’t have been like this and I knew that it wouldn’t go on being if only a final decision could be made. Some new status quo would form; a reconciliation with reality and an acceptance of how things were; how they would go on remaining.

Surely once a decision was made then I could start to resolve a clear path ahead. I would form a peace and happiness with what was awaiting me. Surely that was what would have to happen.

But I knew I’d ruined my body; surely forever. I’d set out on a silly game like a schoolgirl, thinking that there would be some magic spell to weave me back from it whenever I wanted, and there was no spell; no magic to transform me back into a beautiful slender woman on the verge of a glorious comeback.

“Hngh!”

I sneered.

Had I ever wanted that comeback? Had it all been Tommy, my agent? Or had it been the guilt; that I was throwing away my last chance to have another slice of that life before I really was too old or before my looks slipped away of their own accord?

Maybe that was all this had ever been: not some crooked immersion into corruption and ugliness for sordid perversity, but a fuck you to the aging process: me taking the choice to let go of my looks on purpose before nature could take it out of my hands.

Beauty didn’t last forever. Time was going to have its way sometime soon regardless. By leaping off the catwalk like this, at least it had been at a time of my choosing.

I left the room and started my work. I avoided the other cleaners, as usual. I slaved, feeling the grimy build-up of sweat in the fatty crevices on my body, seeing only the sweep of the broom; the swish of the mop; the growing mottled piles of filthy bedding, gathered up in my round arms too close to my face.

I stopped for two more cigarettes half way through the morning, hating the taste of the smoke and glaring at first one lit end and then the other. I tried not to think about Melissa and her expectations, because surely she expected an answer now quite crucially. This was coming to a head regardless of my own interia. I couldn’t put her off together.

I had ruined my body. That’s what I kept coming back to. Maybe it was permanent already. Maybe the slender me had already suffocated beneath the folds of flab. Maybe she could never be resuscitated now. Maybe the only way to stave off final and irrevocable madness was to embrace the inevitable coming; to accept that it wasn’t a case of choosing to finally become Melissa forever but to realise I already had done.

There was no Dahlia left now to be seen. She was gone, surely for good.

I went back to working. I slaved. I toiled. I let the harsh reality of this life I had chosen be everything.

The decision was everything – it had to be everything – but it was clear to me that it had already been made. Surely it had. I could pretend to myself as much as I liked that there was a rational process continuing that might allow me to take a certain fork in the road.

There was only one sane choice. There could only be one sane choice with the facts as they were; with my life as it was; with this body and the strain I had put it under; with the favour that Melissa had done me by effecting this trade in the first place; coming out here; living these strange, sham lives.

Yes I knew the answer. I had known the answer even before she asked the question. I knew what I wanted. I knew which way to go. It was the only option that made sense.

I finished my shift and went back to my room, stopping only long enough at the local convenience store for dry, uncrumpled fags and more whisky; a huge bag of salted, ridged crisps and two chocolate bars.

In the room I slumped back on the edge of the bed, one hand resting again, my round body tilted almost uncomfortably, a rasping wheeze coming out of the side of my mouth, the lit, drifting cigarette hanging from the crack at the other.

Was that wheeze the last embers of the slender me, the fat now squeezing the very last life out of her, deep inside my bulging chest? Was she blind now, buried under all that fat as it filled her mouth and her eyes and blocked her off from the world where once upon a time she had lived as a princess?

I withdrew the cigarette and looked at the glowering end.

There was an ashtray squatting right there beside me on the bedside cabinet. Maybe all I had to do was stub it out now. Maybe that simple act would be enough to save the girl inside.

I moved to do so but hesitated and brought the fag back closer to my lips. Lowered it again.

I just felt so tired. I didn’t know what to do anymore.

But I felt I’d come to a decision. I had to have done. It was so obvious what my only choice was.

There was a tap at the door.

I groaned, wondering if I should ignore it.

It came again, more insistently.

I looked back at the end of my cigarette and shifted on the bed, letting out one last wheeze.

The door knocked a third time.

I got up with difficulty, leaving the fag smouldering on the edge of the ashtray.  

My body ached as I walked across, from the effort of managing my bulk and the weariness of my cleaning work. Even at the verge of opening I considered breaking off; of keeping silent and hoping the visitor would go away.

But I didn’t. I opened the door.

And there was Melissa, looking radiant and bright-eyed.

Wanting nothing now clearly except the answer that was due to her.

And suddenly I realised this was the moment; that I couldn’t put it off anymore.

She wanted to know and I had a responsibility to tell her.

Everything was coming to a head and the fork in the path was finally here.





36 comments:

  1. Super to see you back & feeling well enough to write again, Emma! Stay healthy you owe to us! LOL!

    Very well written, but still a tease. When oh when are we going to get to the decision & the surgery. LOL!
    Powerfully written WE see her dispair, D smoking like a chimmy, her calling her cigerrete's fags, like the low class person she had become. The PIG like squalor of her grungy room, even her morning drinking. D sure feel sorry for herself & seems to have fianlly realized what her madness has done. For some reason what she has done no longer seems to give her a sexual buzz.
    Maybe she thinks I can't go back?
    Anyway once agaon D thinks there is maybe only one thing she can do? Why? There are lots of courses open to her/ Maybe not easy oens though. But nothing is easy if you are a fat, low class cleaner wth a drinking & smoking problem & with terrible vision.
    D also thinks that M's life in england was better than this one. & touches whistfully on a husband.
    Then M comes, looking, beautiful, bright eyed & radiant Great touch the contrast. PLS! I can't wait for more. Thailand here they come - I hope!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not long now.

      Sorry about the delay in writing. I'm not myself lately.

      Delete
  2. Welcome back Emma. Always a delight to see a new post of your wonderful tale of despair and degradation. Of course the main delight is to find you well enough to post.

    I think my description of Dahlia's despair and degradation seems to be particularly apt here. Poor Dahlia is finally beginning to realise just what a huge barb her game has become. Like a barb, so easy to enter a wound but so hard to extract.

    We can guess what her decision will be but you are such a tease nothing can be taken for granted.

    btw Eric, 'fags' has been one of the most common names for cigarettes in the UK for as long as I can remember which is well over 70 years, so Dahlia's use of it shouldn't be thought of as significant. Her becoming addicted, however, certainly is.

    Robi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But is that decision as obvious as it might first appear? You may note that she refers to it almost as a done deal but neglects to mention what it is...

      (such is my diabolical cunning wot no one notices)

      Delete
  3. lovely bit of tension building. I love the tortured rationalizations Dahlia puts herself through. Surely Melissa's transformation is proof that reverse trip is possible, but her need to continue is so great she twists it around as further proof she isn't good enough to do that. the undercurrents of self loathing and longing for personal dissolution ring so true I get a shiver when I read it. once again and always well done Emma.
    PS welcome back. hope you are well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks buddy. I'm not sure there is any easy way back though. I was pretty convinced by her earlier speculation about how many times you can go around cutting your face up and hoping it will still look normal.

      Delete
    2. I didn't mean that it would be easy or even likely, I just meant that she has just witnessed someone make the exact transformation she is contemplating, so it can't be impossible, but she seems to want it to be impossible which is the point.

      Delete
    3. Yeah. Maybe she does. I guess if you were going to make such a significant decision you would want it to be totally consuming.

      Delete
  4. I agree with all of the above. It's great to see you back. Don't overdo it get well quickly.

    Rob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wellness is something of a long-term goal at this stage but I am hoping to get a bit better for now at least. I've been in a lot of pain and stuff but that's being managed better now. Maybe I can get back to regular postings for a while at least.

      Don't hold your breath but I'll do my best.

      Delete
    2. Don't overdo it post when you can build your strength and get well each day at a time

      Rob

      Delete
  5. Emma! Thank you for my 'Finn fix'! Glad you're feeling up to posting another magnificent episode.

    It seems that Dahlia has made up her mind, but there's enough of the old Dahlia still there it seems that it casts doubt in her mind and she's struggling with it. She realizes that what she's doing is ruining or has ruined her body and seems to think that she'll never get back to where she was. She's smothered her will along with the old Dahlia or so it would appear.


    This struggle is like watching a spinning coin wondering which way it will fall and our masterful wordsmith keeps it spinning!

    --Robert

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well when it stops spinning the story ends and who wants that!?!

      Delete
    2. Good heavens no!! Keep spinning! :)

      --Robert

      Delete
    3. I've been giving part three some thought lately and it struck me there's a chance the story might even need a part four.

      If you think about it, parts one and two cover the first couple of chapters in the original story. Maybe much more is needed to do justice to the rest...

      What would you guys think about that???

      Delete
    4. You're the captain of this vessel! If you feel it's necessary, go for it!! More Finntastic stuff to read! :)

      --Robert

      Delete
    5. Wow! A quadrilogy!!!

      That also means we are not even through with the first half of the story... Finntastic indeed.

      Marc

      Delete
    6. Yeah! Well I just gave it some deep thought and structurally it makes sense to me so you've heard it here first folks!

      There will be four Cleaner novels, not three!

      Delete
    7. 4 books! you clever clever fiend! You'd torture your fans & admirers so much? And how would break the novels. Would the last 2 be back in England where M was stealing D's life? The imgination boggles

      Delete
    8. The more the merrier for me. This is a finntastic story and a fourth book would make it more so. I'm guessing we're nearing the end of part 3?

      Perhaps the nicest thing about anticipating a longer story is that it implies you're feeling better and raring to go. I bet your family appreciates that a lot, lot more than we do and as far as I'm concerned at least, that's the most important thing.

      Robi

      Delete
    9. Well I can't give too much away about structure without revealing the plot of course but a bit of sensible reading of the original story might give you some ideas.

      We're only near the end of part two now so a long way to go yet!

      Delete
    10. Duh! I meant the end of part 2!

      Robi

      Delete
  6. The time has come says the walrus to talk of many things. First once again, is your health. Get well, please.
    In re-reading this I couldn't help but imagine the off stage scene of the stir at this grimmy, 3rd class hotel when the famous model Dahlia Western' came sailing in & asked for Melissa chapman! too funny.
    How inferior D must now feel to the woman before her. She's replusive & M is beautiful charming & confident. Woman even more than men seem to judge each other on their appearences.
    Both D & especailly M seem to have got themselves lock in a ceertain mind set. M for example thinks she has to go back to Robert & also be a cleaner unless she can persuade D to get surgery & Swap lives with her. But its not true. The way she looks now she could get other jobs maybe even go to Tommy & perhaps be a model - not Dahlia Western' but get a job in the fasion industry, or even be a sales person in a posh place.
    Also, she's now very successfull with men, so just get a well off husband.
    D could call Katherine & get herself check in to one of thoee swizz or swedish clinics & it would not be easy but get herself help.
    But they in their own way or obsessed with their 'game' which of course makes a better story.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Four books o goodie that means more of your wonderful writing

    Rob

    ReplyDelete
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