"CLEANER"
Rachel first noticed that the clasps of her wedding ring gave way as she emptied the dish water from the sink to realize that her wedding diamond had indeed gone missing. Alex would surely beat for this and this was a good excuse as any. He acquired the diamond with much effort from a shady source in a shady hotel in a shady part of Johannesburg, for a very modest price mind you but with much cost to his already teetering conscience. Alex would deffinatly freak out and her most recent bruise was now just healing and almost didn't require the extra make up to hide it.
Rachel prays out loud to God that it didn't go down the sink as she hated the dirty task that is plumbing chores. She asks her maid if she has seen the stone in the carpet, but the new guy that was hired had done a thorough job of vacuuming just this morning.
Josh was lucky to find a paying job as easy as this for a rich white woman. As his day ended he finished his spam sandwich while taking apart the pieces of the Dyson vaccume cleaner apart when he noticed something very bumpy in the dust of the filter. He almost threw it away when he caught the glimmer that the little rock gave even under the damp light of the kitchen stove. Josh managed to isolate the little rock and a spit to wipe it off. It was in fact a precious stone, a very fine diamond as far as hee could tell. He wrapped it in a pare towel an planned to visit the pawn shop the next day, but before he left out the front door for the evening Rachel approached him and inquired as if he'd seen a missing stone from her wedding ring.
"I haven't ma'am" he said
"If you come across such an object, I am prepared to offer a reward" Rachel said with a slightness masking her desperate need to find the diamond.
"yes ma'am, I will alert you at once"
"Yes, please do it would be most kind"
"If I did know something about this little rock, what would the reward be? Just being curious"?
"I am prepared to offer you $400 dollars on your next paycheck"
"That seems a bit low now for such a prize now doesn't it ma'am"?
" So what is it then? You want more cash if you happened to stumble upon my beloved wedding diamond that belongs to me in the first place'?
"My lady wouldn't offer a prize if losing her rock wasn't a source of harm to herself, so that tells me she might be willing to go an extra mile in order to keep this terrible loss under wraps"
"Okay then name your price boy, what'll it be then?"
"Not money ma'am, it's your company I wish to claim, I trust you wouldn't be too opposed to sharing a cup of coffee with me now would you"?
"Coffee? Really? is this the only way you know how to ask for a date? You understand I am a married woman right?''
"How bad do you want this stone of yours then ma'am?"
"How am I to know you really have it?"
"You don't, but how badly do you wish to avoid another cracked rib or a blood spout eye"?
"That is certainly none of your business young man and I will thank you to mind your own!"
"It is none of my business, but this business of yours becomes more and more apparent to the rest of us, and it's hard not to feel protective over a nice lady as you are."
"Don't speak of these things like you have and idea of what makes this world work, He loves me and I love him"
I certainly hope he does, but I did indeed find a diamond. And I know it's yours, and I know you need it back otherwise maybe you get a concussion this time or be taken to the hospital."
"Fine!"
"Starbucks by safeway tomorrow. I have to send Tony off to school by eight, and I have to wait for the mason to clear his tools out of the fireplace hopefully the damn thing will be done by then. I'll meet you there after that."
Tony wakes up around 6:30, hungry as ever so he helps himself to a bowl of Lucky Charms, however Rachel meets him and insists he eats oatmeal and toast instead of that sugary crap for breakfast. Rachel takes her time to prepare Tony's breakfast and makes sure he eats it all like a loving mother should. After his bowl is clean she rushes Tony off to the school bus so she can keep her date with Josh.
Josh was waiting at a corner table for Rachel to show up, she managed to in fact show up on time on the dot at 9;oo am. At first glance Josh could tell that she took her time with her make up this morning. Her hair also was obviously looked after a bit more than normal, so much so that the way it was brushed was unfamiliar to her that when she opened the coffee shop door the gust of wind unsettled her pretty comb job that she had to control her new bang style with both her hands at once to settle it down.
This was quite charming to Josh as he never has seen her out of control in any way. This was the first time he saw her vulnerable and in a vulnerable situation. As Rachel sat down and talked with Josh, they both found a profound fondness for one another through simple interests they shared and primal mutual attraction for one another. Josh handed over the diamond with no dispute just to touch her hand and perhaps keep a memory by way of scent of the encounter in case he should never see her again. Rachel thanked Josh with an honest and warm kiss to his mouth and a lingering embrace as he left her, which sealed finally the feelings Josh harbored for her a long. He was now completely enamored with her. No going back
With the diamond now found and taken to the jeweler to be reset, Rachel feels confident and safe from a certain wrath of Alex had he found out what had happened with the stone and with the goings on between her and Josh. Alex liked Josh very much and was happy to keep him in his employ. So he hired him further to clean up after the masons sloppy job of the fireplace and to also walk their little pug "Daisy". Josh was more than willing to take these small jobs as it kept him close to Rachel. The two of them were able to steal a moment here for a kiss or a chat to maintain the affair they harbored.
Alex finished his last swipe of a shave but forgot the hand towel to dry his face off with. As he walked to the hallway closet and before he opened the closet door he saw Josh leaving with dog Daisy, but before he left the apartment door he and Rachel shared a passionate and lingering kiss along with a groping embrace that surely confessed the nature of their relationship. At least enough for Alex to consider proof. As Rachel closed the front door she went on to make Tony's breakfast as usual. Alex pulled the string to the closet bulb, trying to be quiet as possible but once again the bulb was gone,(twice this week now). He grabbed a random town to wipe his face with.
"Eat up now sweetie, all of it,..got to be strong for school now don't you"
Yes Mom, thank you,..may I have more syrup please?"
"Of course honey"
With that Rachel drizzled more Syrup on her son's oatmeal. Tony never found it sweet enough but never did complain. He knew his mother loves him and just was content to be grateful. Rachel was too busy attending to Tony that she didn't hear Alex slip out of the front door. It was only the quiet slip of the lock latching that she heard him leave.
"By honey!" she almost shouted, receiving no response.
Alex made his way down the sidewalk at a brisk pace following Josh, who was not far ahead judging by the still steaming turd left by Daisy just a block away.
The # 207 bus stopped at the intersection where Alex caught up with Josh and Daisy.
Alex wrapped his arm around Josh's neck and let his legs fall to drop both of them to the ground, long enough to render Josh un conscience out of breathing air. With the little time he had Alex wrapped Daisy's leash around the bike rack on the front of the #207 bus with no one noticing what was happening and lightning fast precision wrapped the other side of the around Josh's neck clasping the chain to secure it right as the bus sped off to it's next stop. Crushing Daisy right away causing her intestines to protrude with violent force onto the cars passing by, the rest of her flopped along the side of the bus while Josh slowly awoke to meet the hard pavement scrape away the bones and teeth of the right side of his face before the bus could stop and the driver realized what has happened,
Lisa the bus driver of 13 years now would end up quitting and train aid dogs for a living in brookins Oregon wrought with guilt and horror. But that is another story for later.
With this sight Alex ran home sweaty and full of adrenaline just in time to see Rachel send Tony off to school, The mason's truck was gone and the house was empty. Alex followed Rachel up the stairs without her hearing him.
"I'm afraid Josh and Daisy have been crushed by the bus darling,.." Alex said very calmly and with enough love still in his eyes that made him feel sorry for her.
"Oh my god! what happened!"
"You cheat my dear, and this is what happens"
Next to the still drying mud on the fire place Alex found a small trowel and walked slowly towards Rachel. He grabbed her wrist and muscled her arm behind her back much like a police officer might control a hostile drunk before handcuffing him. Alex wrapped his arm around her throat like he did with Josh.
Alex said nothing but pushed the dull dirty trowel into her throat slowly but vigilantly in order to do the job right. Rachel did manage to give a gurgled whimper as her neck was opened and cried a little before she succumbed to blood loss. Alex dropped her on the carpet to bleed out no better than a deer after a hunt.
Alex ran down the steps to the sound of sirens. He was caught and he knew it.
Tony was rushed to the hospital with no body noticing as the happenings of the day out shadowed something as small as a kid being sick at school. Alex later heard about his son a few weeks later. Tony had died from ingesting liquid drano and crushed glass.
Rachel would use a mortar a pestal to grind used light bulbs into a fine powder and mix it with oatmeal and a little "under the counter cleaners". She fed it to Tony for breakfast in hopes to garner attention as an attentive mother when young Tony was sick, Unfortunately she fell victim to attention of another kind in the way of a charming young man who cleaned her floors and walked her dog. They both died at the hand of a violent man who deserves to be in prison. But they died outright instead of a slow death that a mother who needed to feel more important than she was and Alex always found comfort every time he thought of it when "lights out" was called
