Rise of the lowly janitor

Mr Smith

*Mr Smith POV*

I could not believe my eyes when I come face to face with the young man my stupid men were beating.

Sharp eyes like Olivia’s but everything else is Dan. It took everything to stop myself from embracing him, but how could I?

I have failed him dismally but maybe…

Grabbing my phone and locking myself in the sound proof, secured basement, I reach out to the only person I can.

“Tom?”

A slurred deep voice answers.

“You are drunk, so early?”

This has unfortunately become my only remaining friend’s state. Well, it’s mine too on many occasions despite my righteous attitude now.

“Did you call me to preach?”

“I met the boy.” I get to the point and the line goes completely silent. I look at the phone to see if it’s still connected.

“Len? Are you there?”

“Yeh.”

“Did you hear what I said?”

“Yeh.”

“And?” I ask, getting irritated by his one liner answers.

“And nothing. We did enough. Heaven’s knows I can’t even look at myself on the mirror.”

“Len, man. You had…”

“I had what?” Len yells. “No fucken’ choice! It was out of my fucken’ control! Does that lie work for you? Is that why you hide underground like a snake in winter?”

I sigh, my chest getting heavy and phantom leg aching. The things we did all come crashing on me. I grab the half bottle of whiskey and gulp it down while Len continues with his rant.

“Olivia and Dan were… they stuck their necks out for us and trusted us to have their backs. What did we do!”

“We were victims of circumstances, Len. We served our country the best way we could.”

It does not matter how many times I say this in my head, it never seems to make a difference. Maybe it does for Len, so I keep telling him.

“Tell that to the orphaned, molested, abused and homeless boy!” Len roars with a trembling voice and I know that he is probably crying. The sound of the glass breaking is probably him smashing his alcohol against the wall.

“Len? Len?” I look at the phone again before hearing the sound of the call dropping.

I knew how he would react to the mention of the boy, but he is the only one I can ever talk to about him.

Two hours later, my phone rings.

“Drank tea and calm now?” It’s the same story each time. We may be old but flexibility and bouncing back is what we were trained to be.

“Yeh. How is he?” Len’s voice is no longer slurred.

I sigh, embracing myself for the second round of depression.

“Some petty thief snatched my briefcase. My men mistakenly beat him instead.”

It’s no use delaying or sugarcoating what he will know soon. We are meant to be hands off the boy, but somehow, we know where he is and what he does.

“Shit, Tom. Did you kill them?”

“Yeh.” Those useless cocky bastards had a nerve to say “It was nothing, Sir. He is probably a thief too.”Its the last words they uttered.

“Good. You called for a reason,” Len says. Sharp as a whip this friend of mine.

“I know we decided to let him be, but…”

“No.” He cuts me off sternly.

“You have not heard what I was going to say.”

“You can’t take him in. You can’t be his guardian. You can’t have any relationship with him. Shit, man, the kid has suffered enough.”

“I know, Len. I was thinking of getting him a low profile job. Keep him off the streets and I swear I will be hands off from there.”

I have thought very hard about this. Kid is a hard worker, all he needs is a job.

“Fine.”

“Cool. Meet you at the senate and yes, you have to come.”

Getting the boy the job does not take much. Maybe I will be able to sleep tonight.

.

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*Jake POV*

Two days later I am up and about. I am grateful that my body quickly healed because I get to explore the place before I officially start. The race track employee are all very welcoming and friendly. All of them have one advice, keep your head down and don’t irritate the customers.

George Spencer, the men who rudely pushed me off the way on my first day, gets mentioned a lot. He is the heir to Spencer tours, a multibillion dollar company. He does not seem to have any respect for anyone not in his social circle, let alone the race track club employees.

I have also tried finding out about the mysterious man who got me this job and came back empty handed. All I have gathered so far is that he is powerful and someone no one messes with. Other than that, he is like a ghost who sees and controls everything. I end up being asked what he looks like, because most have never seen his face.

The following day, I return downtown to inform my friends that I will not be around the street anymore. Mrs Reed and Pule are both so happy to see me and truly thrilled to find out about my job.

“Don’t let those rich folks walk all over your head now,” Mrs Reed warns.

I don’t know what rich folks did to her but they seem to bring the worst out of her.

“He is working, Diana. The customer is always right, that’s the motto,” Mrs Pule objects as usual.

“Nonsense. Kick the customer’s ass if the customer is rude.”

“Don’t listen to her, kid. Do your work and save your money,” Mrs Pule advises.

I sit there listening to them argue. I swear, they argue about everything these two.

“I have not heard you cough since I got here, Mrs Reed.” I can’t help but be excited. That cough was just uncomfortable.

“The meds helped a lot, thanks kid. Doc said I can now smoke in peace.”

I just smile at the blatant lie but Mrs Pule doesn’t.

“No, he didn’t!” she cries in disbelief.

“You were not there,” Mrs Reed responds dismissively while lighting up her cigarette.

“Which doctor, where and when?”

Mrs Reed looks around, caught red handed, but soon bounces back.

“You ask too many questions, Silvia. You are not my mother.”

I can’t stop myself from laughing. I will miss hearing these two argue.

“Thats because you are lying. No doctor will ever tell you to continue smoking.”

I leave the two still arguing and hope I will get time off at work to visit them again.

A week is soon over and I get my first dose of Spencer treatment.

I am seating at one of the cafeteria tables, having my breakfast when Leticia sends me a message that the girls at the corner are checking me out.

I turn around to see, they wave and start giggling.

I am no stranger to this. Girls have always found me attractive for some reason. I shake my head and continue eating. The obvious expensive jewellery and revealing designer outfits places them out of my taste and league.

Simplicity is what turns me on but attitude keeps me around. Unfortunately, there is fewer and fewer of those around. Being an orphan also excludes me from a lot of girls lists. Many girls have told me to my face that I could be a catch if I was not poor.

I continue eating but unfortunately, the whole scene did not go unnoticed by George, who is seated two tables away from me. He picks up his juice and spills it on the floor with a smug, while his friends cheer him on.

“Oops, Janitor! There’s a spill here,”he shouts.

I quickly finish my food, stand up to get the mop and find my admirers now seated around him and his friends.

I quietly mop up while he teases them about being so gullible by crushing on a low life like me.

I am just walking away when someone screams, slipping on the wet floor I just mopped.

Springing back and sliding on the floor, I catch her right on time. She lands right on top of me.

I completely freeze when I see who it is.

Long dark hair, round face, sexy eyes and full luscious lips, I know this face. She flashes me a smile.

“Mercy Drew?”

Mercy was the first Miss Asherway after democracy. She was my eye candy growing up, but she should be over sixty years old now. I must have hit my head hard because the woman in my arms is way younger than that.

She gets up, offers me a hand and laughs at my shock.

“That would make me a pensioner. I’m Tanya, her daughter. Thanks for the save.”

Until today, I was yet to meet anyone as beautiful as her. She even sounds like Mercy.

I give her a sheepish smile and shake her hand longer than I should.

“I’m Jake Anderson, the janitor, security and water-boy.”

I own my identity and wear it with pride. It might be lowly but it’s honest living.

“A man of many talents!” she exclaims with a million dollar smile. “Nice to meet you, Jake.”

I nod my head like an idiot. I hope she never finds out about the stuff I did while lusting on her mother’s half naked posters I stuffed under my bed growing up.

“Really? This low life is the reason you almost fell. You should be suing not thanking him!” George asks in disbelief, drawing all the attention that was dispersing back to us.

Tanya turns to look at him. The warm sexy eyes now blazing. “You are the reason I almost fell, you idiot! This nice gentleman saved me. You should get you head checked and glasses. Ask them to transplant a decent heart in there while you are at it,”she snaps and storms away, leaving an embarrassed and fuming George, glaring at me.

He shoves me angrily. “What are you looking at. Get the fuck out of my face!”

I flash him a smile, pick up the mop and stroll away.

Haters can hate but I shook young Mercy Drew’s hand today.