Her Parole Officer

The door opened and tall, imposing woman stood there. The woman was over 6 feet tall. She wore a black tennis shirt stretched over muscular arms and shoulders. She wore black cargo pants an"d black boots. Her mousy brown hair was fiercely pulled back in a tight pony tail. She had a long nose and thin lips but prominent cheek bones. "Vanessa," I assume.

"Yes, and who might you be?" said Vanessa.

"I might be your parole officer, Lieutenant Watkins. You will address me with 'yes, officer,' or 'no, officer. Understand?"

"Um, yes, officer?" said Vanessa, unsure of the situation and still in disbelief.

"You better shape up, missy. We have a full day today. First you are going to clean the public toilets at Ford Park, then...."

"Are you kidding me?!" spat out Vanessa. "That's in the..."

"Do not interrupt me!" said Lieutenant Watkins, "I can make your life a living hell or I can make it worse!" She leaned in and put her face right up against Vanessa's and spoke slowly: "Do...you...understand...me?!"

Vanessa swallowed hard. "Yeh...yes, officer."

"Good!" the officer straightened up. "You remind me of those snooty girls I put up with in high school. A couple of them ended up face first in the commode thanks to their snippy attitudes. I hope you won't be like that."

"N...n...no officer," said a now scared Vanessa.

"Good, I think I'll let you know what else is in store after you scrub those bathrooms."

"Um, can I change clothes?" asked Vanessa. She could not imagine how horrible a public restroom in this neighborhood could be.

"No, you should have thought of that before you got all dressed up like some snotty suit to do community service. You can lock your purse up in here. This is my office, and no one messes with it. I'll grab the bag of cleaning supplies."

Vanessa left her purse in the spares office, and officer Watkins grabbed a small black duffel bag, and led her out, and down the sidewalk to the park. Vanessa saw a couple of abandoned cars and homeless people, and stray dogs were crapping on the sidewalk. They arrived at the park, and Vanessa saw the cinder block stands of bathrooms. The outsides were scarred with graffiti and trash was littered around it. As they got closer, Vanessa could start to smell the foul stench coming from them.

"Been a while since they've been cleaned," said Watkins with a smirk.