Take it

Fuck it, I need the money.

"Yeah, okay. Sound's good."

"Great! Let me grab your number and I'll text you more details!"

It was kind of uncomfortable to be giving him my number but I guess it made sense. I thanked Mr. Francis and went home.

Come the weekend, I had received a text in the morning.

Hey John :) The address is 3 Charles Lane, Troy.
Come at 5PM and we can get started!

Wait, 5PM? That's quite an odd hour. I was in the middle of a match so I didn't reply, and forgot about it. As it got closer to 5PM, I rushed to get ready and ran to the train station. I realised I had forgotten my wallet as I got to the train station, but I didn't want to be late so I got on anyways.

The doors closed behind me, and as I came to sat down, ticket inspectors had come onto the carriage.

"Oh shit" I panicked. The fines were expensive as fuck and I didn't have enough money to be paying for them.

"Ticket please" one large, menacing looking inspector had firmly stated to me.

"Sorry I left my wallet at home". With no hesitation whatsoever, he began writing on his little booklet form and asked for identification. A long, drawn out argument had ensued about my wallet. It resulted in a phone call to someone on my contact list for confirmation. And dad had yelled at me. "How could you be so fucking stupid"

It was not a good day at all. After the ordeal, I ended up with a $210 fine and missed the connecting bus as a result. I would be late by 45 minutes. And it was already getting very dark.

Eventually the bus came and I arrived on the street of Mr. Francis. To my surprise, the houses were very nice. They were all double story with huge land and nice cars and driveways. Troy was a beautiful neighbourhood. I walked up to the gate and sounded the buzzer.

"John?" Mr Francis' voice sounded through the speaker.

"Yeah, sorry I'm late. Missed the bus." I replied. He didn't reply for 10 seconds.

"That's fine" followed by a buzzer. The gate opened and I walked up the large driveway and to the front door, and knocked. Mr. Francis opened the door and was wearing a silk shower robe.

"Come in boy" he had a big smile. "Lots to do"

As I walked in, I realised that everything on the outside had no reflection of what was on the inside of Mr. Francis's house. The house looked like a party happened full of teenagers. Food and clothes just all over the place, bottles laying on the floor, kitchen filled with dirty plates.

"So I can pay you $30 an hour and you can just get all of this sorted. Everything you need should be in the cupboard in the kitchen. Start from the bottom and work your way up."

$30 an hour was a pretty neat deal. However, being here 13 hours to pay for prom and a suit was not something I looked forward to. There was also a familiar stench that reeked in certain areas of the house. It was uncomfortable.

After finding all the rubbish bags and liquids, I got to work. I started with packing every piece of rubbish into bags and every plate and cup into the kitchen.

What was completely odd was that Mr. Francis had sat down in the corner of the room, reading a magazine but at time I could feel his gaze, confirmed by a few darts over at him. He often came into the kitchen to get a glass of water when I was washing the dishes, and making conversations about family, girls and lifestyle.

We learnt a lot about each others lives. Mr. Francis had a very interesting upbringing and moral and ethical values. His father had taught him to never trust girls and take life by the balls, no matter what the circumstance. His father was manipulative and mentioned a lot about psychology and the human condition.

Cleaning this much was way more tiring and time consuming that I had imagined. Two hours had passed before I was even done with the bottom floor. It was completely dark and I had endured Mr. Francis' rambles about what he thought life was really about. The eerie gut feeling endured.

"It's getting late and the last bus is leaving soon. I should head off" I said to Mr. Francis.

"Don't worry about it. I can drive you home. Plus, upstairs won't be too hard"