The Cleaner
“Miss Green, are you here again? Why do you follow me, my dear persistent soul?” Dr. Andrew Merriweather dove under his ridiculous red-and-white striped bucket hat, peered into the earnest eyes of a small, slender girl in a simple summer frock, and sighed. “Green, listen to me at last! This is a serious university, not a charity hospital. You didn’t pass your exams, you know itso what do you expect? Good heavens! You muddled the entire anatomy, spouted some utter nonsense, and then you wait for what, a miracle?
“Just give me another chaaance,” the girl whimpered, pulling a hanky from her little dress pocket and dabbing her nose. It was white, with a pale blue border and tiny flowers at the corners.
How touching, thought Andrew wryly. She just knows I can’t stand to see a girl cry!
“No chances. Try again next year, my dear, but if you like, I could get you a job as a hospital cleaner. Its dirty, its tough, but at least youll learn, as they say, what its really like inside. All of you lot,” Andrew swept a hand over the sea of university students milling about, “imagine a dazzling white coat, shiny instruments, spotless sunlit corridors, and you strutting along like demi-gods with patients gazing up at you in awe. Am I wrong?” He ducked under Greens sun hat again and froze. “How many freckles do you have, Green? Clearly the suns in love with you, cant stop kissing you all over.”
Suddenly, he chuckled. The sight of her sun-dappled, honey-golden freckles was oddly delightful, and the thought of the sun doting on her gave him an unexpected burst of cheer. Plus, it was his wife’s birthday today, and soon theyd be off to the cottage, perch and pike in the stream, clever as anythinggood luck catching one! And the bees droning in the hive, grumbling away, while Andrew would chat to them and offer words of wisdom.
Daisy looked up, bemused and squinting. The professor, laughinghow odd! Nothing was going as it should. Shed studied so hard, utterly fluffed everything up, fumbled her exam ticket in sweaty hands, couldnt raise her eyes. Oh, why, why, why
“Erm… forgive me,” Andrew grew candid. “I’m not laughing at you. You, Daisy, are a very pretty girl. Phew, how about we get some ice cream? Can’t bear this heat.” He tugged at his shirt collar, his battered briefcase pinched under one arm. “Dont blush! Im not inviting you to the Ritz or to dance the can-can, just a quick ice cream, thats all. Hereyou can pay, buy one for me too.” He rummaged in his steamy trousers, sweat making his tweed jacket stick, and at last handed over some crumpled notes. “Run and get two. Ill be waiting over there on the bench. Chop-chop!”
Daisy squinted, shrugged. “What flavour do you want?” she asked in a small voice.
“Any. The quickest there is, please, before Im just a puddle and you’ll never get a cleaning job from me, my dear. Go!”
He watched with satisfaction as Daisy scampered off on her scrawny little legs toward the ice cream van.
“Still a child, that one. Where did she spring from to land on our heads?” He shook his own.
Settling on the bench, Andrew fished a hanky outthe size of a tea towel, checked blue and green, truly hideous. He mopped his brow and neck, grimacing. Horrid, feeling sweaty, tired, and old. It was even more horrid, standing in ones glory and wisdom, next to this freckly wisp of a girl. Not that he wanted to flirt, not a bit! He adored his wife, never spared a glance for students. He was just sorry his life had hurried by, and all that was left was admiring other peoples, bold and bursting with future, like this insistent little Green. Everything ahead of them. Seems they might do it better than us, the threadbare and balding, whove served our time…
He watched as Daisy returned, self-conscious. “Why are you looking at me like that? I got you vanilla,” she mumbled, holding out the cold block.
“And for yourself? Wheres yours?” the professor said, peering at her empty hands. “Didnt I say two? See, already youre not listening! Whatll become of you? Ill tell younothing! Instructions missed, requests ignored”
“No! No, Im off again! In a flash, the red-and-white hat bolted back and soon returned, second vanilla in hand. “Here.” She plopped onto the bench.
“Eat,” Andrew commanded. “And then goodbye. Ive got choresneed to cart my wife out to the cottage, pack half the house, heave trunks. Go on! What now, where are you off to?”
Daisy dabbed the corner of her lip, shrugged. The ice cream was too sweet, too cloying, all it did was make you thirsty…
“What do you mean, you dont know? Surely you have somewhere to go?” Andrew stamped his foot, suddenly worried all over again that shed be left homeless.
Daisy, glancing at his bushy eyebrows, thought that if he had a long beard, Dr. Merriweather could easily pass for Old Father Time himself.
“I do,” she said. “Im staying at my aunts, just for now, but her lot are back from Newcastle tonight and Ill have to make myself scarce. Not everyones got a house made of elastic”
Yes, Aunt Linda had spelled it out: “Daisy, be reasonable, the flats not made of elastic. You didnt get in, its time to go.” End of conversation.
“Off home then? Wheres that?” asked Dr. Andrew between bites.
“Doesnt matter, really. Wouldnt you let me try that test just once more? Set anythingthree questions, fourIll know them now, I promise! I just panicked then and”
“Oh, stop. That simply wont do, my dearto have your head in a muddle. Whatll you do in a real crisis? Panic and take out someones spleen instead of their appendix? Unthinkable!”
“Well you couldn’t possibly mix them up,” Daisy protested wide-eyed. “They’re not the same at all! Would you like two more ice creams? Do you? Ill get them” She seized his hand, he yanked it back, snorted.
“Certainly not. Nor you. No good ever comes of excess. Goodbye, Daisy Green. I must go, my wifes waiting, lifes calling. Come back next year. Thats final.”
He stood, gave a stiff bow, and strode off, never looking back. Daisy, in her spotty hat, sank onto the bench with a sigh. Behind the hedge lay her tiny suitcase, half toy, half prop.
“Thats that… Really done for…” Her freckled nose quivered despairingly on her knees. “Back home theyll only laugh. No one believed I could make it as a doctor, not ever.”
In Little Redford, the sort of nowhere-village split by the B-road into council and cottage sides, nobody ever believed grasshopper-like Daisy would get into medical school or come back with a diploma, strutting the local health centre in a white coat, giving orders to nurses, the youngest of whom was nearly seventy.
All the young folk from Redfords clinic legged it sharpish. No equipment, leaking windows stuffed with tights in winter, and the head doctor, Old Nick, a man who believed whiskey compresses could cure anything. The whiskey reserves vanished with remarkable speed, and Old Nick himself looked like a cautionary tale: red-faced, puffy, swollen nose, hangdog eyes, lips like dried leather. He rarely deigned to make roundsabove his pay grade, he saidand hated hiring modern younguns. Daisy had tried to go against him, swotted hard, and flunked Russian, biology, geneticsthe lot. It just wasnt meant to be…
Andrew had vanished from view, but Daisy lingered on the bench, clutching a sticky lolly stick. “Now Im thirsty…” she thought vaguely, pulled her suitcase out and trudged off to the station. Mustnt miss the train, walking through Redford late was not a bright idea.
Daisy hated walking home alone at night and jumped at every shadow. Her granny had filled her head with ghosts and spooksthanks, Nan. As a kid, Daisy used to hide under the covers at every creak or cluck, heart thumping at each crash of an apple or a dogs bark in the lane. Yet Grandads snores, grumbling away in the next room like a wayward steam train, always made her feel safe. No onell dare bother us with Grandad in, shed think sleepily, and finally doze off.
Now Grandad was gone, not saved by the village clinicOld Nick prescribed more whiskey compresses instead of real medicine. Grandad faded away in two days while Daisy, her mum, and her gran watched his stubborn, fretful creases smooth right out.
“Thats it then,” the cleaner declared from the foot of the bed. Hes found his peace now
No Grandad, and the dark road home still looming, shrubs, trees, ramshackle brick sheds full of who-knows-what lurking. Down it trudged Daisy, suitcase in hand, sniffling. Why hadnt Dr. Andrew believed her? Shed have been the besthonestly!
“Not enough marks, my dear. Try again next year!” the professor seemed to excuse himself in her head. Why did she trust him so much? Silly, really…
A shape caught up with hera lad this time, grabbed her suitcase. Daisy started, about to shriek, but then realisedit was Will.
“You stalking me? You never thought Id make it, did you?” she shot at him. “Give me my suitcase!”
“Chill out, pip-squeak,” he grunted. “I was rooting for you, more than anyoneswear it! Your aunt phoned to say you were on your way home, so here I am.” He paused, and Daisy bumped into him, flailing in his bear hug, then sort of meltedhugging back, sobbing childishly against his chest.
Thats when Will finally, finally kissed her. Three years hed nearly tried, only bottling it at the last moment year after year as she left for exams, fumbling in his pockets instead. And now he did. It was awkward, sniffly, messylike two baby birds pecking beaks. Daisy frowned, hesitated, and then stretched out for another hug. Will puckered his lips and bent down.
“Look, it’s not great, but I’m glad youre home,” Will whispered when it was all over. “But if youd stayed away, Id have gone after you. Honestly!”
Daisy nodded. That was good. All was well, apart from missing Grandad. And the dream…
Wincing at the sparrows racket at the window, Andrew was still in his wool suit, a bit older-looking and distinctly harassed, snatching the admissions lists from Nadine, who handled all college paperwork.
“So, Carr, Carter, Cartwrightwhat a name! Moving on: Cassidy, Copley, Curtis, Cutler, Cuthbert” He trailed his spindly finger down the columns, tutting.
“Looking for someone specific?” Nadine asked, removing her glasses and polishing them with a floral hanky, blue-edged with little corners flowers.
“Where did you get that?!” Professor Andrew snapped.
“Whatthis?” Nadine squeaked.
“The hanky.”
“Bought it at the market. There were yellow flower ones at the next stall, but I liked this. Why?” Nadine hastily crammed it into her handbag.
“Never mind!” Andrew grunted. “Davies, Davidson, Dearlove, DigbyOh, where is she?”
“Who, Dr. Merriweather?” Nadine, increasingly anxious, patted her pregnant bump.
“Dont fret. You shouldnt fret! Daisy Greenwhere is she?”
Nadine shrugged, bit into an apple to stave off nerves.
“Gone! Not here. I fretted myself bald over her, begged the Dean to make an exception, pulled in every string, but she didn’t even show up this year. Students! Ought to know better. Dont ever trust them, Nadine, all right?”
Nadine nodded solemnly. No trusting, absolutely not.
Before long, Andrew was spotted by the posted admissions lists, peering through his glasses, face creased in irritation.
“Lose someone?” snickered Dr. Faber, the perennially grumpy lecturer. “Not everyone is in luck today.”
“Im not looking for anyone!” he protested, tore away from her grip, and stomped off to the ice cream cart.
Bought a vanilla, sat on that same old bench, and chewed it over.
“Well, whatever,” he decided at last. “Serves her right. Meanwhile, theres a lovely pike in the pond and its my wifes birthdayhurrah!”
And why, among all the hopeless cases, did he remember only Green? Many had tried to bribe, beg, or charm him, yet only she stuck in his mind. Maybe it was because shed never offered anything, only promised to work hard. Naïvely, oddly pure. That must be it. But it was all in the past now…
Tessa, dressed to the nines, beamed at her husband. Outside the men grilled sausages, sang off-key to acoustic guitar, and pontificated about fishing and football. The women, with the birthday girl, laughed on the cottage veranda, flipping through glossy magazines.
All was going as usual, until Andrew suddenly slumped, pale, trembling, gasping for air.
Everyone leapt up, checking pulses, bandying about diagnoses. Tessa hardly noticed when she was settled in the car, Andrews head in her lap, car racing off into the night, not a street lamp in sight, the darkness unsettling.
“Whats happening to him? Quick, please!” she pleaded, clutching his hand.
“Heart, most likely. I say! Why the devil are we stopped? We need to get through!” the driver, family-friend George, shouted, window down.
“Go back, lad,” an old man replied, smacking his lips cheerfully. “Tank lorry’s overturnedblocked the whole road. Fool drivers these days! Ought to take their licences off ’em!” He shuffled off, George sprang after.
“Nearest hospitalwhere?” demanded George.
“Back and round, near the village. Not much of a hospital, mores the pity, but thats it. You got a wife in labour?” he asked, nodding at hunched Tessa. “Midwifell have the baby out in a trice, if you want…”
But George was already shouting directions, swinging the car round for the detour.
“I mean, Tessa! No medicine in the house, no kit! Doctors wife with empty shelvesshocking!” George huffed as he drove. He, Paul, Victor and their wives, all the party guests, knew about medicine only as far as a bottle of aspirin or a tot of brandy. Tessa, a linguist and utter non-medic, always left it all to Andrew.
So she sat in tears, gently stroking his hair.
They reached the little hospital at dead of night. It was a forlorn three-storey block, splashed with green-yellow mildew, falling plaster here and there.
“A&Ewhere?” George hollered at the caretaker slouched on the bench. “Might be a heart attack! Fetch the doctor. Now!”
The caretaker started, grimacing as if made to suck a lemon, then shrugged.
“Calm down, sir. Might as well be the mortuary Heart attack? Thats the thing that took my wifetragic, really…” He began reminiscing at length about the funeral, the weeping, the “Just get the doctor, man! Hippocrates, where are you? Tessa, run inside, tell them we need a trolley! Andrew, hang on!”
At the rickety porch, Tessa yanked the doorthey were locked. She pounded and shouted. At last, the door clunked open to reveal Old Nick, the doctorrumpled, red-faced, reeking of gin, enough to make her head swim.
“Whats with the commotion, madam? Stop the racket, youll split my head in two. What is it now? Dont rush!” He barked as Tessa tried to explainshe finally shoved past him and dashed inside…
Andrew awoke in a chilly, deserted ward as dawn crept through papered windows, glooming over melancholy blue walls and melting into grubby linoleum.
“Tess Tessa” he groaned, turning painfully. What was this place, why did it smell so much of bleach?
Tessa was there, asleep on a metal chair, head drooped. Andrew wanted to pat her hand, but couldnt even move.
The double doors swung open and in glided a woman in a blue overall and knotted headscarf, the coat hanging off her skeletal shoulders like a blanket. She adjusted her scarf, tiptoed up, glanced at Andrew, checked Tessa, tutted.
Drink of water? Come on, lets have some water!” She gently lifted his head. Careful now”
“Green?! Miss Green?!” Andrew blurted, startled by her speckled nose.
“I am,” she smiled, dimples deepening. “But dont fret, Dr. Merriweather. Old Nick says no heart attack, just something else. You mustnt worry. Here, have a sip. Awful pale, arent you?”
She helped him drink. He nodded gratefully.
“Daisy, whatre you doing here? I looked for your name for years, butMiss Green, how?”
She put a finger to her lips. “Shhh. Ill be back, I promise. I did come home, and Will met me at the station, then we married and little Charlie was born. He was ever so tiny, I couldnt leave him, you see? I got a job as a cleaner, like you said. Learned a lot, I did
Here? In this dump? What is this place! What could there be to learn here, Daisy? Its frightful!
Frightful, yes, she nodded serenely, plumping his pillow. “Thats why Im going to be a doctorIll come back and change everything.”
Or you’ll end up in the gin with that chap who examined me! Andrew snorted. “Appalling!”
“I used to think so too,” Daisy smiled, tucking his blanket. “But after working here, I saw that even Old Nick wants betterbut has nothing to give. He wrote letters, complained, demanded… but there are heaps of hospitals like this, all waiting their turn.”
“This place needs razing to the ground!” spluttered Andrew, banging his fist weakly.
“Andrew, please!” Tessa woke, alarmed. “You mustnt get upset!”
Daisy grinned. “Youre just like Old Father Timeyou only need a beard,” she teased.
“What?! What?! Greenyou’re incorrigible!”
“I am. Youre no genie, youre a professor. Forgive me, Ill fetch the doctor. Tessa”
“Florence,” said Tessa automatically.
“Florence, come with me for a cup of tea and maybe a ginger biscuit. Dont fret so. Our doctors good, just utterly knackered…”
“Nick? You?” Andrew gaped at the lopsided, wild-haired man before him. Nick no longer wore a white hat, and his coat had turned yellow-grey, as battered as his life.
“Me, Andy, me. Still remember me! Not quite vanished!” Nick gave a laugh that didnt quite reach his eyes.
“How can you stay here? You had such promisedid you drink yourself to ruin?”
“I did, though really, in reverse,” Nick admitted. “First, I tried to change things, fought for better, but with no supplies, no medicines, you end up giving up and… thats it. New recruits came, all wide-eyed, but I knew they wouldn’t lastso I shooed them off. Only the stubborn old birds stuck around. Thats all thats left, Andy. That Green girls chirped on at me about you for monthskeen as mustard, that one. Shell be applying again, even with little Charlie to care for. Do teach her well, will you? I need a replacement someday.”
“Nick…oh Nick Yes, well teach Green everything, no fear. But youyou mustnt give up! Write, demand, call out”
“We must, my friend. Later. You rest now, dont get worked upyour pulse is at it again!”
Nick watched as Andrew drifted to sleep, then stepped into the corridor, gazing at the neglected courtyard. No, he thought, its good Im still here. Good I met Andy again. Everyones where theyre most needed.
“Nick, breakfast time!” Daisy called from the doorway. “Its nearly ten.”
“Coming. Professors asleep. Hell be all right.”
Daisy nodded.
Standing in the college corridor, Andrew beamed with pride, reading again and again the familiar name on the admissions listframed and proudly displayed: “Daisy Green.” Shed made it. Now Nick would have his successor. All thats left is to wait. He would. And meanwhile, Andrew had thrown himself headlong into the business of revamping Little Redford hospital.
“Ah, Nick! You never could accept help. But now youll have no choice!” Andrew chuckled and headed to the ice cream van. Yeshe, Andrew, could still move mountains if he put his mind to it. Absolutely!
