As I made my way up the brick driveway I noticed the Greek inspired fountains on either side. Jets of water sprayed from the mouths of Sea Nymphs and Sirens as they carried their shells and sang.
The estate was the largest job to date in terms of square feet and I was happy to start working in the Hollywood Hills. Many affluent people lived in this area and I was happy to rub shoulders with them if only to clean their carpets.
I stopped the van and rang the doorbell. After a moment a man answered and escorted me to the owner of the house.
‘Are you the carpet cleaner?’ the woman asked putting her hair up in a ponytail.
‘Yes, I’m a little early. I hope it’s all right.’
‘It’s fine. Let me show you what needs to be done.’ Her speech seemed hurried but she walked slowly towards the back of the house stopping ever so often to admire the paintings on the walls and to look out the windows. I followed three or four feet behind holding my clipboard. The fabric covering her buttocks swayed slightly meeting her muscle movements and I found myself admiring the sight. This woman was in great shape. Probably from the using the in-house gym I passed on the way in.
We walked through an atrium and into a master bedroom with a row of French doors along the far wall which opened out onto a private courtyard. The room was clean but cluttered. The pictures on the wall hung slightly off level unlike the rest of the house. The room was carpeted with an expensive west-coast brand. I looked about and started running over the amount of chemicals I would need in my mind. I would need to be careful not burn out the color.
The owner twirled around slowly pointing at the floor as she explained the entire bedroom needed to be cleaned. My attention drifted back to her buttocks and the swaying of the thin white material covering it. She stopped in front of me biting a fingernail while looking over the room quickly. She seemed nervous.
My attention remained on the curves of her waist. I could now vaguely make out a dark coloring under the thin white dress material just above the soft v intersection between her legs. She turned back to me.
‘Can I show you an area that needs some special attention?’
I came back to Earth. ‘Yeah, yes.’
A spray of dried droplets formed a circular pattern at the foot of the bed. The owner knelt down and pointed at the stain.
‘I opened and can of coke and it fizzed up and dripped. Can you do something about this?’
I smiled to myself on the inside. I’ll play this game and be professional.
‘Yeah. I can take of that. This happens all the time. This is no problem at all.’
‘If you take care of this by the evening I’ll give you a little something extra for your trouble,’ she said with a smile. She walked out into the courtyard and into the sun. There she laid on a deck chair and covered her eyes with a pair of Jackie O's. A servant brought her an umbrella and a cold drink.
I shook my head and scribbled some notes on my clipboard then walked out to the van. Mixing the chemicals didn’t take long and after and hour I’d cleaned the general bedroom floor. I asked the servant to open the front door to allow a breeze in to air out the fumes.
The owner sipped her drink and watched me from her lounge chair. Must be nice.
Kneeling down I set my spray box to my right side and opened it. The spray box was a tackle box I kept with me to do jobs that required more finesse. It holds chemical solutions and a family of brushes to handle a spilled Coke or anything else that has dripped on the carpet. I don’t want to make cleaning carpets sound like an art form but there is something to it.
Two hours passed and the stain was almost all gone. I set up a pair of oscillating fans around the edges and packed up my equipment.
