As you may have guessed I'm a janitor. The name's James, but you can call me Jim. Head janitor at Newlanthia Middle School. Not like it was much different than being a grunt, but the pay was better and I got to tell the little guys what to do.
Today I got under my wing a new trainee. Why Robert would ever want to get in this nasty business was beyond me. Pay sucked, hours were long, and you had to clean up everyones mess. I suppose it wasn't my department to tell people they shouldn't take a sanitary job, and hell, I could always use a helping hand.
Robert was a little late showing up, and I'd almost gave up on him. It would have been the third new recruit we'd lost this year. I can't blame them. Maybe they understood that they were in the bottom of the food chain in this line of work and grocery store work was better. Nonetheless, Robert walked through my office door.
"Hey Robert, take a seat." I told him.
"Sure, but call me Bob." He replied.
He was a short stocky little fellow, looked to be of Mexican descent. He looked like he'd done this kind of work before. I didn't do the hiring so I didn't know anything but his name. Mrs. Jab made those decisions, and that was fine by me.
"Do you know what this work consists of Bob?" I asked.
"Of course. I've been a janitor for five years. Got laid off from the last job at the factory downtown due to downsizing." He replied.
Oh, the poor fellow. He thought this was going to be cake like the other job.
"I hate to tell you Bob but this job is nothing like factory work. These litte brats are aweful."
"Ah don't worry about it sir. I think I can handle a little mess."
"Call me Jim. I need to show you around the place before the kids get here. First thing you are going to be doing is cleaning the bathrooms, then sweep the first floor hallways. You think you can handle that?"
"Sure, that's nothing new."
I laughed. He didn't know how much different this was. Didn't realize that he had other things to do like clean up the lunchroom after the mess the kids made. Unbeknown to me this day would be like no other.
I first took Bob to the checklist.where he was going to be assigned duties. I outlined him on the rotation of schedule, but I always had the offices to clean up. He would take a new floor each day with sweeping duties. I introduced him next to Roberta, Charles, and Meg. our co-workers. After the intro's forty minutes had passed. In twenty more the kids would be here.
"alright," I said, "You need to get to your duties and get them done before eight. After you are done come back and report to me, but don't hesitate to call on me if you need help."
He nodded and told me he'd be ok. Poor guy...
After the twenty minutes were up he hadn't come back. I waited around fifteen more and still no Bob. Classes were in session now and I was worried that he'd walked out. I decided to go take a look for him. Maybe he got stuck or was talking to the principal.
I asked around if any faculty had seen him, but he wasn't there. The hallways had been nicely swept. I went to take a look at the bathrooms.
The girls bathroom was clean and empty, besides the little 12 year old brat that stuck her tongue out at me. As usual I ignored her. From here I went into the boy's bathroom and was shocked..
Bob sat in the corner trembling and looking around with paranoid eyes. He only said two words in response to everything. "Elves" and "Wall". It was apparent we had a Schitzo on our hands. He couldn't handle the work. I went back to the principal and told her what was going on, and she called an ambulance. Another employee gone.
