010311

QUESTION GO

‘See ya,’ she said as I left the laundry after putting my washing in one of the washing machines.
The lift’d stopped the floor below mine before arriving and the door opening to let me in and showing a woman holding an empty laundry bag.
- irritated, I don’t want no trouble -
She followed me walking out the lift on the fifth floor.
The man’d been talking to CT, and pointing at the laundry times on the wall, held the door as I pushed it open and gestured me in.
- all the years I’ve lived here, shared the lift, passed him in and out of the block, not a word to each other since I said, ‘Hello,’ and he didn’t return it, now this…
‘Thank you,’ I said.
‘Morning,’ said O sitting on the bench.
‘Hello,’ I said.
At the washers I said about the full right-hand machine, ‘That yours?’ to the woman’d shared the lift.
‘Yes,’ she said.
She emptied the machine and put her clothes in the extractor. I filled the machine.
The causal racism from others I’ve experienced in the laundry came to mind. It could be mine. I felt some relief when O said, ‘You want the dryer?’ to the woman.
‘This one free?’ said CT to me of the machine I hadn’t used.
‘Yes,’ I said.
He put one dirty cloth in and went to the storeroom where I expected he’d get more, at least I hoped, because one cloth a wash seems a lot for a little. It wasn’t something I’d find out.
‘See ya,’ said O. ‘Bye,’ I said, leaving.
On my way to the lift, at the double doors, I wondered if I might’ve stayed longer in the laundry, had a chat, I heard voices from the laundry and let my question go.