The automated voice stopped me in my tracks. “You have arrived.”
I looked up at the giant three-story home. Brown paint was chipping off the siding of the exterior. A wooden plaque with the word Welcome carved into it hung on the front door. Wind chimes dangling from the top of the front porch abruptly rang out in the breeze as if to warn me to turn around and leave.
I walked around the side and peeked through a first floor window. Two women were preparing food in the kitchen. The muffled voice of a man singing somewhere inside the house could also be heard.
This was a bad idea. They weren’t going to just let me in. What would I even say? I needed to leave, but at the same time, I’d come all the way here and at least, hoped for a look at her.
I returned to the front of the house and stood frozen outside of the door.
Before I could garner the courage to knock, the door flew open.
A heavyset woman with short cropped hair stood before me. “I saw you standing on the porch from the window. The doorbell is broken. You must be Shari.”
It felt like all of the saliva had drained from my mouth. “Uh…yeah? Hi.”
What was I doing?
She boisterously waved her arm behind her shoulder. “Well, come on in.”
“Thanks.”
“No. Thank you for doing this on short notice. We’ve had a shortage of volunteers lately. They didn’t tell me which day you were coming, just that they’d try to send you whenever you had some time.”
She thought I was a volunteer.
“So, I don’t know if Valerie told you, but really, it’s just basic stuff we need help with…floors, the two bathtubs, most of the deep cleaning that gets neglected. You okay with getting on your hands and knees?”
“Uh…sure.”
I followed her down a hallway as she spoke. “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate this. With budget cuts, the state only sends a cleaning service out once a month now. And that’s just not enough. We have twelve adults in this house. Our priorities are keeping them safe, and that means that the cleaning goes to hell.” She reached out her hand. “I’m Nadine, by the way.”
I took her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“All the cleaning supplies you should need are in that utility closet. You should start with the floors downstairs then make your way upstairs to the bathrooms. We have one of those fold-out yellow signs that says ‘wet floor.’ You can place it down in the center of whatever room is wet then move it around as needed as the floors dry. You don’t need to do the bedrooms, just the main living area floors downstairs and the bathrooms. Should take you about two hours.”
“Okay.”
I’d gotten myself into this mess, and now, I would have to literally clean it up.
About a half-hour into scrubbing the floors downstairs, I checked to make sure the kitchen was dry before removing the sign. The plan was to venture upstairs next. I’d assumed Ivy was up there since all of the bathrooms and the residents’ bedrooms were located on the second and third floors.
A tall, dark-skinned man donning sunglasses entered the kitchen. He was walking extremely slowly before he sat down.
He caught me off guard when he spoke. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Hi.”
“Smile. You look gorgeous today, by the way. And you’re doing a great job.”
“Thank you. That’s…uh…nice of you to say.”
“It’s not that nice.”
“What?”
“I don’t really know how you look. I’m blind. I’m a ball buster.”
“Oh.” I laughed. “I see.”
“Yes, you do, but I don’t.”
“Right. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s a beautiful thing sometimes. I get to see everyone for what they really are on the inside without the bullshit on the outside—the masks that people wear.”
“That’s an interesting way of putting it.”
“I can also pretend that every woman looks like Halle Berry. That helps.”
“Yes, I suppose it does.” I chuckled. “How do you know…um…”
“How do I know what Halle Berry looks like?”
“Yeah.”
“I wasn’t always blind.”
It wasn’t any of my business, but I was really curious. I whispered, “What happened to you?”
He pointed to the floor. “You missed a spot.”
I flipped around. “Where?”
“Now, how’s a blind man gonna see if you missed a spot? I told you. I’m a ball buster.”
I smacked my forehead. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Leo.”
“Hi, Leo. I’m Ni…uh, Shari.”
“Niashari. Interesting name. To answer your question, I lost my sight in Iraq. It was a roadside bomb. I’m a soldier.”
His admission jarred me into silence. Leaning my mop against the sink, I pulled up a seat across from him. “Wow. I’m sorry. Thank you for your service, Leo.”
“Don’t look so depressed.”
“I thought you couldn’t see me.”
“That is correct. You’re getting better at anticipating my tricks, Niashari.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ve never seen you here before,” he said.
“Is that another trick?”
“Actually, that one wasn’t. But that would’ve been a good one, too.”