Mandy discovers cleaning motorhomes is part of the job

“It’s the foxes”, explained Ruarc. “They scream! They almost sound human don’t they?”

“As long as you think banshees out of hell sound human,” confirmed Ralph, Ruarc’s son.  Ralph was a skinnier and possibly even meaner version of his dad. He didn’t even make any pretence that he wasn’t looking Mandy over, as he tilted back his head and allowed his eyes to wonder over her green blouse down to the slim green skirt she was wearing according to Ruarc’s instructions the previous day.

Mandy could see the look of triumph in Ralph’s eyes as he announced:

“That blue motorhome over there is now ready for cleaning!”

Ruarc, reached into a cupboard and handed Mandy a boiler suit.

“You can wear this to keep you clean. Gladys will look after the customers while you are gone.”

As Mandy trudged back to motorhome to get changed, she fumed at how she had enjoyed her shower that morning and the feeling of turning up to see to the customers clean and fresh.

She resolved to shower again after she had finished cleaning the motorhome, even if the time it took was against company policy. Contemptuously, she observed that Ralph didn’t look as if he visited a shower very often and his mechanics overalls probably didn’t look as if they had been cleaned for years.

Mandy had wanted to ask if there was a Mrs Ruarc but thought that the inquiry might be be misconstrued. The last thing she wanted was for Ruarc to think she fancied him.

Of course, she’d had to put her marital status as ’single’ and ‘divorced’ on her cv. It had only been two years but it still seemed strange and hurtful to see the words so naked and cruel on the page.

Mandy doubted if Ruarc and Ralph understood how little chance they had of her having any romantic interest in them. They were too thick-skinned. They were too thick! Mandy didn’t go for boys and she didn’t go for slobs. She didn’t like her job and she didn’t give a damn about the motorhome business. This job was a meal ticket and that was all. As soon as she’d saved a bit, she’d be out and laughing for joy as she went.

It had taken two years to lose her settlement from the divorce, Mandy wondered how long it would take to save enough to be able to stand on their own two feet again so she could live in her own home. She suspected a lot longer.

As she changed into the boiler suit, she thought she’d caught a glimpse of something moving in the bushes nearby and resolved to ask at the farm shop if they had some material that could be made into curtains.

The blue motorhome was filthy and cleaning it took until the end of the day. Out of the corner of her eye, she observed that not one of the many customers that viewed the parked motor homes ended up in the sales office. Mandy reckoned Gladys hadn’t tried at all.

As Mandy trudged back to her motorhome across the grass, Ruarc emerged from the sales office looking mean.

“Next time,” he said, “don’t take so long. Just do the bits that customers can see. They’ll enjoy doing the rest when they get their new van home and I don’t enjoy paying you when you are not producing.”

It was the end of a long hard hot grimy day and Mandy felt like bursting into tears at his thick-skinned lack of appreciation.

Instead, she looked deeply into Ruarc’s eyes for any signs of humanity, hoping that he couldn’t see the contempt she felt for him and wishing that she was at liberty to say how she felt.

“I expect I’ll get quicker with practice,” she said.

“You’d better,” he said. “We’ve missed enough motor-home sales today.”

“And what about Gladys,” inwardly fuming, Mandy couldn’t help but ask.

“She was doing something for me,” smirked Ruarc, and then shambled off with his hands deep in his trouser pockets.

As Mandy showered and changed her clothes, she wondered if anybody was in the bushes nearby watching her. She almost felt too tired to care.

By the light of a dim bulb in the scruffy old motorhome propped up in bed, for the rest of the evening, Mandy read an old romance book she’d found lying on a shelf in the motorhome she’d cleaned that day and wondered whether romance would ever come calling for her again.

In the night, there was more screaming. Once again, she wasn’t sure whether she woke up. Once again, she wondered whether the awful noise was only in her own mind.