Taking Off
Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Aurélie got off at Westminster tube station and took a touristy route to Marble Arch. The sun shone through the trees of St James’s park and on the façade of Buckingham Palace, birds sang in Green Park and the Serpentine heaved with people. Her blouse had gone wet under her arms so she sat down on a bench in Hyde Park to cool herself down.
She unfolded a piece of paper from her handbag and started reading aloud a list of management and sanitary words. At the interview the day before, she had forgotten the word bleach. A man in his forties wobbled past her, his body odour replacing the fresh air of the park.
“Are you alright, darling?”
Aurélie carried on reciting from her notes, wriggling her nose at the stench.
“Are you alright darling, I said? You seem lost.”
“I’m not lost. I’m waiting to go to an interview.”
“A job interview?”
“Yes.”
“Good luck. What is it for sweetie? Maybe I can give you some advice.”
He lowered himself next to her, his legs wide apart.
“In a hotel.”
“You’re a chef? I love French food. What’s your favourite dish?”
“I am not a chef.”
“What’s your favourite dish?”
“I don’t know. Don’t you have a place to go to now?”
“No darling, I’m what they call unfit for work. Unfit for life according to them.”
He clapped his hands twice and laughed. His throat clicked and his laugh turned into a cough. He opened the top three buttons of his short sleeve blue shirt and scratched his skin underneath. The inside of his left upper arm was covered with red marks, a mesh of lines and dots, some of them bleeding.
“I better go now”, Aurélie said. “I don’t want to be late.”
“You do well darling. Maybe I’ll see you on your way back, I’ll be sitting here. This is my favourite bench, you know what I mean. Look at them ducks over there, aren’t they beautiful? Tell me, isn’t London the best?”
She left him to his monologue as he fidgeted on his seat, throwing his arms in the air.
***
she arrived in front of the hotel, Aurélie pushed open the door with such force that it slammed back into her face, prompting her to giggle. After a short introduction, the receptionist led her to a narrow corridor cluttered with piles of lining fresh from the dry cleaners.
“Come on in Aurélie. My name is John McLaren.” A man in his forties, slumped in a large office chair, was typing on a laptop balanced on the edge of a desk. The thick carpet tickled her feet through the side of her sandals.
“Where are my manners? I’m so sorry, it’s been an hectic day today. Do you want a cup of tea or coffee?”
“Coffee please,”
Aurélie whispered.
“Yes, thank you.”
John filled a cup with steaming coffee. “Milk? Sugar?”
“No milk, one sugar please.”
“There we go. So,” John glanced at a piece of paper on his desk, “I see you have been working at Hotel Du Palace for three years, two of which as the cleaner manager.”
“Yes, I have.”
“Very good. Did you enjoy it?”
“I enjoy the work. I enjoy working with a team.”
Aurélie swivelled her seat out of the direct sun light and wiped her forehead with a clean tissue.
“I understand.”
“So, I am going to present you with some situations and I would like you to tell me how you would deal with them. Can you do that for me?.”
“Yes.”
“The first one is this. One customer complains to me about how his toilet seat was cleaned. I call you into my office and tell you about it. What do you do?”
“I would ask what the room number is and I would check who cleaned that room.”
“Good. Would you tell them anything?”
“Yes, I would deal with the situation.”
John twirled the power cord of his laptop around his finger. “This is what I want to know. How would you deal with the situation?”
“You would?”
“Well I would…” John touched the mouse and the laptop whizzed back to life. “I wouldn’t tell them about the complaint. At first. I would go with them to a room we need to clean, and ask them to clean the bathroom.”
Aurélie eased a strand of hair out of her mouth and scratched her left temple. “I would then check how this is cleaned. If the toilet seat isn’t cleaned properly, I would show them how it should be cleaned. If it is cleaned properly, I would assume it was an one-off mistake.”
John smiled and pushed his laptop away.
“Very good. Here’s another situation.”
The conversation went on for another half hour. John presented a few scenarios to Aurélie then detailed their health and safety procedures.
