Make a Little Noise

Posted on Mon 6th Jul, 2020 @ 6:19pm by Yuliette Marayan Dr.

613 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Brown Sector: Zodiac

Yuliette had bought a fan to help clear the fumes for the air recyclers in the Zodiac to handle from all of her cleaning. She’d worn a mask and gloves and gone directly for a stripping cleaning agent, not bothering to mess around with more polite formulations. And a few hours later, she was enjoying the result of her labor. It was nowhere near new, the flooring underneath all of that gunk was worn bare and discolored, but smooth and clean from wall to wall.

Yuliette had never done any of her own house cleaning. She’d paid people who were always glad for the work and she'd never been too much bothered by the arrangement. Even at her clinic she’d paid others to come through regularly. It just made the most sense for her to spend her time focused on her expertise and personal work than on menial tasks as much as she could help it. Not that she’d never wiped down a counter or cleaned through her own desk. But those kinds of things were sort of exceptions to the rule.

This was the first time she’d ever cleaned a whole floor herself and she had to admit she found the project results highly satisfying.

Fresh on her feeling of accomplishment, she decided to keep going. She set about spraying down the walls which were coated in a film of nicotine brown. The film probably wasn’t where the smell was coming from, but it still would be nice to have clean walls. She scrubbed in little circles with rags and a brush she’d bought from a brother and sister with an emu cart of odds and ends.

The even rhythm of the scrubbing made a beat and she found herself humming pop songs from Risa and reflecting on a life of studies and clubs with friends. Could she hide back on Risa? Would there be bounties out for Rho Saran traitors? They might know to search her out on Risa. Her mother came from Risa, she’d gone to school on Risa. She decided she couldn’t touch the place, not even phone her friends or school mates. Risa was off limits. Which was a shame. Risa had some of the best spots. Great beaches. Aside from the never ending stream of space sailors on vacation, a lot of kids had chosen to go to school on Risa just for the night life. The place was like an eternal Spring Break. Ah, the memories.

She morphed from humming and got fully into the spirit of Risa, singing while she worked, clapping together gloved hands, stomping out the driving parts of the beat, occasionally breaking from the scrubbing to get into the most memorable power lines of the song complete with moves like she was under the lights.

Sure the words were mostly shallow and about hook ups ne'er-do-wells, and drugs, but they were all fun. The cleaning took a little longer, maybe, going around the room like that, but the time went by a little faster.

An angry voice punctuated her joy. “Hey! Hey! You mind?” shouted a man from the street below.

Smiling and catching her breath from the dance party of one, Yuliette looked over her balcony rail down at the Bajoran street vendor with the fruit cart. “Do I mind what?”

“Your voice carries, you know. And you’re not exactly ready to get signed for a record deal.”

Yuliette laughed and belted out another line, just for him, “And if I’m just too much for you, we’re never gonna see this through, never gonna see this through.” Clap clap.

 

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