battered old running shoes. Her ankles looked bruised
and swollen,
"It makes no sense for me coming here to clean.
Believe me, ten minutes after I'm gone, she gonna
turn it back to a pigsty," she whined.
Felix closed the door by pounding it with his
sledgehammer fist. He glared at her.
"And believe me it makes no sense your living
here rent free without doing the work." he responded. "I do the work!" she moaned. "She ruins it, so I
just give up. I ain't a slave, you know."
"You don't decide when to give up," he said
firmly. "Or if you do, you move off the property" She looked away angrily, her gaze falling on
me with stinging fury. I immediately thought she
believed I was the reason she was being chastised. If I
hadn't come, no one would have discovered how
poorly she was keeping the house.
Felix lifted his right hand and pointed to the
chandelier.
"No one can change a lightbulb? What's that
got to do with how Miss Wilkens conducts herself?
And this doorjamb. Why hasn't it been sanded and
adjusted? Look at those shades dangling in rooms.
What about the ones missing from the upstairs
bedroom? I'm afraid to inspect the rest of the house.
Minor repairs have been neglected everywhere you
look here: the porch steps, porch floor, railings, that
stairway and banister. The place is a disaster and it
was once a prime property."
"None of that's my fault. I just agreed to clean
up. That other stuffs my father's job," she said. He