Yonder Window

by Jeff Baker

“Okay, you get the rest of these, I’ll do the windows in the back,” Maxwell said.

“Yessir,” Tyler said. Mom and Dad had told him to be respectful.

Tyler had already spent two weeks on this summer job and was getting pretty used to using the long pole to wash high, first-floor windows in some of the buildings downtown. His arms didn’t ache as much and he was glad he’d done all those push-ups in gym class. Upper body strength. He was starting college that fall and this job was better than last summer, which he’d spent flipping burgers.

He almost wished he could be doing the upper windows in the taller buildings, like the Gas Company where his Dad worked and where Grandpa had worked.

He grinned to himself as he carefully extended the long pole to squeegee the very top window. It would be fun to be up by the 12^th floor and wave through the window to his Dad.

He grabbed the pole and steadied it. He had to be careful, he dipped the squeegee in the water and raised it up again.

Good thing about this job is I get to be inside a lot. It wasn’t that hot outside yet but this building was air-conditioned. And the view was nice, even from the ground floor. It all made him think of that line from that play his class had read in High School. How did it go?

“What light from yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the Sun…”

Tyler heard a smattering of applause. He turned around. A couple of customers were watching and grinning.

Tyler had all but shouted out the line.

Blushing, he soaked the squeegee and went back to cleaning the windows.

—end—