Cleaning Cart Stalkers

3 February 2017

We have a cleaning crew at the office that works to keep our place spotless after hours . . . they generally arrive about 3pm and stay until about midnight. There are 4 of them, and each one has her own cleaning cart . . . full of supplies . . . easily wheeled around the building . . . it's a really, really big building. The ladies are really pretty cool . . . funny even . . . I've built a rapport with all of them . . . because I stay so late sometimes. Those cleaning carts though . . . we'll they're . . .

. . . we'll get to that.

I don't know exactly when it happened, but it was the funniest thing. I was working late one evening . . . it was already dark outside . . . I was a little creeped out anyway because I knew I was going to have walk to our old parking lot which was quite a haul at the time . . . and it was so poorly lit! When I was little, I was terrified of the dark, but those fears diminished as I grew older . . . so walking around outside in the dark wasn't a big deal. Problem was . . . still is . . . there are random crimes all over campus . . . so yeah . . . it's a little creepy walking around out there after dark.

Thankfully there are generally a lot of people on campus in the early twilight hours.

Anyway, I got my stuff ready to go . . . when I closed my door and stepped into the outer office the upstairs hallways were dark. I thought that a little unusual since the cleaning crew was generally all over the place. The overhead lights have movement sensors in them, so the moment you step into an area, they come on. The ominous darkness meant that nobody was in the hallway.

Again . . . not an issue . . . the moment I stepped into the hall they lit right up.

I rounded the corner to head out the back of the building when I noticed it outside one of the bathrooms . . . the first cleaning cart . . . with none of the night crew in sight. Now, I don't know why I found this scary . . . a heavy-duty . . . albeit plastic yellow and black cart . . . laden with mops, buckets, rags, supplies. But for just a split second . . . a weird moment . . . it looked menacing . . . as if it were just lying in wait . . . ready to spring the second I walked by. I guess it caught me so off guard because I turned and walked out of the front of the building. My breathing a little shallow . . . my heart pounding so loud I could hear it.

For months afterward, anytime I left the building, I'd see those carts . . . parked arbitrarily around the building . . . seemingly lying in wait . . . none of those ladies in sight . . . and I found humor in it. So much humor. I started posting photos of them on FB . . . because I like funny stuff on FB.

Suddenly . . . or so it seemed . . . everywhere I went there were cleaning carts waiting on me . . . the gym . . . the place my mom lived . . . stores . . . even on sidewalks outside! And my FB friends got in on the fun too . . . posting photos of carts they'd see . . . even stray trashcans the wind blew down the street. It became quite a joke!

It's just so weird! I still leave the building and run into those cleaning carts . . . usually unattended . . . parked in the hallways. I have no idea where their owners are most of the time.