Greta Gorsuch - The Storm

Cecilia woke up before the alarm clock went off. The alarm was set for 6 AM, but she was out of bed at 5:45. She felt good. She went to bed early the night before. She slept well. She was ready for the day ahead.

It was getting light in the east. The sun would rise soon. There was enough light for Cecilia to see her back yard stretch off into the distance. The only other thing she could see were her three white wind turbines. Their long white blades were busy this morning. They moved quickly in the dark, cool air, going whish whish whish. The Windspeed turbines made electricity for her house. Cecilia had not paid for electricity in three years.

Cecilia felt a little pulse of happiness. All that space, and only grass and wind in it. Cecilia lived in the country. There was a lot of open land around her house. She lived in West Texas, after all. It had only a few small towns, and they were far apart. She could drive twenty miles before she saw a town ahead, way off in the distance. Five more miles of driving might bring her a little closer to the town, although not much. Cecilias closest neighbor was a ten-minute drive away. It was an hour on foot if your car wouldnt start.

It was already October. The terrible heat of the Texas summer was fading away. This morning, before the sun came up, it was cool. Early morning made Cecilia think of colors, like cool blues and purples and silvers. This was how the morning sky looked.

Cecilias taste in clothes was different. Usually she liked to wear pinks, oranges, and reds. She sometimes wore red shoes and pink socks together. Cecilia liked having nice fingernails and hair.

One of her clients, Mrs. Gold, was used to seeing Cecilia wear all sorts of colors. One morning, Cecilia wore orange fingernail polish to match her new orange I Take Care of It work t-shirt. She wore an orange ribbon in her long dark hair. Mrs. Gold, seeing the triple orange combination, sat stunned in her easy chair. Her mouth opened, but she didnt say anything.

Cecilia handed Mrs. Gold a cold drink of water. Cecilia found that was a good way to help people get over something they were not expecting. The glass of water worked.

After a few minutes, Mrs. Gold said, My goodness Cecilia, thats a bright fingernail polish youre wearing.

Yep, its pretty bright, Cecilia said, moving around and sweeping Mrs. Golds floor.

It was 6:30 in the morning. Cecilia looked out at the sun coming up. She thought about what she wanted to wear. She had three houses to visit for her I Take Care of It business. The visits would take until 2 PM. She could wear jeans and her orange I Take Care of It t-shirt for that. Then, she had some banking business in Sunflower. She might have enough time to drive home to get something to eat. She needed to change her clothes for her night class in Lubbock. Class was at 6 PM. Lubbock was the largest town in the area. It was a ninety minute drive away. She couldnt leave her house any later than 4 PM. Time would be tight.

For her night class, Cecilia wore different clothes. Somehow, her oranges and reds and pinks didnt fit in. When she thought of the night class on home care for the elderly, she got the same image she got from early mornings in her back yard: Cool blues, purples, and silvers. Cecilia decided what to wear that night. She took out some dark slacks and a purple shirt and laid them on her bed for later. It was time to get started on the long day ahead of her.

Cecilias orange I Take Care of It t-shirts were a sign of a big change in her life. Just four months earlier, Cecilia owned a house cleaning business. She wore pink I Clean It t-shirts then. I Clean It was the name of the business she had with her partner, Frannie Clifton. Frannie died. It was a huge shock. Even worse, Cecilia then learned that Frannie cheated Cecilia and their clients out of money. Before she died, Frannie became a gambling addict. She used her laptop computer to gamble on websites. She used the money she stole from their clients.

The idea of Frannie taking money that wasnt theirs was like looking into a deep black hole. Cecilia couldnt understand it. She still wasnt over it.

All of this made Cecilia think about things. She saw her life in new ways. In her I Clean It business, she cleaned houses for anyone who paid her. Some of her clients were single and Cecilias agein their thirties. They drove to Plainview or Lubbock to work. Some of her clients were families with children in school.

Her other clients were old men and women. They were the elderly citizens of the town. They didnt get out very much. They had money from farming or ranching. They needed their houses cleaned, just as Cecilias younger clients did. But the older folks needed extra help with day-to-day things. Things people dont usually think of if they are young.

They needed Cecilia to do laundry, pay bills, look through their mail, and check their bank accounts. They couldnt drive, so they needed Cecilia to drive them to Plainview to see the doctor, or go to the shopping center to buy clothes. Sunflower didnt have a doctor or a shopping center.

Cecilias first home visit this morning was to Mrs. Gold. Mrs. Gold had a small white house on 6th Street in Sunflower. All of the houses on 6th Street were built in the 1920s. Some of the houses looked good. Others were empty and forgotten-looking. The good houses had fresh paint and nice yards. In West Texas, where it was so dry, people watered the lawn only once a week. If they had trees, they watered them, too.

This morning, Cecilia pulled out Mrs. Golds water hose. She put the end of it at the base of Mrs. Golds big tree in the front yard. She turned on the water, but just a little. A thin trickle of water spilled out to go deep into the trees roots.