2

It had been one of those weeks, extremely long and tedious. But today was Saturday and she had to work through the weekend at her partime job. Before she left the house at 6.07 a.m she heard someone walking through the house. The corridor light was switched on and her mom appeared.

"Why are you up so early mom?" Noni asked her mother who looked almost like a zombie.

"I need a glass of water," her mom replied.

Before she started getting ill, her mom was an early bird but now she slept til 8 o'clock and didn't open the kiosk until 10.

"I'm off, I'll see you in the evening," Noni said picking up her handbag and scarf. "What do you want for dinner?"

"Noni, when are we gonna talk? You've been too busy and I'm..."

"Soon mom. We'll talk soon. I'm late, gotta go," she said putting on her shoes.

Seeing the look on her mom's face she said "I'm ok mom i promise. I'll make time so we can talk but you know this weekend job gets me a step closer to my dreams. Go back to bed please... I'll see you later, good day."

She caught a bus to town and she would have to connect with another to where she was going, but luckily this early on a weekend, the traffic would be light.

A heavy set man walked into the bus and straight for the seat next to her coz she sat close to the exit. All the while, Noni had her internal fingers crossed for him to pass to any of the other empty seats on the bus. But the god of mischief was always close by.

She moved a bit to make some room for a small distance between them but he moved closer to her til his arm was overlapped on her left arm. She took a deep breath and prayed for some zen.

*****

At work, things were moving fast. There was to be a fashion show four days from today and so everyone was busy as a bee. Which obviously meant she wouldn't be able to attend the event unless she got an off.

Usually, she was one of the first people to arrive but today, everyone had arrived before 8 o'clock. Her job was to do whatever she was asked. Here, she'd be sent for a certain color of thread, another would ask for a cup of tea. There, she would be asked for a certain color and texture of material from the store, another would ask her to wipe the sweat off their brow. Someone would think she had no work to do but at the end of the day, she was the last to leave and the most exhausted.

All this for a promise that one day she might get to meet the house designer, who was a legend. Noni had daydreams of working there as a designer or a seamstress, anything really.

Beth's friend who had gotten her this job told her that meeting him was hard but she shouldn't tire, "He's quite elusive but don't give up. If this is what you want, better learn to be patient."

Noni knew how to be patient, better than anyone. After 3 months, she had it in her to wait another year. She had three books of sketches and she used her moms sowing machine to bring some of the designs to life. Beth and her rich friends had bought a few designs from her but she knew she had to perfect her sowing skills. But in the mean time, she would sweep, pick up lunch orders or do whatever it took to keep this job.

*****

She was almost done with cleaning up. The designers were messy pigs but if they found the place dirty in the morning, they would act like a bunch of kids who had just been told to sit in mud. After she finished she'd leave the guard to close up. He sometimes helped her clean but today he didn't even pop his head in to check on her. There were two regular night guards and they were both very nice.

As she was sweeping the last pile onto the dust pan, she heard footsteps approaching, "I thought today you were sleeping on..." as she turned around she gasped and dropped the dust pan creating a mess. It was him!