The Window

The old man sighed and it was real heavy. He bent down to examine the job done. A hum slid forth with no particular hurry, "Hmm..." and he began to speak in his usual low, monotone way, "Third time now, kid, might as well be the ninth. Even if it was the ninth, I'd hope it'd be the infernal end to this cycle. Either or, you probably still wouldn't have learned from the previous tries, if I can even call them tries. Now, its not that tries are even a bad thing. In this certain situation it is. Not that I believe you're even trying in the first place! If this were you trying I'd have to question how the hell you've manage to survive to your, still, young age. Look, you know, you can't just polish the one side of this glass. I don't think that'll work out so much. I don't even think, I know it wont. There's an inside, you know. That counts and needs to good shine to it too. You can even relate this to yourself. Your outside's good, kid. How's the in's? I'd be so careless to say that I bet your all twisted up inside. You've got your guts all knotted I bet. The old man tapped at his own temples "It all mush up there!?"

The lowly window washer sort of did a unimpressed stare off into space and gave a halved effort eye roll. "Right, right..." he spoke carelessly, staring at his reflection in the glass briefly. There were smears and streaks that had attached themselves to his translucent self. "I can get to that later. The outsides fine. You can't notice the spots unless you look real good or at some angle..."

He looked at the kid, clamping his molars together nice and tight "Y'know, you've got a knack for slacking. Mind you, its not hard. It's still a talent and its something your good at. We're all good at something. I'm good at telling you how to do a better job. I hope it translates well with you. No one wants a dirty inside, or out. He pointed to the kids reflection, "look at you, all streaked and dirty. You look like shit, kid. I mean that, almost literally. Outsides clean, but you're still not looking so good. You can't go and try to look at it from the other side even, it'll be the same. No ones going to want to come in. Unless that's what you're going for. However, I've got a business to run, kid. I don't think I need to say it again. If I do, your outsides going to look real nasty, like shit, and I mean literally"

"Awww, do I have to? Like seriously?" The old man shook his head, "Look kid, turn that head on!" He proceeded to slap the kid atop his head with the dirty wet rag and with each whop he shouted, "Go! Get! Some! Clean! Water!." The kid all ran away with the old man tailing behind "Cut it out!" He yelled for a ceasefire. The kid scrambled the bucket into his grip and ran back inside the store.