Women On the Other Shore by Mitsuyo Kakuta Read Free Book Online Page A

her out-burst. Instead the woman turned to look at her with a wry grin on her face.
    "What're you so shocked about? Your place is pretty much the same."
    Sayoko was secretly pleased to note that the woman did know how to smile.
    "Give me a break. I never let it go this far," Aoi said.
    "Well, I hope you're both ready to put in some serious elbow grease. Don't expect any mercy from me," the woman said. She turned to look at Sayoko. "Your first assignment is to get this entire place looking spick-and-span again," she declared. "Here. Take this."
    She handed her one of the buckets filled with cleaning supplies.
    "You'll start in the kitchen. Aoi, you get the bath and toilet. The main room comes after that. Now remember, this is different from cleaning your own home. You don't necessarily have to do the bathroom and the kitchen and the entryway and everything all by yourself. One of you can start by doing only kitchens, while the other can do baths. In other words, the aim is to make yourself into a kitchen specialist or a bathroom specialist. Of course, during your training period, I'll be going over kitchens and bathrooms and balconies and everything else with each of you, but your ultimate goal is to develop a specialty where you can say no one does a better job on this than me. Got that?" T h e n like a schoolteacher addressing her class she added, "What do you say?"
    "Yes, ma'am," Aoi said, sounding very much like one of those schoolchildren, and Sayoko quickly followed suit.
    The woman turned to Sayoko. "I never introduced myself," she said. "My name is Noriko Nakazato and I'm the owner of At Home 45

    Services, which is a housekeeping company. I'll be working with you over the next couple of months. Welcome aboard." She flashed her a warm smile.
    Sayoko went into the kitchen as directed but wasn't sure where to begin. Somewhat tentatively, she filled her bucket with water and began sprinkling some scouring powder in the sink.
    "Hold it right there. Isn't there something else you should do first?
    You've got a head on your shoulders, so I suggest you use it."
    Sayoko turned to find Noriko standing behind her, arms akimbo.
    "Don't forget you have hot water, too. See this, and this, and this?
    Anything that comes off, you want to get it into hot soapy water right away, to soften up the grime. Then clean something else while those things soak. Got that? What do you say?"
    "Yes, ma'am," Sayoko said weakly. She stopped up the sink and started the hot water. As the sink filled she turned to look for some rubber gloves in the caddy of cleaning supplies she'd lifted from her bucket a few moments before. She rummaged through the jumble of rags, cleansers, and assorted tools but failed to find what she was after.
    "I suppose you're looking for gloves," Noriko's voice rang out behind her again. "Sorry, but you won't find any. In cleaning, your two bare hands are your most reliable friends. With bare hands, if there's any dirt left, you feel the roughness right away. When the dirt's all gone, you get nothing but smoothness. Wear gloves and you'll never feel a thing. Don't worry, our cleansers are all-natural, so they won't mess up your hands. The ones that do nasty things to your hands may be tough on dirt, but if they're that hard on your skin, you know they have to be toxic. It's just that people these days try to cut corners by choosing the most powerful chemicals they can find."
    When Noriko first started in on this harangue, Sayoko stopped what she was doing and turned to listen, but she was promptly told
    "No, no, keep working while I talk," so from then on she just nodded 46

    or put in the occasional "Uh-huh" or "I see" as she went about removing the grates f r o m t h e range and the fan from the vent. Everything she touched was tacky with grease. She dropped the detached items into the hot water in t h e sink.
    She'd been convinced, all those weeks ago, that going back to work would solve everything. But now, as she lowered