The Man With The Housekeeping

Original Short Story

I was sitting in the common cafeteria, sipping my coffee alone when I saw him enter through rolling doors. I knew him from somewhere but couldn’t place him at first glance, but something about him felt odd. Suddenly he caught me staring and smiled at me. I was embarrassed, so I quickly averted my eyes and started scrolling the phone in my hand.

I was pretending to be nonchalant when the man started walking and stopped right next to me. “Hi Alice” he said. I looked up, his face was closer now and the feeling that I knew him was more prominent than ever. He was wearing an expensive suit and carrying a phone way out of my budget. I gave him a puzzled look and nodded with an unintentional grunt. “This is me, Prashant” he said as he removed his sunglasses. Then the realisation drew on me.

Prashant and I used to work in the same company once, Matrix Inc. one of the leading companies trying to crack AI. It was over 5 years ago when I had just joined them in their marketing department. It was around time when people were working from home mostly. Most of my team members had moved back to their native towns, and were taking calls online. As there were not many people who were coming to the office, the days I was in the office were really slow. I usually used to have my lunch alone. During one of those days I noticed a man from the housekeeping staff. He must be in his late 20s and looked younger than me. What made him distinct from others was the way he carried himself. Though he was wearing the designated white shirt and grey trousers, common for housekeeping staff, he could actually pass off as someone who does at an important job there. In fact the first time I saw him, I took him for a colleague of mine, Zafar, to whom I was recently introduced. I had gone to take my coffee from the machine, when I saw him I was about to say hi when he started cleaning the counter and promptly took the soiled coffee cups for washing. At first I was confused, only when he started speaking with another housekeeping staff I realised my mistake.

After that I started noticing him every now and then, due to lack of any water cooler conversation started wondering why such a sophisticated person was doing such a menial job? Could we have been friends if he were a regular employee there instead of housekeeping staff ? Am I looking down on him because of his job? I had this very strong urge to speak to him and know more about him. With such thoughts running at the back of my head every time I saw him, our encounters started to become a bit awkward. He noticed them too.

I was not sure what was going on all this time in his mind though. I had a habit of drinking black coffee just before lunch and he started coming to my desk every afternoon to collect my empty cup. It somehow became a daily ritual. I was not sure if this was part of his assigned job or he is doing this with some other intent in mind, but our interaction never went beyond that polite nod.

In June that year I went on a short vacation. Once I came back, he was nowhere to be seen. I thought about asking about him from someone from the staff, then thought better of it.

It was just within a week after this that a big scandal broke out in Matrix Inc. Someone had stolen the proprietary AI solution which was the next big bet for the company. Given the strong security measures and multiple copies present across the systems it sounded unfathomable. Everyone in the office was being questioned. Apparently someone had used multiple employee IDs to access different systems to steal the code. Then they had initiated a spyware attack to corrupt the rest of the system. To my shock my employee ID was also among those which were misused. Just because I was on vacation at the time and had an alibi of being out of the city, I was excused from suspicion. I informed the police that I was in the habit of losing my Access Card now and then. Just before going on vacation too, the housekeeping staff has returned it to me. It was the same housekeeping man and at that time I thought he had returned it out of kindness.

The curious part was even when I described him to my colleagues no one was able to place him. When housekeeping staff were questioned they mentioned that his name was Prashant, he was a quiet guy who never caused any trouble and mostly kept to himself. I heard a rumor that even he was questioned by the police but they couldn’t come to any conclusion. The company was under a lot of stress at this point in time. A lot of people got laid off, I being one of them. What made the matter worse was that Zafar committed suicide after a few days. He had given that code his all and was the principal person managing that project. He also became the prime suspect as recently the company had hired someone else as his superior rather than promoting him. In his suicide note he claimed his innocence and mentioned everything has become too much for him to handle hence he was forced to take this drastic step. That event shook me.

It took me some time to get back on track but I started staying away from any conversation regarding the company. Years went by, I joined a different company. I was busy with my work and life happened. Things were finally back to normal.

Suddenly seeing the same man from housekeeping again today, forced open the floodgate of memories. “ I figured you won’t remember me but can I talk to you for a minute if you don’t mind.” he continued and sat in the chair in front of me. I realised that I was looking at him with a lot of anger and mistrust. He, as if oblivious to my expression, continued in his cheerful manner “ You know, I have been dreaming about this day for so many years. Actually I wanted to Thank you “ I was intrigued and a little bit curious to know where this conversation was going. “ Thank me for what? “ I said.

“ We acknowledged each other quite a few times before but never really had a conversation. I have been meaning to tell you my story for a very long time. Now that it is actually happening, let me savour the moment please.” He paused, took a sip of coffee he had ordered and continued “ I was born in a very poor family. My father is a farmer, who just wanted me to become an engineer. He took a massive education loan to pay fees of my engineering college as if a degree would have solved all of our problems. Though I was not bad at studies but that college was in pretty bad shape. None of the teachers took interest in the learning of the students rather they would just take the attendance and let students to their own devices. Exams were always based on the last 10 year papers, so we used to just mug up the answers and get a passing grade. As a result, though I did get an engineering degree but was never able to crack a job interview. Interest of the loan was piling up, so when an opportunity came, I joined Matric Inc, as a housekeeping staff. I told my family that I work as an engineer here so that they don’t have to worry about me anymore and I could start paying off my loan in whatever way I can.

While in company I was fascinated with the work which was going on here. I wanted to be part of this set up. Then one day when I saw you, I started liking you instantly. I knew my place though, given my background I could never muster the courage to talk to you. This made me determined though to make someone out of myself. That’s when I approached Zafar, our AI product lead. I pleaded with him to teach me and in return I was ready to work really hard and do any job for him. Zafar was an honest man, who took me under his wing and taught me everything I know today. His death was like a massive shock for me. I was so busy with my issues that I never even noticed that he was under so much stress. After his death I couldn’t work there any more. I quit my job at Matric Inc. and applied for the freshers role in tech firms. Of course I got in, Zafar had taught me well and that’s how I am here today. “

I was completed in awe of the incredible story he had just told me. I was not at all sure how I was supposed to respond. I stayed quiet. He paid for both our bills and started to leave.

Then he paused and said “ Today I think I am truly successful because I was finally able to overcome my biggest fear and actually tell you my whole story.” He took out something from his pocket and offered me, “ This is my card, don’t be a stranger”. He gave his card to me and left.

I kept sitting there for a long long time after he had gone, lost in thoughts.