What if I ain't no violinist?

95. Twoset Window Cleaner

Eddy generally enjoyed his job as a window cleaner. He liked staying active and he didn't mind heights, in fact, he kinda liked it, unlike many who feared it, so it was a win-win situation where he was happy to do a job that paid reasonably well that many could not do. He would have all sorts of iNtErEsTiNg moments with people on the other side of the window. Children and cats were his favourites as they would first innocently look at him in puzzlement and fascination, then try to follow his movements as he cleaned the glass. Furthermore, they were absolutely delighted when Eddy interacted with them a little bit, whether it was by moving his squidgy rhythmically for cats or by giving a little wave to small children.

Some of the less pleasant interactions were those when he would end up seeing things he rather not. You would think the people on the other side of the window would know when he was approaching after all the cats and children seemed to know. But he guessed many may have just woken up and were caught off guard, especially if they were busy in their own little world.

Eddy would feel genuinely bad for those who would get uncomfortable being caught in vulnerable positions. Like those who ran out of the bathroom naked to run into the living room to get their phone or to the kitchen to turn off the kettle or something... they would notice Eddy on the other side of their window and look absolutely mortified. Eddy would quickly turn away and pretend to work on something else.. not that there was any other work to do except wipe the windows..! But he would pretend that something got caught in his squidgy or he had to adjust his safety harness or something and would turn away from the glass and pretend to be busy for a while till the person in the living room left.

But sometimes people would try to cover up their embarrassment with anger, which Eddy understood as part of human nature, yet it would sometimes upset him, as he felt it really wasn't his fault. Some would flash an expression of anger by raising their fists or flip a bird (stick their middle finger up) towards him.

As a result, Eddy started to wear sunglasses and a mask when he worked.

This way, when some people expressed their excessive anger towards him, Eddy would not have them know how much it upset him since his eyes and mouth were covered. In fact, having his eyes and mouth hidden, seemed to make those people on the other side of the window care less and become less angry. Some in fact would become quite bold towards him.

He once encountered someone who was completely naked in their living room when he started cleaning his window on a high-rise building. The man initially appeared taken back but when he noticed Eddy had sunglasses and a mask on, he must have found it easier to dehumanise him and act as if he wasn't there. The man continued to carry on his merry way naked. He even walked up to the window that Eddy was cleaning and stood right in front of him. It was terribly awkward and quite offensive. Eddy was tempted to point and laugh out loud, knowing it would certainly piss him off, but thought the guy wasn't worth losing his job over.

On this particular day, Eddy was on a suspended scaffold as he was cleaning the windows of a large high rise. After waving to a few toddlers and playing "chase the squidgy" with a few cats, he approached his next large glass which still had its curtains drawn. He started cleaning the window from the top corner, making his squidgy give out a few squeaks.

The person who lived in the apartment must have woken up, or perhaps they were able to see the shadows from Eddy's squidgy. Eddy was cleaning the centre of the large glass panel when the curtain behind it was suddenly parted and a face appeared right in front of Eddy's face, they were practically staring into each other, eye to eye.

The man on the other side of the glass had pitch-black hair and strong eyes. He was looking straight ahead towards Eddy, almost through him and it took Eddy aback. Eddy took a small step back on the platform of his suspended scaffold and his lower back made contact with the rim of his suspended cage. As Eddy was pretty tall, he always made sure to be extra careful not to bump into the rim in case he had too much momentum to topple over and out of the scaffold thanks to his higher centre of gravity. Yes, he did have a safety harness on, but such an incident (to fall out of his cage) would be pretty embarrassing and a serious safety breach so he was always very cautious, much more than his shorter colleagues.

The man on the other side of the glass kept looking straight at Eddy. It wasn't an unpleasant gaze, just an unusual one. Eddy was mesmerised by this man's strong expressive eyes and he couldn't help himself and slowly reached towards his own face and removed his own sunglasses. He had no idea what possessed him to do so but it was as if he suddenly got the urge to show his eyes back to this man. Eddy had safety straps on his sunglasses in case he dropped them, so he left them to dangle around his neck. The man on the opposite side of the glass then flinched as if he realised something, flashed a grin then turned around and walked away from the window. Eddy was a bit disappointed, he was hoping to admire him for a bit longer. He usually doesn't stare at residents while he worked but there was something special about this man, he just couldn't seem to help himself. His gaze followed the man who walked to a side table where he appeared to have reached over to grab something... then he turned around and walked back towards the glass where Eddy was, this time with his black-rimmed glasses on...!

The man stood right in front of Eddy across the glass window again and looked straight at him, this time Eddy felt this man's strong gaze was in focus on him and he blushed, luckily it would not have been obvious to the man on the other side of the glass thanks to the mask Eddy was still wearing. The man seemed to have liked what he was finally able to see in full focus because he showed the most beautiful and warm smile to Eddy. As he smiled, he gestured to Eddy to remove the mask he still had on. Eddy felt he was under some kind of spell. He was almost in a daze as he reached up to his face again and he pulled down his mask to show the rest of his face to him. He gave a shy smile. Eddy received another warm smile back from the man on the other side of the glass.

Eddy quickly shook his head in an attempt to refocus. He saw the man on the other side of the glass smirk. Eddy was on a schedule and therefore though very tempting, he couldn't spend the whole morning staring at this man, so he gave a little apologetic shrug as he went back to work with this squidgy. The man seemed to have understood what Eddy was trying to communicate and he stepped back away from the window. A few minutes later when Eddy was almost finishing up on the particular window, he noticed the man was back near the glass again, waving towards him. Eddy stopped moving his squidgy and looked at him. The man held up his phone. Eddy wasn't sure what the man wanted, he wished the man wanted what he wanted but Eddy knew the window that was in between himself and this man was double glazed and there was no way he could communicate with him with his voice. The man on the other side of the window seemed to know this as well, as he didn't even try to vocally communicate with Eddy, which was quite unusual as Eddy has seen many people trying to shout things at him through soundproof double glazed windows – such a futile exercise.

Eddy decided to take a gamble and sprayed some detergent on the glass in front of him, then wrote out the first 4 digits of his phone number in mirror writing with his finger. The man on the other side of the glass grinned and started tapping the numbers into his phone. Eddy grinned back and sprayed another patch of detergent on the window and wrote the next 3 numbers in mirror writing, followed by another squirt and 3 more numbers. When he finished, Eddy looked at the man who smiled and looked like he pressed the call button.

The next instant, Eddy jolted and doubled over as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He looked up at the man across the glass and gave him a thumbs up and a grin. Eddy wasn't allowed to take his phone out of his pocket while he was working unless it was an absolute emergency due to safety reasons and hoped the man across the glass understood. It looked like he did as he returned a warm smile, then he waved. Eddy waved back as he drew arches with his squidgy to erase his phone number, then he started to lower his scaffold downwards to the next floor to continue his work.