Lucent concerns one of my first jobs working as a cleaner at the tender age of 16. A friend and I were employed in the old BT office block; a nineteen sixties building which stood over Churchill Square shopping mall. It was shaped like a giant L, with two long wings. My work was one the first story, to empty the bins and hoover the office space, tip out the accumulated fag trays and clean away the Tea stains in the kitchen area.
When I arrived the work day for the regular workers had ended. There was an air of calm after the frantic activity, the tightly strung social tensions were loosened. The building exhaling into the evening hours.
I worked hard enough to claw back ten minutes break at the end of my shift. I had the perfect spot, a particular desk looking westward toward the golden stew of clouds and a nineties sun settling into the deck of slated roof and old antenna.
It was a lesson in satisfaction, working hard enough to achieve a small victory each day. I wasn’t distracted or disturbed by uneasy feelings, no apps to tug at my attention span. I only looked and let my thoughts come and go as they pleased.
Lucent is on page 84 of ‘Sea Sores – A Brightonian Book.’ Available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Check out the link in Bio if you would like a copy. If you do, then I’m very grateful.
Check out the book on above link.
LIGHT ON LIGHT 