seconds from space.

after the decline of her ever present void, she felt empowered to pursue a career in the art of custodial services. while her friends looked at this as a downfall from her previous employment, they speculated her many mental turns.

"do you think that she has found inner peace? zen?"

"did she go through a mental breakdown?"

"do you think that maybe she was verbally harassed at her last employer?"

no one knew how to present their ideas, and they never dreamed to ask. what if their speculations could be true? would it send her over the edge? she had a way of becoming charmed by her new profession. even though she was not a fan of children and was assigned to clean the muddy footprints from the floors of east englebrook elementary, she was complacent with each moment spent there. the children taunted her with names. instead of taking "poodle cakes" as a form of criticism, she found it to be clever. she even began to enjoy the taunting, the chaos, and the unstructured hatred of the children.

each day new obstacles would emerge. on one day it would be vomit in the middle of the hallway, and a green tinged descendent of earth hunched over in pain. this would give her time to help them from their crouch and waddle them down to nurse mcmurphy's office. another day could be a bully picking on a weakling, knocking their can of soda onto the floor. the next could be a full on rebellion; a food fight. the next day could be the lord of the flies.

no one knew.

no one did anything about it.

she loved it.

after three years of such tasks, nurse mcmurphy had become close to her in such a way that she had even adopted some mannerisms as her own. the nurse spent a large part of her day finding any news articles to rattle her cerebellum with. eventually they spent lunches together. they would go out after work sometimes and talk about politics. science. mathematics. sociology. anything.

eventually, mcmurphy referred to her as, "sister". sister enjoyed such a title, as she always felt like the workforce could use the structure of a family oriented mindset. it made her feel connected.

* * * * * * * * * *

stephanie was not the type that you'd invite for a debate. in fact, many saw her as weak, although she struggled to learn to find inner peace. no one knew how stephanie became so close to sister, but they'd been bosom buddies for years. stephanie would listen to the stories that sister would share, and she would smile in recognition of words dispelled. she was not even sure of the ways in which sister cared for her, or anyone at that. is she the temporary fix for all of the world's problems? despite these facts, she was a regular visitor to the elementary. picking up her pace (considering she had a meeting in an hour), stephanie looks for sister.

"excuse me. can i help you with something?"

stephanie turns around to see a slightly stalky woman with a sea of curls crowning around the top of her head. she appeared as a mountain. perhaps she is the school mascot. perhaps.

"yes, i am looking for the janitor around here."

"oh. they actually prefer to be called custodians."

stephanie feels a ping of stupidity. looking down at her feet, she bellows out an, "oh". part of her wonders if she should turn around now, or if she made a mistake by even walking through the door. despite all of her deep rooted anxiety, she stood there guarding her small section of hallway.

"she should be back soon. i am assuming you are a friend of hers, correct?"

stephanie thinks about her answer. does she really think of stephanie as a friend? she contemplated making up a story, but she didn't know where to start.

"yes. i am."

nurse mcmurphy began pacing about slowly, collecting her thoughts into words--possibly even sentences. she stopped in her tracks, crooking her head to the side at a 45 degree angle (which was a common trait of what they'd call the "thinkin' murphy" in the halls of the elementary), and peered deeply at stephanie with intense delight.

"then perhaps you can solve for me the question as to why a woman like her would want to work in a hellhole like this. you know she is gifted, right? truly brilliant. yet, she sticks around here, cleaning up these halls for eight dollars an hour. i don't get it."

stephanie didn't know how to answer. she'd never dared to ask about the change in profession, and for good reason. no one ever asked stephanie anything. they only put their problems on her. no one ever wanted an opinion. staring in dismay, she muttered the only thing that could come to mind:

"i don't know, but i'll love her no matter what she does. that's all."

stephanie turned around, bolting from the school. the nurse knew she was never coming back. she made a figure eight in the hallway, delighting in knowing that sister would be back shortly to wax away any sign of her delight.

* * * * * * * *

sister paraded down the halls one last time. the glisten of the sun's diminishing glow flowered a crescendo of light against the floor, giving her an angelistic appearance to all that could see her. no one was there to notice, except for the nurse. mcmurphy sat in her office, staring in marvel. looking over at the clock, she gathered up her keys and purse, proceeding from her office. sister looked up at her brethren, smiling with a slight bow. mcmurphy stops in the shadows of a day ending.

"why do you do this to yourself? you know you are better than your job."

sister stares for a moment, digesting the words.

"all we can do is live each moment as if it is our last."