My New Friend

This whole semester, I've been fairly regular about getting up and going to the gym most mornings. I barely even know who I am anymore. But, with this new development has come a new friendship. Every morning, as I sleepily ambled back into my building, redfaced and short of breath, I saw the same maintenance man vacuuming the hallway. After about a week of this, being who I am, I started giving him little waves and shout outs each morning. At first, he responding as any black working male might to a pink engineering student female. (With hesitancy, if you haven't ever witnessed that situation before.) Gradually, though, he became more and more responsive and our morning ritual became established.

"Good morning!"

"How you doin'?"

"I'm good! How are you?

"Doin' alright. Take it easy."

And on Fridays, we'd exchange "have a good weekend"s. I looked forward to seeing him each morning, and I could tell he looked forward to seeing me, too.

Well, today I set off once again for the gym, but not at my usual time. I saw him in the lobby, we had our exchange, then I went off. When I returned, his vacuum was still there even though he was nowhere to be seen. I climbed the stairs to the second floor, rounded the corner, and there he was, walking down the hall!

"Hey! What is yo' name?"

"I'm Molly!"

"Well, I'm KC."

"Nice to meet you, KC."

"Yeah, if you ever need anything, you just let me know, alright?"

"I will! Thank you so much!"

Y'all, KC just made my week.