Swish. Swish. Swish. The rhythm was the good part of the job.

He dipped the mop into the bucket, squeezed it through the wringer. Swish. Swish. A wad of gum on the floor. He pulled a scraper from his back pocket and bent to it.

Alejandro Ernesto Blanco... Ernie to his friends… was mopping the corridor outside the executive offices before the day shift arrived. It was his son's birthday, and they were going to the beach.

The door slamming shut told him someone was in early. He quickly pulled his sleeves down to cover the grinning Marine skull. He didn’t need problems. The swish rhythm quickened.

“Good morning, Ernie!”

He turned at the greeting, flashed a smile. “Good morning, Mr. Etienne.”

“I keep telling you, Ernie, it’s just Etienne. Not sir or mister. This isn’t the Marines.”

“Okay, sure, Etienne. I’m almost finished and will be gone soon.”

“That looks just fine. The day crew can handle the rest. Go enjoy your son’s birthday!”

“Thank you, sir… I mean, Etienne.”

He cleaned his bucket and mop, then closed the closet. Still wondering how that old man knew his son’s birthday. Outside, the morning was pleasant. Joggers and a few surfers were out. Ernie nodded to people he knew as he walked back to the bungalow. Everyone except the teen girls who side-eyed him as they passed. He chuckled as he recalled the reason.

The principal had brought them into the bathroom one morning.

“Hi ladies. I’m Ernie, the janitor. I wanted to ask you a favor. Please stop kissing the mirrors. It makes cleaning them really hard.”

Whispers, giggles, and a couple snickers rippled through the girls.

Ernie pointed to the marked up mirrors. “Let me show you how hard it is to get the lipstick off.”

He grabbed a small brush, went into a stall, dipped it in the toilet, then scrubbed the mirror. The snickers were replaced with whispers to “Eww, gross!” He finished up with a squeegee and a rag polish.

“So you see how hard that is? Please, just use a paper towel, okay?”

Several vigorous nods and a chorus of yeses.

“That’ll be all,” the principal said. The girls rushed out.

The principal didn’t say a word, but did give him an approving nod as she left.

Once they were gone, Ernie went into the toilet stall and removed the small bucket from inside the toilet.

Ernie bounced up the steps to his house and opened the door. The house was buzzing with cartoons on the TV and his youngest rolling the quacking duck toy. The aroma of bacon cooking filled the air. His wife, Kelly, came from the kitchen and welcomed him home.

“You’re early,” she said.

“Yeah. The boss started early and told me to go home.”

“Great! We can get to the beach earlier.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

“Yeah!” Joaquin shouted as he ran to his room to grab his beach kit.

“I’ll pack up the breakfast sandwiches and snacks,” Kelly said.

They all quickly changed and left. Ernie popped Chelsie onto his shoulders for the ride to the beach. It entertained the precocious six-year-old and kept her from running into people. Joaquin lugged the pack on his back while Kelly carried the hamper of food. They picked a blue striped sun sail to sit under. Kelly and Chelsie’s fair skin would get a little color without roasting. A large display board showed the current drone race in progress. The leader-board rolled with lightning changes of the fast-moving race.

Ernie brushed the cookie crumbs from his short-cropped hair, then looked at Joaquin. “Race ya.”

They darted from the blanket.

“You’re getting slow, dad!”

“No, mijo. You’re getting faster. It took you twelve years, but you finally beat me.”

They swam out past the surfers, into the swells. The water was warm and relaxing. Ernie looked back at the beach. Neat rows of shade sails, families lounging, and the shaved ice stand in the center. This company really did take care of the workers.

“Come on, I’ll race you in.”

Joaquin was already a body length ahead. “That’s cheating!” Ernie shouted, as he dove after him. They both swam hard toward the shore. An enormous wave rose behind Ernie that carried him past his son and to the shore.

Joaquin came up sputtering. “How did you do that?”

“Age. And skill, with luck of the ocean.”

“Will you show me?”

“Oh yeah. But not now. I need to rest. Let’s go eat some of mom’s good food.”

They headed up the beach. Heated voices caught his attention, he naturally glanced over.

Several surfers and a girl were in a heated discussion. One surfer held something over his head, taunting her. Ernie thought it might be a small boogie board. The girl was jumping and moving about trying to get it. Her face showed she was clearly not amused.

“Go see what mom has for breakfast. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Joaquin looked up at him. “What are you doing?”

“Just go. Don’t argue.”

Joaquin hesitated, then jogged of toward the sun sail.

Ernie strode toward the surfers.

The tall, blond surfer holding the item spotted him. They locked eyes as the surfer handed the item to a red-headed boy. Ernie could not see it was a racing drone.

Ernie flexed his prosthetic hand, making sure it hadn’t locked. “Hi guys. Is this a closed game of keep away? Or can anyone play?”

The tall blond snickered. “It’s just for us, not some school mop jockey.”

Ernie shook his head. “Really? You that scared of competition from someone your size?”

The blond guy stepped forward, blocking the group from Ernie. “I’ll make ya a deal, you knock me down and you can play. If I knock you down, you leave. Deal?”

“That wouldn’t be fair.”

“I won’t hurt ya old man.” He launched high swinging kick. Ernie saw it coming as the foot left the ground. He waited for it to get within a foot of his head, then sidestepped and gave the foot a slight push. Blondie toppled and hit the sand.

Ernie bent down. “Does that count?”

The surfer wasn’t done. He rolled and came up in a fighter’s crouch. The other surfers stopped to watch.

Ernie stood still and checked his hand again. He recognized the MMA approach. This kid watches way too many videos. “Just give the girl her stuff. You really don’t need to embarrass yourself.”

The surfer responded with a lower kick. Ernie blocked it, then sidestepped the kid’s rush and tripped him into the sand.

“So that makes two takedowns. Can we stop?”

The panting surfer lying on his back nodded. The redheaded guy looked at his friend in the sand, then at Ernie, and held the drone out to the girl. She darted off to the shed. Ernie offered a hand up, but the surfer rolled and got up on his own. The group headed back to the shore.

“Kids,” Ernie said and headed to the sun sail. He was hungry.

The family spent the next few hours enjoying the beach and Kelly’s food. Sometime after Chelsie’s second swim, Kelly began packing the hamper. Ernie hoisted his daughter up and they headed out.

Ernie was the first to notice the fancy car parked near the house. Etienne was sitting on the front steps with a wrapped gift. He stood as they approached. Ernie noted his smile did not match his posture.

Etienne held out the gift. “Happy birthday, Joaquin!”

Joaquin looked up at his dad. Ernie nodded and Joaquin took the offered box. “Thank you, sir.”

“You’re welcome.” Etienne looked at Ernie, his lips pressed tight.

Ernie nodded a silent acknowledgment. “Kelly, why don’t you take the kids inside. I’ll be a few minutes.”

Kelly glanced at both men, then quietly took the kids by the hand into the house.

“What’s up, Etienne?” Ernie watched the man squirm slightly. “It’s obvious something’s up. Did I miss a spot on the floors?”

Etienne looked down for a moment. “I need to put you on leave for a while, Ernie. Someone has filed a serious complaint.”

“Who?”

“One of the hot shot engineers working for Devin.” He looked directly at Ernie. “Did you really put your hands on a teenager?”

“Today? That little squabble in the park? I didn’t hit him… I only avoided his attacks. And had them give a drone back to some girl.”

“The report says you knocked him to the ground twice. There are witnesses too.”

“So how long am I on leave?”

“I don’t know. It may be a month or so.”

“What” How am I supposed to live?” Ernie looked around, hands on hips, shaking his head.

“It’s a leave. You’ll still be paid.”

Etienne waited. After a minute he said, “Look, I don’t believe you would do this. But I am forced to look into it. So, take some time for the family. I’ll move it along as quickly as I can. I can’t lose this engineer and I don’t want to lose you. Can you have a little faith in me?”

Ernie studied a lizard on a pole. “Yeah. I trust ya. You’ve always been up front with me.”

“Good! I’ll be in touch. Just keep away from the school or kids for now. Okay?”

“Yeah.” Ernie walked up the steps and into the house.

***

Ernie was up at his usual 3 am. He quietly made his usual thermos of coffee, grabbed a couple breakfast bars and left. After the dampened birthday party and Kelly’s despair last night, he needed to get out for a bit. Instead of his normal route to work, he turned left and headed to the beach. The sound of the waves and wet salt air energized him. His thinking log came into view. His place.

He sat on the log and poured a cup of dark coffee. The same as his family had done after the long crossing from Cuba when he was a boy. His father and uncle made a fire and brewed up a large can of dark coffee. No filter, just water and coffee boiling in the chilly morning. They all needed the heat and energy, so it didn’t settle much. Crunchy coffee. The memory made him laugh.

“Come on, man,” he said aloud. “Shake it off. You’ve been here before. At least Etienne is paying you. Not like that scumbag in Miami who sent ya packing and never paid you what was owed.” He sipped his coffee and shook his head. At least the Corp was there for ya.

He spent part of his last 40 dollars of tip money on a dinner. The diner was across the street from a Marine Corp recruiting station. Three uniformed Marines were having dinner in the booth next to him. Their conversation had the easy flow of family. One of the Marines caught him watching.

Ernie sipped more coffee and stared out at the water as he recalled that night. The Marine stood up and looked at him. Then asked in Spanish if he was doing okay. Turned out he was saved by the Marines. They talked for an hour in the recruiting station. When the station closed, he offered Ernie a “rack” at his house. The next day he signed papers to begin training. He heard years later Gunny Vasquez had been killed in Iraq.

Ernie refilled his cup. The glow on the horizon grew slowly, gilding the waves with light. “Why do all the good guys have to die?” he asked aloud. His dad, Uncle, Gunny Vasquez… all gone. As he took another sip, a voice asked, “Do you always talk to yourself?”

Ernie jumped. His head spun to the sound of the voice. The girl from yesterday stood behind him. She walked over and sat next to him. Not close. In friendly space.

“Well? Do ya?”

“Only when I’m thinking about life and need to figure it out.”

The girl laughed. “Well, we have something in common. I’m Claire.”

“Ernie.”

“Yeah. I know. And I owe ya thanks from yesterday. I would have hurt them but I didn’t want to break my drone.”

Ernie chuckled. “I bet ya could have made them pay.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be working?”

“Normally I would be. But the kids said I beat them so I got suspended.”

“Those assholes!”

“Yeah. One has a big shot dad.”

“I’ll fix it for ya. I’ll tell them what happened.”

“That might help. But it’s still four or more witnesses.”

Claire picked up his coffee cup and took a sip. Ernie gave her a refill.

“That’s pretty strong… damn!”

Ernie just laughed.

“Hey! This is perfect. You can give me a hand. I need someone running another drone to test a move.”

Ernie looked at her. “I’ve never driven one of those.”

“It’s easy. Come on. You can run the sim in the shed. Then we’ll move to the water.” Claire stood and headed to the shed. Ernie tipped the coffee into the sand and followed. As he stood, he noticed a man up on a rise. Watching. Who is that?

***

Ernie twisted and turned his body in tune with the VR goggles’ vision. His drone was running third and he wanted to pass the one ahead. He watched for the landmark rock Claire had showed him months ago, then dove deep as he passed it. The fresh water spring current caught the drone and he passed under the guy. By the turn, he was a full second ahead, firmly in second place as he crossed the finish line.

“YES.” He directed the drone to the extract point. Once he saw the drone was cradled, he shut it down and removed the VR goggles.

Claire came over. “Great race. You rocked it.”

“Thanks. You showed me how.”

“Still a great race,” a man said.

Ernie looked at the guy. “Thank you.”

Claire chuckled. “Ernie, this is Jayanta. He runs the drone program and more.”

Ernie extended his hand. “Nice to meet you, sir.”

Jayanta shook the offered hand. “Nice to meet you, too.” Jayanta held the handshake. “I’ve been watching you. Have you ever thought about flying as a vocation?”

Ernie looked at Claire. She was grinning.

Ernie could only laugh.