A Complete Clean-Out, but Leave the Chandelier by David ...

A Complete Clean-Out, but Leave the Chandelier

by David Macpherson

inspired by the photograph Untitled (Windows), 2010, by Lynne Cohen

Martha shoved the last box into the back of the truck, told Quiet Stu to make sure everything was secure and went back to the building to make sure everything was clean and finished. She entered the great room to find her sister Emily staring at the windows. "It's just not right," Emily said.

The room was large and the clean-out took all night. It was dawn and the large row of windows was letting in the dull light. It wasn't the light of a beautiful morning, it was the nagging hangover of a night that went on too long.

It was a standard clean-out, just bigger. Emily and Martha hired out for these jobs because they were fast and precise. If a long con needed to empty out their fake law firm, or make- believe IRS office in a day, the sisters would get the call. For the big ones, they brought Quiet Stu; he was huge and never stopped moving things. When the marks showed up, if they showed up, to get their money back, all they found was an empty room. The girls were good at hollowing things out. They either sold the stuff or put it back in storage for the next time a con needed an antique globe of the world, or a leather divan, whatever the hell that was.

This place was in foreclosure. The con crew set it up that the marks only went into the great room to be thoroughly impressed. Only this room and the hallway were set dressed. "It's just not right," Emily said again, "we clean out houses. We make things empty. This is not how it should be."

"You agreed to doing this job. You approved it. You were the one to accept the orders. Clean- out the whole site, but leave the chandelier." Martha, feeling dramatic, raised her hand to point at the large glass tile chandelier. The light from the windows stuck and flared on the glass tiles, like heat lightning from a distance.

Emily sneered. "Yeah, I agreed to it. The money was good, the timeline was decent. You like it when we're working. But that order, leave the chandelier, it didn't really bother me until now. Look at this. Look at what we done. This place is flawless. It's null. There is nothing here. Can you imagine if the mark comes in and sees this emptiness, that's part of the fun of this line of work. But leave the chandelier? That just ruins the whole effect. I know this is just a piece of the long con, but can't we take pride in what we do? Can't we see this as artful?"

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"Come on Em. That's too much, and you know better. Maybe the chandelier is important to the con. Maybe its one more slap in the face of the mark. We don't know, we don't know the players. We don't know the play. Which is alright by me." "I can accept I don't know all the details. But see it through my eyes. I am seeing an unfinished job. I'm seeing one thing that doesn't belong." Martha looked at the blank interior landscape with chandelier. "Sure, but I am pleased as a pigmy to not having to wrestle that ugly thing into the truck." "We could have done it." "Yeah we could have done it, but I'm happier we don't have to. Leave the chandelier they say, I say alrighty and don't ask questions." Emily said, "You're right. But it doesn't feel proper. I ain't going to give them the money back, but I feel this ain't doing the full job." Martha looked behind her. "And part of the job is leaving before the mark or anyone else shows." Emily nodded but didn't move. She smiled, moved her hand around her tool belt. She pulled out the hammer. "They said leave the chandelier, but didn't specify that it be in one piece." Martha knew to not say anything. She watched as her sister lunged at the swinging glass tiles. Emily batted the thing like a it was a steel fortified pinata. Nothing broke. Nothing shattered. It sang like an angry windchime, but it didn't break. Emily lowered her hammer arm and said, "Hell with it. The job is done. Let's go." The sisters left. The chandelier swayed for several minutes, until even it was exhausted from the incomplete nature of things and settled back into still life.

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