Mister Cleaner or Medical Doctor?

by Chidi Akomah

Overview

Mister Cleaner is excited to start his new job as school janitor. He loves to make things sparkle, shine, and smell fresh! Soon everyone begins to notice Mister Cleaners hard work.

As Mister Cleaner picks up wrappers, rakes leaves, and sweeps around the outside of the school, he thinks about how much he loves the environment and politely asks everyone not to litter. Then Mister Cleaner moves to the kitchen where he wipes tables, scrubs cookers, and mops the floor. Next, Mister Cleaner begins working on the rest of the school. As he removes cobwebs, cleans bathrooms, and dusts handrails, he takes pride in a job well done. Still, as Mister Cleaner is about to discover, not everyone wants to be a cleaner like him.

In this educational tale, a janitor begins a new job at a school as the students around him think so big! The pupils wish to be like the medical doctor, who they consider respectable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491733240
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/11/2018
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Chidi Akomah holds degrees in mathematics and engineering. He lives with his family in UK, and was coincidently born in London.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Cleaning Contractor

David had just arrived. His van came to a stop suddenly. He looked around for Mister Cleaner at Hawks Palace. This was the name of the school that Mister Cleaner was expected to clean every day, except on weekends. David who was cleaning manager was neatly dressed and came in company van he drove.

Mister Cleaner was waiting outside to meet David around the expected time of five o'clock in the evening. Their meeting was for an interview. David had phoned Mister Cleaner earlier, telling him to meet him at the building at the agreed time, after Mister Cleaner applied for the job.

'How are you, Simon?' David asked Mister Cleaner in a calm voice. Mister Cleaner walked into the building. David immediately shook his hand. Mister Cleaner, whose real name was Simon Smith, was shown round the entire building, which he would be cleaning.

He filled in the application forms. David asked him some questions about his passport and national insurance number. Mister Cleaner gave his details to David.

'Can you hoover all around here?' David asked Mister Cleaner, showing him the large area at the reception, which looked untidy. Mister Cleaner, who had been looking forward to the cleaning, grabbed the vacuum cleaner and started cleaning as fast and perfectly as possible. He wanted by all means to please David, considering that there were a lot of applicants who would want the job.

When Mister Cleaner finished vacuuming the floor all around the place, David was satisfied with Mister Cleaner's work and enthusiasm. He gave Mister Cleaner the keys to the building and told him the times he should carry out the work. He then shook Mister Cleaner's hand and gave him the office phone number.

'Phone me whenever there is any problem,' David said.

'All right, sir!' Mister Cleaner replied. David zoomed off to other contract work.

Mister Cleaner stayed behind in the building to finish the work. He emptied all the bins. He looked forward to starting the proper cleaning work in the building the next day.

CHAPTER 2

The Classroom

John had arrived for lessons in the classroom. He was in the class when the teacher was teaching maths. He raised his arm when the class was asked a question on the shapes of objects. He answered the question correctly, and the teacher praised him by saying, 'Well done, John!'

The classroom was actually clean, and not filthy. It was in a different condition than it had been the previous day. All the paper litter and other mess that had been scattered around were all gone! The tile floor was shining. This caught the attention of wise John. He was surprised to the point that he had to run to the head teacher during break time. He wanted explanations from the head teacher on how the classroom became so clean.

He went to the head teacher's office, desperate to get answers to his burning question — how the class got so incredibly clean. His classmates were out playing.

Surprisingly, he did not even see the secretary before he walked into the head teacher's office. He was eager to get an answer to his question. The secretary was surprised herself, looking on in bewilderment while sitting in her chair. Before she could stop John, he had entered to meet a delighted head teacher.

'What is it, young boy?' the head teacher asked in a firm voice. John looked surprised, expecting a rude response from the head teacher because he had walked into his office.

'Can I help you? What can I do for you, young man?' the head teacher said.

'Yes, you can help! I want to find out how the classroom got cleaned,' John said.

'Oh, it is cleaned by our amiable friend Simon ... Is that all?' the head teacher said. 'Did he do a good job?'

'Yes, he did!' John replied.

'All right!' the head teacher said.

John left the office satisfied with the answer to his question. The head teacher was satisfied as well, having spoken to John. The head teacher sat down and continued with his other duties of the day.

Mister Cleaner went to clean the outside.

I do not want to spend much time cleaning the outside. There are other places in the building that I will have to take care of, Mister Cleaner thought. Leaves were scattered everywhere, and the ground was really untidy in the morning.

There was litter from food wrappings that had been dropped on the ground. This made the outside of the building ugly. Mister Cleaner thought of how important it is to clean the outside, in front of the entrance door.

A clean environment on the outside gives a good impression and also a good image. This was a common thought that came to Mister Cleaner.

'Charles, you left your bag!' a parent was saying to her son, whom she had just dropped off at school. She was holding the steering wheel and looking at the backseat. There was the bag which she expected him to carry with him to school.

Charles had walked about two metres. He turned back, walked to the car, and stretched out his hand to collect the bag. The bag was not properly zipped. There were scraps of papers hanging out of it. He went toward the entrance while his mother sped off.

Charles stopped at the front door and ate his sandwich. Mister Cleaner was still sweeping. Charles took a crisp from his bag, ate it, and dropped the wrapper on the ground. Mister Cleaner had now finished sweeping the ground. He saw the wrappers on the ground and was enraged. He called Charles before he could disappear.

'Could you please take the wrappers you dropped on the ground and put them in the bin?' Mister Cleaner asked.

'Oh,' Charles said, having forgotten that he had dropped the wrappers on the ground. He ran to where the wrappers were, picked them up, and put them in the bin. Mister Cleaner was watching from far away, making sure that the wrappers were removed.

The whole area around the front door was clean. Mister Cleaner had used a rake to remove the leaves. He looked at his wristwatch. There was plenty of time. It was morning, around the time school opened. The day before, he had cleaned inside the school building after school lessons.

'Good morning, Mister Cleaner!' said a female teacher who was rushing in.

'Good morning,' Mister Cleaner replied.

The teacher then asked Mister Cleaner if he had seen a bunch of keys. Mister Cleaner went to the cleaning cupboard and fetched a key which he had taken from the floor while he was sweeping. It was an old, rusty key.

The teacher looked at it with surprise. She took the key from him, looked at it, and returned it to him. 'Sorry, it is not this key,' she said. 'I said I am looking for keys, not a key.'

'All right, sorry I cannot help,' Mister Cleaner replied. The teacher went to the front door of her office and then looked into her bag, which was full of all sorts of things. She finally saw the bunch of keys hiding inside her bag. She took it, raised her hand in excitement, and then opened her office door.

Mister Cleaner was finished for the morning. He had prepared the front door for school time. The front area was clean and attractive. It had been cleared of leaves and papers.

CHAPTER 3

Cleaning the Kitchen

There was food waste all over the tables, and the floor was littered with waste as well. There were crumbs and food wrappers on the floor. Mister Cleaner entered the kitchen, not expecting it to be clean. The kitchen was in a real mess, with the cooking area being equally messy.

He started to wipe the tables, bringing the filth down to the floor. He cleaned the cookers thoroughly, both on the outside and inside. They were mucky, with oil and grease covering them.

Mister Cleaner looked at the cookers and could not believe the amount of work he had done to make them sparkle and shine. The cookers had actually had soup, oil, and food waste on and inside them. The sight was disgusting to him, and he felt so relieved when they were clean.

Suddenly he heard the voice of a female chef who had just rushed into the kitchen. 'I am sorry for the mess which we caused.' She had been working there earlier. She forgot her jacket and had come to collect it.

'All right,' Mister Cleaner simply answered, to hide his anger about the dirt that had been left around while she and her mates were cooking. She was a tall, lovely-looking damsel who worked in the kitchen cooking and preparing food.

'Well!' he said as the lady left quickly, going to a waiting car with its engine on. He assumed the driver of the car was her partner. He was tempted to tell her about how good cleaning is important and made him keep the cooker in a sparkling clean state. But she was soon gone; the driver of the car sped off with her.

He soaked a cloth with cleaning liquid and then continued to wipe the tables and worktops. The kitchen became very clean, except the floor. Mister Cleaner's phone, which was in his pocket, rang. He answered it. 'Hello!' he said. 'Sorry for the call,' said a masculine voice. 'I will not take much of your time. I am ringing about the best life insurance for you.'

Mister Cleaner quickly switched off the phone. He wished it had been a phone call from his employer, giving him more cleaning work, and not a call from a boring insurance salesman that only wanted money from him.

As he was going around cleaning, he slipped and nearly fell when he stepped on a banana skin. 'Oh!' he screamed. The kitchen was so quiet; it was the opposite of what it was like when it was busy during school, with the children and staff present. During school, the children screamed their heads off and the staff attended to them.

He managed to sweep up all the dirt, waste, and banana skins with a long brush. It took him a while to do the cleaning. When he finished, he was sweating and breathing heavily. He took the dirt and waste to the bins which were in the corner.

The bins were so full that it amazed Mister Cleaner. He was surprised and at the same time happy to get rid of all the dirt. He thought of how good it was bringing the dirt and waste to a spot where it could be thrown out — or rather, discarded. He then mopped the kitchen to make the tile floor shine.

Mister Cleaner felt like looking over the shining floor many times. Looking at the clean floor together with the other tidied parts of the kitchen gave him the best satisfaction. The floor particularly had changed from having ugly stained patches everywhere to being in a shining state. 'Wow!' he said to himself.

Suddenly he saw a speck of stones that lay far away on the shining floor. Mister Cleaner groaned. He did not want to walk over the shining mopped floor to pick the stones up. He had no choice, so he walked across the floor to remove the stones. He mopped all over again to keep the floor shining.

There were loops and coils of cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, above Mister Cleaner's head. The cobwebs looked like wool, and spiders were living in them. The sight looked too unpleasant to be left untouched.

Mister Cleaner walked to the cleaning cupboard as fast as his legs could carry him. He fetched the long duster, which he would use to remove the cobwebs. As he removed the cobwebs, some of them fell onto his head. He cleared all the cobwebs anyway and gave the room a better look.

He had already been reminded by one of the teachers, whose name was Ruth, about cobwebs lying around. He was taking the duster back to the cupboard when he saw her standing there.

'Have you not gone home yet?' Mister Cleaner asked Ruth in a serious and surprised manner. He expected the school to be empty at that time of the evening

'No, I have not. I am about to show you cobwebs in the ladies' toilet,' she said.

Mister Cleaner looked at her with a bit of surprise on his face. He had not considered removing cobwebs from the toilet. There was other work to be done there, such as washing toilet bowls and shining the taps and mirrors. 'Oh! All right, show me then,' he said with much confidence, willing to remove the cobwebs straight away. Ruth walked with him down to the toilet. He was shocked at the amount of cobwebs that lay on the walls and ceiling.

'Sorry, I never saw this. I have been missing this,' Mister Cleaner said. He put his hand over his face and squeezed it, contorting his face in shame. Ruth was marking homework, so she stayed behind for extra time.

Mister Cleaner went straight to the cleaning cupboard, got the duster, and went to clear the cobwebs on the walls and ceilings. Before he could finish, Ruth had gone. He thought she had gone home, but instead she had gone to her office. He did not have the opportunity to show her his good work after clearing the cobwebs.

He was about to go do some other work in the school building when he heard a lady screaming. He was shocked because he thought there was no one in the building. He went to the room nearby where the screaming was coming from. There was Ruth, standing and pointing to a big spider on the wall. Mister Cleaner pushed the spider to the floor and stamped on it.

'Is that it?' Mister Cleaner asked.

'Yes, it is!' she replied while shaking.

'I thought you had gone. I did not know you were still around,' he said.

'Well, I am leaving now anyway. Thank you, Mister Cleaner.' She then left.

Mister Cleaner moved off to do some other work in the building — cleaning the classroom sitting area.

CHAPTER 4

Cleaning the Sitting Area

Mister Cleaner walked into a classroom. It was a very large area, and it was a mess. The space around the classroom was dwarfed by the number of desks and chairs. Most of the space at the centre was occupied by chairs and desks. The chairs and desks gave him an idea of the number of pupils that were in the class. He was prepared to clean the classroom, but not as much as the sitting area. The cups were scattered on the tables. There were spills from cups on a few tables. The floor was sparsely covered with tiny papers and crisps.

'Do as much as possible to make the place look tidy and clean,' said David, his boss, in a low and commanding tone. This was actually Mister Cleaner's first week at the job. He was looking while David was talking. He was surprised David was still around to spy on his work. The bins were full, and the room had not yet been cleaned.

'All right!' he quickly said back to David.

David then left.

David wanted to give a good start right at the beginning.

Mister Cleaner did not know that David would not always have the time to come around to check his cleaning. It was an opportunity for David to give a good start.

There were many cobwebs on the ceiling. They looked a bit thorny, like a bushy grass. The spiders were nestled comfortably in them. Mister Cleaner got the long duster from the cleaning cupboard. He struck the cobwebs so hard that they were all removed from the ceiling.

Mister Cleaner took his mobile phone from his pocket and then called his partner. Her name was Sharon. She answered the phone. Mister Cleaner's voice made clear that he was very tired.

'I will be in the house a little late,' he said. 'I will buy the butter and bread you asked for.'

Sharon was not expecting the phone call, because she was tired. She was taking care of their three young children. 'All right!' she muttered, and then she dropped the phone.

A little later Mister Cleaner found a large area of dust that had settled on the window ledges. It had been caused by the cobwebs on the ceilings that had dropped off while he was clearing them.

There was a bath next door to the sitting area that, of course, needed to be cleaned. The bath was used by both the staff and the students. The whiteness could still easily be seen — it was glaring. Mister Cleaner took the scourer and started removing the thick scum around it. It was quiet at that time of the day, when most of the teachers and all of the pupils had left the school. It did not take him much time to finish up the cleaning. The bathroom was glittering and appealing by the time he finished.

Mister Cleaner walked into the sitting room only to see the carpets littered with papers, tiny stones collected from the soles of shoes, and wrappers of snacks and biscuits.

'I wonder why on earth these wrappers are not put in the dustbin,' Mister Cleaner said to himself.

There was a young man in the sitting room who was sitting hopelessly and relaxing as well. Mister Cleaner greeted him by saying, 'Hi!'

'How are you?' the young man replied.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Mister Cleaner or Medical Doctor?"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Chidi Akomah.
Excerpted by permission of iUniverse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Chapter One Cleaning Contractor, 1,
Chapter Two The Classroom, 5,
Chapter Three Cleaning the Kitchen, 13,
Chapter Four Cleaning the Sitting Area, 22,
Chapter Five Cleaning the Toilets, 32,
Chapter Six The Storeroom, 40,
Chapter Seven Using the Scrubber, 46,
Chapter Eight The Window Cleaner, 53,
Chapter Nine Finishing Off, 60,
Chapter Ten Medical Doctor, 65,
Chapter Eleven Veterinary Doctor, 77,
Chapter Twelve The Loud Praise, 84,
Chapter Thirteen The Refuse Man, 90,
Chapter Fourteen Big Surprises !!!, 100,
Chapter Fifteen Healed, 111,
Meaning Of Some Words Used, 119,
Questions, 123,
Answers, 125,