{"id":296,"date":"2023-12-17T00:16:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-17T05:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/?p=296"},"modified":"2023-12-17T00:16:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T05:16:08","slug":"speaking-up-in-the-name-of-motherhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/fall-2023\/speaking-up-in-the-name-of-motherhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaking Up in the Name of Motherhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple months ago, Director Zhao fired the work unit\u2019s janitor. That Director Zhao, I bet he had no good excuse to fire her either, but I guess that\u2019s what you can do when you\u2019re the mighty director. Rumor had it that the new janitor, Spring Grass, was hired through some sort of connection to the Director, but honestly, the old janitor didn\u2019t seem to be that great at her job either, so no one really said anything.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spring Grass has actually made quite a name for herself in the short time she\u2019s been here. She\u2019s always hurrying around, mopping the floors and wiping even the stair handrails over and over. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen the floors as clean as now, during my entire time here in the mailroom. Sometimes, when I\u2019m stopping by the offices, I\u2019ll see her sweeping the floors and even cleaning the dust off the leaves of the cubicle plants \u2014 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s even part of the job, either. At the same time, she never seems to get in the way of anyone, always keeping her head low and smiling at everyone that passes by. What a diligent woman, I\u2019ve never seen someone so passionate and devoted to their job as her, even though she\u2019s merely a janitor. City women are never that hard-working, it seems\u2026 maybe she\u2019s from the countryside or used to work in one of the factories a few kilometers out.<\/span><\/p>\n

She has a bit of a peculiar way of going about her day, though. I\u2019ll see her heating up water for all of the employees first thing in the morning. I always have to distribute the papers in the mailroom before everyone else clocks in, so it\u2019s often merely the two of us in the office some mornings. Around noon, we all get our lunch boxes for the day. You know Spring Grass has some connections because she\u2019ll get a lunch box too. I\u2019ve never seen her eat with any employees, which I suppose is normal since she\u2019s just a janitor. But the odd thing is, I don\u2019t ever really see her in the building during our lunch breaks at all. Didn\u2019t really seem like she was skipping her lunch break to work, either.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few weeks back, I decided to eat my lunch box outside since the weather was nicer than usual. And there I saw her, Spring Grass was nearly running along the sidewalk toward the town center, lunch box in hand. I couldn\u2019t even yell out to her to ask where she was going, because she was long gone in seconds. She seemed like she was in quite a rush. Just about an hour later, I see Spring Grass hurrying back to the office building out of breath, looking like she had just run a marathon. With ten minutes left in the lunch break, where had she even gone? She no longer had the lunch box in hand, either. Did she go somewhere else to eat her lunch?<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as she was about to pass me on the way to the office, I stopped her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are you coming from?\u201d I asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I just stopped by home. I\u2019m never too hungry at lunchtime anyways so I drop off my lunch box with my moppets at home every day,\u201d said Spring Grass.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh! I didn\u2019t know you were a mother. How many do you have?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have two moppets, they\u2019re twins, actually. One boy and one girl,\u201d she replied proudly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWow! I have a little girl of my own, too, but my husband usually takes care of her during the day since he doesn\u2019t have to go into the office until after noon,\u201d I said.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was shocked to learn that Spring Grass was actually a single mother. No wonder why she was always in a hurry to get her moppets lunch every day. She told me about how she lived in one of the tube buildings just around four kilometers away. A long way to walk, indeed, but I suppose if I were in her shoes, I\u2019d run the whole way for my little girl, too. Wow, who would\u2019ve thought that the office janitor lived such a busy life? After my conversation with her, I began to see her in a bit of a different light. She wasn\u2019t just any diligent janitor \u2014 every floor she wiped was so that she could put food on the table for her little moppets. Such a pity that she\u2019s probably working for such a low salary, though. I guess that\u2019s as far as one can get without a college degree.<\/span><\/p>\n

These days, I have been getting home from work pretty late, and by the time I finish making dinner for my moppet, she has to skip her lessons or go to them on an empty stomach. It\u2019s such a critical time for her, her final year of middle school. It would be nice to have someone cook dinner before I get home, since her father is still in the office in the evening \u2014 I had the idea of asking Spring Grass to be my maid. After all, our house was on the way from the town center to the office, too, so if she lives near the town center, then it would be better for her to work closer to home, anyways. I was a bit peeved when she rejected my offer, because I was willing to match her salary, but I was also a bit impressed. She told me that her job wasn\u2019t to be a maid and she was perfectly content with the job she had right now. I wonder how someone could be as happy as she is as a janitor. Oh well, maybe I can find another maid in the meantime. Spring Grass would\u2019ve been the perfect candidate, though \u2014 I bet she can cook well, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

————<\/p>\n

Today is the Dragon Boat Festival! Quite exciting, Director Zhao went around and gave everyone ten <\/span>zongzi<\/span><\/i> and ten pickled eggs. It seems as though even Spring Grass got her share, too, she stopped by to drop off her bag in the mailroom. She told me she wanted to save the food for her moppets, so she wouldn\u2019t have to cook dinner tonight. Later that day, the commissioner\u2019s wife stopped by the mailroom. What was she even doing here? I rarely see her in the mailroom, she\u2019s usually in one of the offices for most of the day. I heard she\u2019s a powerful woman, because the commissioner will listen to anything she says. I gave her a polite smile and continued working quietly. God forbid anyone upset her, I remember when one of the employees down the hall was laid off after he got into an argument with her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just then, Spring Grass walked in to get her food. Suddenly, the commissioner\u2019s wife stops her, questioning what she was taking in the bag. Somehow, she had recognized Spring Grass as the janitor, and normally, workers like her usually don\u2019t enjoy the privileges of Director Zhao\u2019s gifts. The commissioner\u2019s wife starts insinuating that Spring Grass is responsible for all the little things that have been going missing in the office. Oh, dear\u2026 I know Spring Grass isn\u2019t a thief, but things won\u2019t be good if I talk back to her. Spring Grass starts getting defensive and standing her ground, and even Director Zhao comes in. I can feel Spring Grass\u2019s gaze toward me, and I feel so guilty. All these years, everyone has allowed the commissioner\u2019s wife to act like a tyrant, but that\u2019s just how life works in the office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spring Grass continues to be defensive. I\u2019m worried for her \u2014 if she gets falsely accused of being a thief, the commissioner\u2019s wife is sure to have her fired. Then how is she supposed to feed her moppets? I couldn\u2019t sit and watch any longer in good conscience and remain a bystander. I finally mustered up the strength to say that I had seen Spring Grass stop by and set the bag down herself. The commissioner\u2019s wife shoots a look at me and I pretend to go back to work. She starts going on about losing her wallet, and Director Zhao takes Spring Grass to his office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After a week, I see her mopping the floors again, this time without a smile on her face. At least she wasn\u2019t fired \u2014 she\u2019s done so much for the office and she\u2019s got two mouths to feed at home, too\u2026 It must be so hard knowing that no matter how much work she does, people like the commissioner\u2019s wife will always see her as nothing more than a janitor. I smile at her and ask how her moppets are. My smile soon drops as Spring Grass tells me about how the girl had suffered a burn and had to go to the hospital. In the midst of all of this, I can\u2019t believe that she also has to worry about her poor moppet, too. She never seems to have it easy, does she.<\/span><\/p>\n

That night, I scoured through our closet and picked out some old blankets and clothes that our moppet had outgrown but were still in good shape. It\u2019s the least I could do, after all. I would\u2019ve thrown out some of the clothes otherwise. I wasn\u2019t brave enough to stand my ground against the commissioner\u2019s wife that day, since at the end of the day, I\u2019m just a mailroom worker, anyway. But as a mother myself, I can only imagine how much more of a burden she faces daily.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple months ago, Director Zhao fired the work unit\u2019s janitor. That Director Zhao, I bet he had no good excuse to fire her either, but I guess that\u2019s what you can do when you\u2019re the mighty director. Rumor had … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2852,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2023"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2852"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/chin427-springgrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}