The Gentle Giant

Moment

There is a tiny cup next to the wash bin and I use it to gather water and dump it over Casey's head. I try to mimic Evan's behavior, so I don't get soap in Casey's eyes, but I'm far too clumsy with the water and soap and stuff.

Haze usually leans back and washes the soap out of her own hair after I put it in for her.

It takes me a little while to wash Casey and after I'm done, I leave him to wash his body. I put away the shampoo and stuff, stopping to look up when Evan comes over to put his stuff away.

"Nice tubs they got," I say and Evan nods, looking over his shoulder at them. "I wonder what made them spend the money," I say, starting casual conversation.

"I complained."

I pause. He what?

"About the tubs?"

"Yeah. I went to the health services about it. The facility doesn't know for sure it was me, but they suspect. If you could not say anything about it—"

"I won't," I say before he can finish and he nods. "...why'd you do it?"

They'd fire him for sure if they knew it was him... they don't like being forced to make extra expenditures and they surely didn't like one of their employees rating them out to authorities.

Evan shrugs, "The facility doesn't follow a lot of health codes they should be."

"So you go above their head?" I'm not mad for him doing it, but I would never dream of it.

"To do the right thing?" Evan asks me.

"I'm not judging. It doesn't really change anything though. They bought the tubs, but I'm sure they didn't change a lot of other stuff."

"They didn't change half the stuff they got fined for, but those things won't change for a while," Evan says, shrugging.

"How do you know?"

Did they sit him down and talk to him?

"The health department gave me a briefing and filled me in on stuff since I complained," Evan replies. "I knew the facility wasn't gonna change everything."

"But you risked your job by complaining. They would have fired you in a heart beat if they could prove it was you."

"There's always another job opening somewhere. It was the right thing to do."

"But you didn't change anything. You'd risk your job knowing nothing would change?"

"Something did change, Axel. Look, they got tubs," he says, motioning to the wash bins.

"Yeah, but—"

"And the next time I complain they'll probably fix one more thing, and then another, and then another."

"You'll be fired by then," I say.

He shrugs, "Probably... A new job wouldn't be that bad. It would be good to work at a better facility. One with better equipment..."

"You don't care about loosing your job?" My job was the only thing I had before Hazel. I can't imagine throwing it away like this.