She was useless. Oh, how useless?

Emma scrubbed away at the dishes, the pots, the pans. The grime wouldn't come out. A headache was slowly forming, building its way up like a tsunami. Her manager told her to be quick, but how could she when the dirt wouldn't even come off? How could she when she felt the need to scrub every centimeter of every pan, of every dish? How could she when every couple of dishes the plastic gloves protecting her skin would rip allowing dirty dish water to slosh on her exposed skin?

Emma hung her head down, defeated. Pat would enter the back any moment to check up on her new employee. Emma knew that much. The thought of Pat scolding her was enough to cause her cheeks to redden. How useless was she? She couldn't even complete a simple dish washing task without worrying, without obsessing.

She lifted her head and pretended she was washing aggressively and swiftly when she heard the squeak squish of Pat's sneakers drawing closer to the back room. Not done yet? Her heart rate accelerated. She began to stutter, "N-n-no. Juh-just a luh-little bit left. Sorry, Pat-"

"It doesn't need to be perfect."

It does need to be perfect.

"I'm s-sorry. I can't help it." Emma looked into the soapy water.

"You can help it. Just do the task and be done with it. Dishes shouldn't take more than thirty minutes," Pat complained.

Emma let a solitary tear escape a wide eye and watched the large ripple in the murky water. Why couldn't she be normal? Why couldn't she get over all the little messes? Why couldn't she get over the need to have everything perfectly arranged, the need to cleanse everything that she deemed contaminated? In this world, people don't care about order and tidiness. They care about completion.

Emma looked up to her boss with watery eyes, "I know. I'm trying. I really am."

She didn't want to be useless anymore.

She wanted to make a difference.

"I believe you. Don't worry. You'll be faster at dishes by the time I'm done with you, kid. Now get to work." With that, Pat made her exit.

Emma let out a sigh of relief.

She could do this, she could endure.

A/N: Thank you for reading. I hope it was a pleasure. I would appreciate your reviews if you'd care to spend a minute. I'd love to hear, or rather read, your critiques.

Long days and pleasant nights.

~Cheech

Happy Holidays!