Dream with premonition

The easiest bathroom stall to change in is the handicapped one at the end of the row. After the first week or two I frequently found the handicapped stall to be occupied by a pair of black pumas with the white stripes that wrap over the toe. A few times in the afternoon I’d go to the stall and find them there too, when I wanted to change back. Sometimes you’d hear tv coming from in there or snoring. Dave said I might as well use a different bathroom altogether because that guy is always in there and a while back he went in that stall once and found three or four paper cups balanced on the bar bolted to the wall, full of water, just sitting there. The guy is the custodian. I thought he might be a contractor. He’s not always in there anymore and now whenever I ride in I can rely on that stall being available. I even had a dream where I was in that bathroom and the custodian emerged wearing top-of-the-line hiking gear, carrying a modern lightweight hiking pole, prepared to set out on a long hike. I went from being annoyed and skeptical of the black pumas wearer to impressed and respecting of them. Even the way he occupies space in the cafeteria has earned my respect. He sits at the single round table pushed up against the chrome cased support with his earbuds in and meal spread out on the table in from of him with the pumas extended out at the same angle they would be inside the handicapped stall. One time another custodian passed him and greeted him as if they hadn’t seen each other in months. They sat at the table together and caught up in Spanish. Sometimes I bike to work, sometimes I take a shuttle service the company contracts out and a few times I’ve used Uber at my own expense. One evening I received a call from the HR department informing me I had ridden with a van driver who had tested positive for COVID-19. It was determined I was not exposed to an immediate medical risk and the entire shuttle operation was suspended immediately. I was given permission by my manager to use a car service to commute in on the following day. For my commute home I ordered an Uber since it’s less expensive and because the car service driver in the morning had only partially practiced safety precautions, while expressing a conspiracy based opinion. I marked the pickup location in the Uber app for outside the security gate and began walking to the location. On the application map I could see the driver originate from the large parking lot at the rear of the building, inside the security perimeter. When I got in the car I recognized the driver as the custodian who wears the black pumas with the white strips that wrap over the toes.