Delfinia Baranco was a Beautiful Woman

Esther Cohen

Delfinia Baranco is a beautiful woman. Not just pretty. She was beautiful in the painterly way, memorable and eternal, and it wasn’t only a feature or two. All of her was beautiful from

her long long hands to the elegant way her ears, not too large and not too small, sat on her wel l shaped head. If you were to guess her profession – say you saw her buying vegetables at the super market, or choosing plants at Home Depot, you wouldn’t guess Cleaning Lady.

She’d been cleaning houses for 26 years throughout Schoharie County, a poor region with lavish green hills every single summer and wildflowers that rivaled the Tuscany fields.

Sometimes when she went to meet with prospective buyers of her cleaning services, women, always women, would ask in a way that they didn’t intend to be condescending: What Else Do You Do, hoping maybe for an unexpected semi-exotic answer such as I Fly Airplanes or I Raise Tigers to Sell or Orchids are my Real True Passion. When she told them the truth, which she sometimes did, that she actually liked cleaning, loved it even under the right circumstances, and that her primary job was homeschooling her three kids, these women, educated, well-enough intentioned to know not to offend, would nod. But they wouldn’t know what else to say.

On occasion they would ask about her husband: did she have one? And did he work? And if

he worked, what is it that he did?

She’d tell them about Michael, and then, she’d ask them, in a way they didn’t usually anticipate, to tell her about their husbands too.

What she said about Michael was this:

He’d been a model as a boy in Youngstown Ohio a steel mill town and an ad agency found him playing baseball in high school. He was lanky said Delfinia. Lanky and familiar looking, like so many movie stars she explained.

In a small college in Pennsylvania, where he was on a full football scholarship, he found Jesus.

Jesus, Michael explained to Delfinia when they met at church – she’d grown up in the town where he was in college, and she was working in the diner when they met – Michael explaned to Delphinia that Jesus would save them both.

And she, beautiful even then, was glad to be saved. From the small town, from the diner, from life at home with her ordinary family.

Michael was not ordinary. He had visions. He had promise. He knew he was wanted by God. And by association so was she.

They got married in a beautiful 200 year old Evangelical church that Michael chose. Their close relatives came.

All this Delfinia recounted as though she’d never told her story before. She told it as though it were new. Her employers, women with good jobs and second homes, were unaccustomed to stories like hers. And she knew that. She knew more about them than they knew about her.

She read their books.

Always surprised that she’d read every single Jane Austen word.

One day a cleaning customer, an older woman, maybe a psychiatrist maybe a therapist Delfinia

wasn’t sure, one day the older woman who called herself Dr. Schleiger although her first name was Emily, Dr. Schleiger said to Delfinia

Let’s sit in the yard and talk.

She thought at first she’d done something wrong.

The Dr. carried a beautiful old Syrian tray into the yard, laden with supplies:

cookies and a tea pot and thin antique cups painted with flowers and dates on a bright yellow dish. She placed it carefully on a green slate table, and they sat facing one another.

Delfinia was confused by this. What did the doctor want?

Could this be an impromptu therapy session?

When she started cleaning houses her husband, as unexpected as she was, he borrowed a movie called The Servant. Who is the Servant and Who is the Master? It’s not always an easy answer.

She met women who were busy, women who were incurious, women who said hello as though they had no choice. Sometimes they’d ask her to tell them about her kids. She found that

Hard, and never knew quite what to say.

Dr. Schleiger looked official, imposing, surgical even. She looked as though she had a very specific job to do. On the day that she invited Delphia for outside tea, she was wearing a well ironed blue linen dress. A dress that loosely covered her body without much of a clue

to her body.

Delphinia, had the confidence of lifetime beauty, a beauty that didn’t matter all that much

to her although she knew it was there, Delphinia who had long limbs, long fingers, body easy to picture wearing a simple bathing suit, standing on a diving board as graceful as a high flying bird, Delphinia could glide into the water, glide across a field, glide into any room. Purposeful didn’t matter much to her.

They sat down underneath an old old Gingko tree, leaves as light as a green feathers. They were on perfectly painted green summer chairs, a table between them holding the tea,

and the cookies, everything Dr. Schleiger had intended.

Tell me about yourself Dr. Schleiger began.

Only if you’ll do the same said Delphinia. She wasn’t shy. She wasn’t intimidated. And she was actually curious about Dr. Schleiger. Her clients did not usually ask her to sit down with them. They’d give her cold drinks or coffee or tea, tell her to feel free to eat, offer her a bowl of soup or a piece of cake. Ask the usual questions.

How are your children they might say, waiting for her quick answer. Which was always fine because she knew that fine was what they wanted to her.

Sometimes she’d provide an irrelevant detail:

Chase is playing soccer now.

Ella is getting married in a year.

Douglas get into SUNY Albany.

But mostly she said less than that.

I’m trying to understand said Dr. Schleiger. Who you are and who we are together. I’m writing a paper on work and working and workers and want to examine all work relationships. I thought I’d start with ours she said.

Do we have a relationship asked Delphinia.

Dr. Schleiger looked confused. Don’t we? She asked.

Employer and employee is a very specific relationship Delphinia explained. You give me a paycheck.

Have some tea Dr. Schleiger said. Hers was not a graceful pivot.

What kind is it asked Delphinia?

Rooibus from South African Dr. Schleiger explained.

Delicious Delphinia replied.