Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Creativity > Tilted Literature


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 04-19-2007, 06:47 PM   #1 (permalink)
pow!
 
clavus's Avatar
 
Location: NorCal
Adventures of an assistant dishwasher - Part 3

Dishwashing is a team sport. One guy cleans the big, awkward things by hand, while the other guy loads the dishwasher with small stuff. Yes, the dishwashers (human) have a dishwasher (mechanical). It’s a stainless steel cabinet that squats awkwardly at one end of the station. Plates, cups and silverware are sprayed off and loaded into a rack. The rack is slammed into the dishwasher. The door is shut and the minutes later, you have a rack of steaming, clean dishes… Unless you didn’t rinse them well before you loaded the rack. If you got lazy, and hoped the machine would do your job for you, you end up with food cement on the dishes.

So it’s critical to rinse them very fucking well before you feed the dishwasher. And so I did. I hosed down the plates with the goofy spring-loaded nozzle that hangs over the sink, and slapped them into the rack as the dishwasher did its thing. The idea is to have your dirty rack ready when the clean rack pops.

Meanwhile, Doc attacked the sauce pans.

“Good to have you back,” Doc intoned. He stared intently at a stubborn orange lump adhered to his pan. Scrubbing. Scrubbing.

“Me?”

“No. This pan, milkface.”

“I’ve been here every night, Doc.”

“Not all of you. Just most of you. But tonight you are here. 100% It’s good to have you back.”

I knew exactly what he meant. Even though washing dishes is a shitty job, it’s a job. And here I was in the moment, working the job, getting it done. God help me, but I was concentrating on washing the dishes.

This sudden self awareness, and the idea that Doc was aware of it before I was made me defensive.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

taCHUNK! The dishwasher opened and steam poured out. I grabbed the clean rack and turned my back to Doc as I nestled it on a stack of clean racks. I slammed a new rack of cups into the waiting maw of the dishwasher and closed the door.

The pile of filthy dishes in my sink grew while my back was turned. A busser hustled back out of our station.

Relentless. Like the tide.

Hunched over our sinks, we worked in the spray and clatter without speaking for a good two hours. Doc had the ghost of a grin on his face. And with every passing minute I felt a little bit more like an ass.

Before my mind knew what my mouth was doing, I made an awkward verbal lurch for common ground.

“You must have done some pretty amazing drugs when you were a shaman. Did you ever do peyote.”

“Peyote?”

“Ya. The cactus.”

“Peyote?! Do I look like a Ute to you?”

I had no idea what a Ute was, let alone how one looked. I opened my mouth, then closed it. I opened my mouth again. Nothing came out. So I closed it again. I had no idea how to respond, but I was feeling like an even bigger ass now.

Doc stopped working on deep soup pan and looked straight at me. Expressionless at first, then smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. And then he laughed. A radiance spread out from Doc; a brilliant, invisible light shone out of him. A Mexican saint on a velvet tapestry has nothing on Doc when he laughs.

“I’m messing with you,” he grinned. “I’ve eaten peyote.”

“Really?”

“Ya. Really.” His smile slowly hid back in the folds of his face, but his eyes were still bright.

“What else?”

“Sacred mushrooms. Hensbane. Marijuana. Bad bread. Ant venom.”

“What was the best?”

“The ant venom.”

“Really?”

“No. I’m messing with you again. Ant venom makes me sick. Sicker than peyote. I only used it in dire situations.”

Staring hard into the SOS pad in his hand, he stopped smiling altogether. He looked old all of a sudden. An old man. Tired and hunched.

“Even if it was fun… which it wasn’t... I was too busy to enjoy myself. Medicine is hard work. Dangerous work. You go out there. Way out there, and you don’t always come back whole. It’s not like this.”

He slapped the water for emphasis

“This is real. This is easy. When it’s done, I walk away. I never leave any of myself behind. Best job I ever had.”
__________________
Ass, gas or grass. Nobody rides for free.
clavus is offline  
Old 04-20-2007, 05:28 AM   #2 (permalink)
Devoted
 
Redlemon's Avatar
 
Donor
Location: New England
A new Clavus posting?!? Be still my heart!

(obsessive librarian at work: also read Adventures of an Assistant Dishwasher and Adventures of an assistant dishwasher - Part 2.)

This story grows so nicely. Thanks for continuing it.
__________________
I can't read your signature. Sorry.

Last edited by Redlemon; 04-20-2007 at 05:32 AM..
Redlemon is offline  
Old 04-20-2007, 10:08 AM   #3 (permalink)
pow!
 
clavus's Avatar
 
Location: NorCal
Thanks, man! I think there are one or two chapters left.
__________________
Ass, gas or grass. Nobody rides for free.
clavus is offline  
Old 04-20-2007, 11:59 AM   #4 (permalink)
Found my way back
 
healer's Avatar
 
Location: South Africa
It gets better and better! I've been looking out for the next installment for some time now.

Love your work, clavus. Thanks for sharing.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Jazz
Ok - can I edit my posts to read "what healer said"?
healer is offline  
Old 04-20-2007, 03:37 PM   #5 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Location: San Antonio, TX
Yah! Great chapter clavus, keep it up!
robot_parade is offline  
 

Tags
adventures, assistant, dishwasher, part


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 08:27 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360