19. Part-Time Job IV
[Albert's flashback begins]
The stifling humidity and musty fishy smell filled the entire space, making it hard to breathe. They grabbed slippery squid heads flattened by the primary slide and put them into the conveyor belt. The squid heads passed through the slice roll, were pressed and cut lengthwise, then placed in square baskets with holes. Watching the murky mucus flowing out with squid pieces like sewage made them vow never to order squid sashimi as a side dish again.
It had been just over a month since they started working at a squid processing plant in Mazhir. The construction site they had previously worked at no longer contacted them, and living expenses were gradually running out. They saw a job posting for squid processing plant workers in a small coastal town called Gli near the eastern coast, and started working from the day they arrived without even needing an interview.
The three were assigned to different tasks: dismantling work of grabbing squids one by one and laying them flat on the iron plate conveyor belt to fit the mold, slicing work of finely cutting squids separated into two pieces, and waste disposal work of gathering squid innards in one place and taking them to the waste disposal site—these three places. In particular, the waste disposal work that Thick Lips was assigned had a terrible stench, and even with a nose plug, the smell was so overpowering that he wore three masks layered on top of each other. During breaks, he smoked near the yard overlooking the sea, smoking more heavily than usual, grumbling that this was not a smell humans could handle and that he needed a gas mask, while the afro and Albert giggled and laughed.
After work, they returned to nearby lodgings and ate a few squids they brought from the day's work with strong liquor. Under the starlight shining in the pitch-black night sky, listening to the sound of quietly rolling waves, they enjoyed that moment. When moonlight illuminated the water surface in the distance, the undulation of seawater could be seen, and where the bright moonlight met the water surface, there was a strange feeling that they could disappear into another world. They didn't want to worry anymore about the complicated future. It wasn't so bad for days to just pass like that.
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That day, the sky was dark and gloomy with clouds from morning. Since it was a weekend, workers didn't come to work, and the factory owner called the three resting at their lodgings to request factory cleaning. They grumbled about not being able to rest on the weekend, but couldn't refuse when he said he'd pay double the daily wage.
They wandered around every corner of the factory all day collecting waste. When they opened the sewer cover, squid fragments mushy in sewage were scattered everywhere, making them dry heave just from looking. Thick Lips said it seemed they had been tricked by the owner's scheme. During the month of operating the factory, they had never seen proper cleaning done. They roughly finished the visible areas and went outside to smoke.
In the late afternoon, the owner who had gone out and returned looked around the factory. Just when they were watching each other nervously, worried about having cleaned roughly, the factory owner surprisingly had a bright expression and said they had worked hard. Then he asked them to finally clean the inside of the waste disposal tank. At first they tilted their heads wondering what this meant. That was because they had never seen anything called a waste disposal tank. The factory owner, reading the three's expressions, told them to follow him and headed to the waste disposal site.
The waste disposal site still had a rotten smell that stung their noses. The factory owner opened an iron lid on the concrete floor. Then a square space large enough for one person to enter appeared, with a ladder connected to the bottom. The owner said he had called a waste disposal truck the other day to take away the waste, so the inside should be empty. But the inside of the tank was dark and not clearly visible from outside. The owner smiled apologetically, saying he'd give them a lantern so they should just go inside and give it a quick water cleaning. Thick Lips stuck his head into the tank entrance and pulled his face back making a 'ugh' groan. It was called a waste tank, but this was no different from asking them to clean an excrement tank. Thick Lips told the owner the work was difficult. Then the owner told them not to worry, saying he had gone inside to clean several times himself. He also said if they wore masks, it probably wouldn't smell as much as they thought. When Albert said that with this much smell, shouldn't they have gas masks instead of regular masks, the owner laughed saying what gas mask, calling him a funny friend and patting his arm. When they continued to hesitate about cleaning, the owner, perhaps sensing the situation, took out bills from his pocket, counted the numbers, handed money to each of the three, told them to finish cleaning quickly and go rest, then returned to his office.
The three surrounded the tank entrance and fell into worry. They couldn't gauge how deep the tank was, and couldn't confirm if there were contents inside. When Albert said maybe they were raising a madman inside, Thick Lips said the owner was making them madman bait, saying this was the owner's conspiracy. The afro looked at the two as if pathetic and smoked. Thick Lips suggested they just lie to the owner that they had cleaned it. Since the inside of the tank was pitch black, it wouldn't be clearly visible whether they had cleaned or not, and they had already received the day's wages. But since they still needed to work here for another month or two, the owner would eventually find out they had lied, and then the relationship would become awkward, which felt burdensome. The afro said they should just quickly go inside as the owner said, spray some water roughly on the wall near the entrance, and leave. Then the three played rock-paper-scissors to decide one person to clean, and Thick Lips lost.
After changing into factory work clothes and wearing three masks layered, as he stepped on the small ladder in the square hole, he felt like his body was gradually, gradually falling into a toilet bowl. The two had pitiful expressions while preparing the fire hose and getting ready to hand it down. As Thick Lips descended further down into the black hole, his figure soon disappeared. After a few seconds of silence, a scream came from below. When the two stuck their faces into the black hole, the lantern clicked on and they could see Thick Lips who had reached the bottom. He said there was nothing but the whole place was squid sewage and started cursing. The two giggled and laughed, then lowered the fire hose down. Albert asked how it was inside, but without an answer, the fire hose kept being pulled down.
Inside the tank was like a pitch-black cave with not a speck of light entering. On the walls, squid residue stuck like hardened boogers. He couldn't understand why on earth the factory owner was telling them to clean here. It would be natural for a tank containing waste to smell, and cleaning here didn't seem like this stench would easily disappear. When he opened the fire hose valve, water began to spray out. He shone the lantern here and there while spraying water. He had cleaned bathrooms many times as a child, but even he wouldn't have known he'd end up going inside an excrement tank as an adult. At this absurd situation, he let out a bitter sigh. He questioned himself how badly he must have done in his previous life to reach such a arduous state of life. The smell was so toxic his nose seemed already numb, and the air inside the tank was very heavy. He kept washing the dirty walls with water. He became short of breath and his mind gradually became hazy.
Outside, nothing was visible except the sound of Thick Lips spraying water. Judging by the watering sound coming periodically, it didn't seem like the owner was raising a madman. The small entrance that initially felt like an excrement pit started to feel just like a passage as they kept being there. Anyway, since Thick Lips had worked hard today, they thought they should comfort him when he returned.
After some time passed, the water spraying sound stopped. The cleaning seemed roughly finished. Albert shouted asking if cleaning was done. Inside the tank was quiet. The afro shouted asking if he had become a squid inside. But no sign was felt. After several minutes of silence, the afro told Albert to try pulling the fire hose. Albert began reeling in the fire hose. They felt something strange. The fire hose reeled in quickly and soon the nozzle began to come up. The afro, as if having decided something, took a deep breath and stuck his face into the pit, starting to shine the lantern here and there. In his view, only squid sewage was visible. When he put his body in further and illuminated the far area, in the distance something that couldn't be identified as either human or squid grave was stuck to the floor in the squid sewage.
The afro let out a scream of 'ah', pulled his head back up, took a breath, then stepped on the ladder as is and went down into the pit, running deep into the tank. Albert realized something had gone wrong with Thick Lips. He was flustered and didn't know how to handle that moment. He thought about jumping into the pit following the afro, but thinking that if both went wrong, someone needed to be outside to request rescue, he waited.
From inside came the sound of squid sewage being pushed as if some object was being dragged. What came out of the darkness was the afro dragging Thick Lips. Thick Lips seemed unconscious, his body hanging limply without strength. The afro shouted at Albert telling him to receive Thick Lips. He put his body deep into the pit and grabbed Thick Lips's upper body with both hands. When the afro grabbed the lower body from below and pushed up little by little, Thick Lips gradually, gradually came up to the ground. Albert squeezed out all his strength and pulled Thick Lips, and only then could he completely escape the pit.
The two collapsed on the floor. Albert breathed roughly, but Thick Lips seemed completely unconscious, showing not the slightest movement. Albert didn't know why he had fainted, but hesitated whether to give artificial respiration or not, then slapped his cheeks mercilessly to wake him. But like a dead person, he showed no reaction. Not knowing what to do and flustered, he thought he should request rescue from the owner and ran to the office. The owner was startled and made an emergency call, then ran to the waste disposal site with Albert.
There, only Thick Lips who had escaped from the pit earlier was sprawled out as before. Albert thought about where the afro might have gone, then realized and stuck his face into the pit. The afro was hanging limply, gripping the ladder with one hand. Albert went into the pit, held the afro, and shouted to the owner. The owner ran over in surprise and supported the afro, and he used all his strength to grab the afro's legs and lift. When the afro escaped the pit, Albert also grabbed the ladder to climb up, but something went ping and his head began to feel dizzy. Suddenly strength drained from his whole body, then his legs gave out and he sat down. The owner shouted at Albert to come out quickly, but he could no longer move his body. He knew he had to get out, but his vision split into two, three pieces and became blurry.
In the pitch-black waste tank, he slowly lost consciousness.
[Albert's flashback ends]