Scrap People

Date: 8/15/2022

Setting up a new AV Desk at work. Getting my job back from Mark. He's cleaning up equipment in the back. The office chair is filthy, crumbling foam. There is a hard plastic ball in the desk but I can't open it. Finally, I open a tiny hatch. Inside, a metal wheel cog. I spin it and the gears open to release a small bottle of cleaning solution. I pour it over the chair and it bubbles and instantly cleans. Mark assumes it is bad chemicals but I show him the ingredients: apple cyber vinegar and cilantro. "Hmmm," he says. I offer him a ride back to the main campus where we have a meeting at 1. "But I have to stop at my Mom's for lunch. Just 10 min." Haven't seen her for awhile, and I want Mark to meet her because she's dying. He agrees as long as we leave by 12:30. Mom is staying in a dilapidated rental cottage. The kitchen is poorly equipped. I boil water on a rusting stove for instant noodle soup. I turn the oven on to toast some frozen bread but when I open the door, there's an old, plastic coffee machine. Have to take it out but it breaks into pieces. I carry the pieces outside leaving Mark to stir the soup. He is talking to my Mom about an old common law that allows you to kill someone who really deserves it. She is quite lucid today and knows all about that law, knows the politician who championed it and the house where he lived. It is garbage day and dark outside as I carry the old coffee maker to the curb. There are scrap people, an old woman and two middle-aged men with a truck, going through the neighbour's garbage. "You looking for metal?" I ask. One man follows me back to the garage, which I have been cleaning over the Summer. There is a pile of scrap metal. The old man looks at some pieces. "You'd have to clean it first," he says. I spray off pieces of metal with the hose and throw them into the truck. It's late. 1:00. We're late. But the garage looks amazing. I look for a cup to pour my soup into. Mark and Mum have already eaten.