On break

            On the way to work today something alarming happened.

I was on the subway. I was watching one of those historical documentary TV ads. It was early. The cabs weren’t too crowded yet.

There was a pretty woman holding a baby--and beside her, an out of the ordinary looking man shouting at a slightly older, slightly less pretty version of the woman with the baby.

This continued for a moment and was mildly annoying.

Bump, bump, bump. The subway was getting busier. Bump, bump, bump. Whether it was from the annoying argument or the unpleasant ride, I can’t say, but that baby burst out crying as if in pain.

The shrieks dulled the senses of everyone in the cab. All eyes watched. It became clear to me that the man and women weren’t from around here. I could hardly tell what they were saying.

The man began screaming at the baby for a time. I couldn’t tell what he was saying at all though. It was uncomfortable to watch. The woman who held the baby eventually got him to stop.

When I got off the subway I lost myself in work.      

Clinophobia is the fear of beds

       Chaka took Ray and I to her parent’s house for vacation. They live to the south in a small place. We stayed two days then came back to the city.

Ray took this picture of me at the train station on the way home. He tried too hard to get me to smile. Ray is funny like that. Chaka and I don’t talk about him much. Her parents made Ray sleep by himself.

Chaka says I talk in my sleep. She says she caught me mumbling something that sounded like; “swan meridian,” whatever that means. I can never remember my dreams.

  

: p

Surubami Pt. 2

“Shinta make the baby shut up!”

“Can’t you see I’m trying Ninamori!”

            And he was, but the baby was obviously hungry and the crying couldn’t be helped while Sue-Sue was asleep. Sue-Sue had been asleep in the next cabin since they’d left. She needed her rest though. I don’t want the crying to wake her, Shinta thought.

            “And another thing Shinta, why are you taking us to Surubami! Don’t you think you’d have better luck finding work in Shandong or Wuxi?”

Shinta didn’t reply. Why Sue-Sue had insisted on bringing her sister was beyond him. She could rot on that toxic farm for all he cared. He was getting Sue-Sue and the baby out.

“If you thought that at the station Ninamori then why did you even come?”

Ninamori’s face went indignant and was about to burst into argument but then, as quickly as she’d gone sour, she thought better of it and did her best to ignore Shinta.

They’d been on the train for over three hours and were all starting to get edgy.  

Surubami Pt. 1

I live in a city called Surubami. It was designed by the government as an industrial zone on the outskirts of the bigger cities. Not much happens here.

I work at the Dynaconn Silicon and Aggregates Refinery Plant. Dynaconn is a subsidiary of Medical Mechanica. Medical Mechanica is a ninety-five percent market share. 

Every day I wake up in Surubami and see the steam coming from the State Grid freighters on the Koenma River. And each day I take the subway across the river to the Yingli district for work.

The steam and smoke from the refinery plant make it hard to see past Surubami. I’ve never been to the mountains or out to sea. I sometimes wonder if my life happened a long time ago and now my memories are stuck here in a cloud. I tell Chaka this at lunch and she leaves her mark on me. She just says not much happens here. 

wake up sleepy guy!

On the chuchu train!

:p

sleepy guy by my shoulder is sleepy!

Electrics

            I had work off last weekend so I went to visit my brother in Shandong.

            I arrived Saturday night and we went out to dinner. The evening went great until I spilled hot-red sesame oil on my now ruined cream dress. Just above the waistline, the dress is smudged with blotches of beet red fabric mutations. The stain will undoubtedly be a bitch to get out.

           

            On Sunday, Allen had to go into work early so he took me along and then dropped me at the train station during lunch so I would get back for work Monday.

            Allen operates machinery at a jet engine assembly factory called Electrics. He tells me he operates a winch and moves different turbofan parts. He says Electrics primarily configure two-spool turbofans, on which both the fan and LP spool are mounted on a LP shaft running to aforementioned spool. I don’t really know what this means, but I smile and pretend to be mildly interested to please Allen. He says the company is actually a subsidiary of a Dutch company called Silverwing. Says Europeans over engineer these things.

            I took a quick picture of the factory. It was forbidden but no one was around.