It’s 1985.

You’re in High School and you just got this new job at a Variety Store by your high school. The pay isn’t bad. You’re working for this Korean family. The parents don’t speak that much English, and they’ve got 2 sons.

There aren’t many asian people in this area of town really. The older son is 10 years old and goes to school up the street from the store. He gets into a lot of fights. People calling him names because he looks different.

The little one’s got this great big head.

You go to work a couple times a week. You spend most of your time mopping floors, restocking shelves, moving glass bottles, and all kinds of other tasks. Then you get yelled at for not doing them properly, sometimes in Korean, and then you redo everything.

But there’s this one day when you get to work, and it’s especially busy at the store. The little son is sitting by the magazine rack reading Archie comics. Except he can’t read yet. He’s just looking at the pages of Betty and Veronica in bikinis at the beach. There is line ups of customers, and stock-outs on shelves here and there that require immediate filling.

Then the little guy gets up from his stool by the magazine rack and tells his mom that he has to go ‘poo’. The little big headed kid can’t wipe his own bum yet. He runs to the back and makes his way down the stairs. It’s pretty busy though. His mom is busy at the cash.

Who’s gonna go wipe his ass?

His mom says to you ‘Allan’. You say ‘Yes?’ obediently though you know you’re not going to like the next request she makes of you.

You make your way downstairs, and theres the little big headed kid sitting on the edge of the toilet with his pants at his ankles. He sees you. He realizes you’re not his mom. He kind of hesitates. You grab for the toilet paper, grab the end piece, and do a rolling motion with your hands. Kind of like when a referee calls traveling in basketball. Except you do more rotations. Way more rotations because you want as many layers of toilet paper between your hand and this little kid;s shit stained ass.

The kid sees you preparing, and you finally make your first step into the light. He says the toilet paper on your hand and knows why you here. He leans forward slowly reaching for the floor. Then as his hands reach the ground, he raises his ass in the air like he’s gonna hike a football. You could only wish this was a game of football. This was the beginning of the rest of your life.

***

He still works for us by the way, and he’s probably the only reason the store is still even open. I’ve talked about him quite frequently in my Livejournal.

I don’t know why I remembered this particular story. I find it especially finally when you’re put in his 17 year old shoes. Maybe it was some sort of test of loyalty my mom was putting him through. I guess he passed.

November 8th, 2006 | Flashback

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