Jin awoke with a startle, their sleepy brain completely convinced they had just fallen a great height. Heart pounding, sweat coated Jin was even shaking slightly. Slowly, they patted the cracked leather beneath them, and realized that yes, they were still in their car. A look out the window revealed it wasn’t even dawn yet.
“What the hell was that dream…” Jin lay back and stared at the tattered cloth roof of their vehicle. That dream had seemed very real, but then, it always did. Then again, who was Jin to know? They’d never been in an airplane before, let alone one in the middle of some unknown war. That strange old man, with his beaked nose and his weird words. Lost souls circling the drain. That was a line to remember, though Jin would try their best to forget it. They felt that way every day of their life; it wouldn’t work to keep that kind of sentiment in their head in words. Same thing about “Finding your worth”. The world had decided what Jin was worth a long time ago, and it wasn’t much.
Time to catch more sleep. Jin shut their eyes again and dropped back into an exhausted slumber. The next time they woke was to the beeping of the old watch on their wrist. 6 am on the nose.
“Ugh. Five more minutes.” Sleep was good when you could get it. But no, it was time for another day of hell.
Jin clambered out of the car and grabbed a small duffel bag. This was the important stuff – wallet, keys, and work uniform. Everything else could be lost. Slinging it over their shoulder, they headed for the school.
Barclay Waterfront University wasn’t a terrible place in the early hours. There were only a few students milling around. Mostly TAs and adjunct professors getting coffee and breakfast. Jin, with their ring of maintenance keys, had mostly full reign of the place. No one questioned the keys, even less the uniform. Access to most of the campus helped keep up the illusion that Jin was just a normal employee, and not someone two steps from being on the street entirely.
This morning’s destination was the gym. Unlocking and slipping in, they showered as quickly as possible to keep from running into anyone else. Cleanliness was tantamount to being seen as human. Body odor was one of those things even nice people didn’t tolerate, and Jin showered whenever they could. It wasn’t daily, unfortunately, but luckily there was a lovely invention called deodorant. There was no time to bask under the water; in, out and on to the next thing was the goal.
Properly clean and dressed, Jin clocked into work with a few minutes to spare. Their boss was hanging by the time clock as usual, eyeing employees and watching like a hawk for anyone late. Jin had yet to be late, luckily. But they knew the boss wouldn’t tolerate it, based on stories from the others.
“Yer almost late, Ifriti, watch it.” The boss always smelled like an ashtray mixed with motor oil.
“Yeah, yeah.” Jin was not almost late - The boss just liked to micro-manage his employees into nonexistence. Turnover was high and work was hard, but Jin had no where else to go. Somehow, the boss seemed to know they had at least one employee they could bully, and gave Jin the hardest jobs whenever possible.
This morning, they had been tasked to replace a few dead lightbulbs before the student cafeteria got into full swing. They were carrying a ladder in one arm, with a heavy toolbox and a packet of the long halogen bulbs in the other; no mean feat for someone of their… limited size.
Entering the cafeteria, they set the ladder up carefully and went about the work.
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