The Clog

The laundry basket lies overflowing in the corner.

“The laundry machine is broken, what do you want me to do?” she hollers.

The damn thing has not drained itself in three days. I suggested she call the maintenance. But somehow help never came. I finally had a day off and the stench of the dirty water was starting to pollute the air inside the apartment.

I have had enough. I had to do something about it or spend the rest of my day in the foul air. I have no clue as to how a washing machine works. Never have had any experience with machinery, or any kind of repairs. But this agenda demanded solution and I was determined to find it. I gathered all the little tools I had around. A couple of pliers, battery operated screw drivers and few old screws and bolts. But some thing was missing.

Beer!

Got me a six pack and off I went. I tried to study how a washing machine works and all its components. It was me against the machine. It took me a good thirty minutes to disassemble the whole thing. Basic physics and some common sense is all it took to figure out the working mechanism of the machine. The only reason the water could not drain out, had to be a clog in the drainage pipe. That was my diagnosis. A good twenty minutes of scuffle landed me at a drainage tube which felt suspicious. From just feeling it from outside, I could tell the problem was exactly at that spot. I could feel almost a round soft object just stationary at the juncture of the hose and the excretion line. The factory made equipment was tough to disassemble. After finally getting the clips off the hose I reached in and grabbed a single piece of sock out.

A single sock had ruined the day. I made a mess by spilling the dirty water all over the place after releasing the clog. But the joy that I obtained by just figuring this out was an elevation I had never attained at any kind of work. I needed a replacement for the clip that held the hose to the disposal pipe. I found a radiator hose clip, modified it a little bit to fit my needs.

The magic of working with your hands, Ice cold beer and sweaty arm pits and fixing shit, every cell in my body oozes manhood.

Fat Joke

The storm outside had just settled. Jobless and locked in the house for days, we were itching to get out.

Binod had been watching some reality TV garbage all day when he turned to me and said, “Let’s go shoot some pool, bro.” I complied.

We headed out to this local pool hall by the freeway. On our way Samrat called and said he was going to join us after work. All this while Subin and Suman had gone to Weatherford to see some folks that had been visiting Texas and had some gift from their parents they wanted to pick up.

It was a cold -dark night, Samrat showed up rather anxious talking on his cell phone, while Binod and I were engrossed with our game in hand. When inquired with Samrat and he mentioned that Subin and Suman were on the side of Interstate 20 trying to get his worked up Kia to start. Lately, Subin had been talking about trying to sell that car and get something reliable. They were going to get help while we were on standby as rescue, if they needed to be.

Almost an hour passed by but no response from the two. We even presumed that the car must have had a bad battery or someone might have helped fix it.  We tried calling them to check but both their cell phones said they were out of range. After several voice mails and text messages it got to a point where worry started creeping in. Samrat suggested we go take a look to check for them and without any hesitation Binod and I were in his car on I20 west. Samrat had an idea on where they were stranded but all of us were rather unfamiliar with that part of town.

I sat in the back seat unaware of what Samrat and Binod were talking about. My eyes were fixed outside the car. We got past the city and farther we went there was more of nothing to look at. The temperature outside must have been close to freezing. Some what like Kathmandu, during the cold winter months.  I was having flashbacks of home since I had not been here in the US for too long. Lot went inside my mind, made new friends, was looking for some old ones and starting a whole new life in a totally new place made me miss home and family even more. But somehow the company i had and the hope that still was alive in me kept me smiling and moving on.

We now were about forty minutes into the drive and Samrat lowered the radio and started to point towards the other side of the freeway where the two of them were supposed to be. We spotted them but had to drive further up and make a U-turn to get to them. They were both standing outside with the bonnet up and fiddling with something as if they knew what was wrong.

Once we got there, Suman jumped into Samrat’s Honda, “Turn the heater on man, my balls are about to freeze”.

We got out to see what we could do to resolve this issue. Being relevantly new to this circle of friends and to the country itself, I did not have much to say. I was an audience, lets just say. I used to hit it off pretty good with Suman so i stepped into the car with him and he told me what all they had been doing for the last hour and a half. He showed me his cell phone which had no signal at that spot. He joked about how they had gone out into the fields with nothing but a Wal-Mart shopping bag to find water since the radiator had overheated.

Next thing i know Samrat was digging up his trunk looking for something and i asked Subin, “What are we going to do?”

He said that they were intending to pull the car to the next gas station to leave it overnight as it was no point trying to stand there in the middle of the night in that cold looking like a bunch of idiots. They had even called 911 and a patrol did pass by, asked them what the problem was and left them there with promise of help. May be a tow truck. So, my friends decided to take the matters into their own hands. Samrat pulled a rope that did look like it was made for towing with hooks on each side to latch onto each car. I helped and watched as they prepared to actually pull the Kia with the help of Samrat’s new Honda Civic.

All set and I was in the back seat of the Kia with Subin on the driver’s seat and Binod in front with him. I instinctively chose the Kia since I was closer to Subin and Binod I guess.

But Subin turned around and said, “Bro why don’t you go sit in the car in front since you are fat it might be easier to pull without you in here”. Subin and his fucked up humor.

” Yea! Really funny”. I moved to the car in front with Suman and Samrat. Suman was lying down in the back seat and I went and sat next to Samrat in the front passenger side.

Both had their four-way lights on and off we went. We were pulling the little Kia with not much discomfort. After about half a mile when both cars gained a steady momentum the Kia started to swerve right and left. I kept watching it through the rare view mirror until it was swerving a little too much out of my comfort zone.

I said to Samrat, “May be we ought to just let the car be on the side of the road, this does not look like a good idea. “

“We’re almost there”, Samrat said. I decided not to look at the mirror no more. It only bothered me more and more.  At that hour of the night all other vehicles on the road were eighteen wheelers carrying cargo into town.

About two minutes after i had made that comment to Samrat, I heard something that sounded like an explosion. And next thing i know i am holding on to dear life while the car we are in is spinning out of control. And as the car spun it was like everything was in slow motion. My mind raced so fast that it could not make sense of what was actually happening. But all this while i can see Samrat gripping onto the steering wheel and looking blank as white light. His mind probably went though the same thing as mine and Suman’s in the back seat. What in the hell just happened here?

After about two complete spins the car swerved on to the grassy patch separating the two sides of the interstate. I finally let the breath out that i was holding all these twenty seconds of unrealistic chaos, the car came to a stop. Almost unanimously we all gazed at each others eyes. But we had nothing to say to each other. I wonder what would be the right thing to say.

Samrat got out of the car immediately and I turned to Suman in the back who was grabbing on to the seat dazed and confused and he uttered almost in a whisper “What the hell just happened dude?”

I answered with a question “Are you all right?”

And without answering each other we just jumped out of the car. Still unable to access the situation we walked towards the eighteen wheeler that was stopped in the middle of the road. An older white man stepped out of the cabin with a flash light in his hand asking us if we were all right. He seemed weary and kept rubbing his eyes as we screamed at him in anger how he could not see two cars with all their blinkers on.

A cold chill went down my spine when I saw all the debris from the Kia scattered on the freeway across fifty odd yards. I saw a large piece of the bumper which was bent in half in the middle of the road. My mind was still racing with thoughts and i felt weak in my knees thinking about what I might have to witness tonight. Binod’s face kept flashing in front of me as I thought of the worst. Subin’s comment about me sitting in his backseat kept ringing in my ears to the point of dizziness.  The Kia was visibly destroyed after taking a hit from an 80,000 pound big rig moving at seventy miles an hour.

Subin and his fucked up humor. It seemed like a fat joke saved my life. I almost fell sick in my stomach and i squatted down leaning on to the wet road and I saw the front portion of what was remaining of the Kia from underneath the trailer of the rig. There seemed to be a figure trying to open the driver’s side door in the pitch darkness.

I instinctively started to run towards it.

Waterdance

Its frigid cold outside and I have been lodged on to this couch for the last few days, literally. I get swift smoke breaks every couple of hours or get up to go use the bathroom. I gaze outside the moist and foggy window and see some Mexicans cooking some thing on their grill with beer bottles wrapped in brown paper bags in their hands.

My sister looks and snitches her nose and says, “ Feri Gai ko Masu Pakayo Mora Haru Le “.

On the other hand I wanted a beer so bad and that beef looked rather tasty. Its time for a smoke break again. I still had about a carton of Sikhar Cigarettes from back home. The guys grabbed the entire carton claiming they were craving home made cigarettes, so I let them have the Surya.

I yelled out, “Didi, I’m going out for a little walk inside the complex”.

She yelled back “Its cold put on something warm”.

As I walked down the stairs the Mexicans stopped talking and stared at me. I gave them a half way smile and walked away with no further eye contact.Both of them looked like they were in their mid-twenties and dressed alike, in khakis and white t-shirts. I headed towards the Laundry room. It was too cold to be smoking outside, the wind made it even worse; it felt like it would slice you up if you stayed out long enough.

The laundry room had the heat on but had a big No Smoking sign at the door. There were two older ladies chit chatting, waiting for their clothes to dry up and one of them was smoking.

I thought I’d ask and as she took notice of me entering I asked “Can you smoke in here? “.

She swiftly replied, “Baby, I ain’t going out in that cold, “and continued her conversation with the other lady.

I pulled out my Sikhar and lit one up. I stood close to the door to let the smoke out and it made me feel like I wasn’t actually smoking inside the room. It started to drizzle a little bit and it was getting dark quickly. I pulled my hoodie on and started walking towards the building.All those buildings looked the same had it not been for the numbers and of course I could follow the smell of that grill.

All of a sudden I hear the ground under me rumble to a steady beat . I turned my head around and it was a White Cadillac with tints on its windows and hip-hop music playing with all its might. It rolled past me slow. It almost stopped as if to check who I was. It was dark outside and the tints made sure i could not she who was inside. But it moved on and took the turn around the corner. I took about ten steps jumping over little puddles of water, almost running for some weird urgency that crept inside me.

Right when I was about to take that turn I hear ‘thud-thud-thud’ and the sound of tires squeaking on the wet concrete. My first instinct was to duck because I did not exactly know where this was happening. I waited for about a minute to access the situation and took off running towards the apartment instinctively.

As I approach the stairs,a smell of burnt meat filled the air and there lay the same two Mexicans on the wet winter floor in a pool of blood.

I ran franticly without looking back.

I reached the doorstep and the door opened even before I could knock.

“Where have you been, did you hear what I heard? “

She kept on going on about how she never wanted to move to this neighborhood in the first place.

“We are moving to Boston soon, where Maya didi and her family live”, she rushed to check on the baby who was sleeping in the bedroom.

I sat on the same sofa speechless and wet. I Gazed out that same murky window, now in my sight were, fire trucks and police cars with their red-blue lights on.