The next morning, the Garbage Woman woke the Girl so they could make it in time for work. As it turned out, she had an internal clock that told her when to get up, and didn’t need the broken clocks after all. It didn’t matter, since the Girl had an internal clock of her own. She grudingly disentangled herself from the confines of the bed and rose with a foul taste in her mouth that surely had nothing to do with having the stuffed deer’s backside firmly pressed against her face.
The animal apparently didn’t do enough of a good job protecting her, since there were all kinds of rubbish that had fallen over her during the course of the night. She must’ve been more tired than she thought - she didn’t even notice the junk falling on her, even though the internal kicking kept her up.
After a quick detour at a refuse bin for some free breakfast, and washing up at a spurting water valve, they made their way to work. The Girl wondered what the point of cleaning up between stinky locations was if they were just going to get smelly later on. But the Garbage Woman insisted on displaying an air of neatness even though her home and workplace were anything but. Somehow, she didn’t seem to notice that the smell alone would be enough to set off alarm bells to anyone in the vicinity. The Garbage Woman looked at the Girl, then gave her a quick once-over, cleaning her up in places she wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.
“There. Now you look presentable.”
It was so strange. She worked and lived in places that were natural biohazards, yet wanted to show she was still in command of her looks. But once she started doing her job, all pretense of pride on appearances went out the window. The only times that her appearance counted was before and after work.
In addition, she offered the Girl some baggy clothing to hide her flattering figure which wasn’t looking very flattering these days. She politely declined, saying she had clothes of her own, but that was just an excuse to refuse the Garbage Woman’s clothes which smelled far worse than anything thus far.
Despite these unlivable conditions, the Girl was beginning to get used to her surroundings. She got into a routine of mindlessly gutting out the fish and holding her breath at the same time. The more she put her intrusive thoughts beside her, the better she could work.
What hurt was that she felt continuously tired all the time. Before, this task wouldn’t have even slowed her down, and she would still have enough energy left to scale a mountain. Now, at the end of the day, she was lucky enough if she could still lift a paper cup. (A Full paper cup might be a problem.) This rise and fall of energy wouldn’t have been so bad if there was a consistent pattern to them, but they came and went with annoying frequency.
She got into such a state that she didn’t notice that breaktime happened when she wasn’t paying attention, which annoyed the Foreman, since she wasn’t supposed to be working overtime. She was supposed to stop for five minutes, and then resume. But that concentration once broken made it doubly harder for her to get back into her groove. Even though she would’ve been paid the same as anybody else no matter what.
Despite the comradance, she still felt the need to compete with the Garbage Woman over the amount she completed, regardless of quality.
“Eat. You need to keep your energy up.”
The Girl resented these displays of caring, even though she knew that the Garbage Woman was looking out for her. The longer her baby was kept alive, the longer it would continue to torment her. But she couldn’t remove it without fear of punishment. She had no idea what would happen if she did, but didn’t dare find out.
Even so, she couldn’t spend all her time with the Garbage Woman - she had various other jobs, and their working hours weren’t always in sync. Some days, she’d have to work across the street, being ferried via the bus that took the redundant route there, doing extra labor. While the Girl was free to her own devices, she couldn’t get into the Garbage Woman’s warehouse without her permission.
“It’s better that you come with me. In the meantime, you can meet with the support group of Unusual Pregnancies.”
The only problem with that little plan was that there was a limited range she could travel due to her restrictions on her ankle bracelet. And the first group she tried out that fit the criteria rejected her upon first smell.
“Hello, we welcome - OH MY B - ” the greeter said before turning to retch in the bucket nearby. All the other members present suddenly felt the familiar symptoms of Morning Sickness and acted accordingly.
The problem was exacerbated because the Girl was just coming off from work, smelling fouler than she would’ve normally felt, even without washing up. And without access to the locations of the Garbage Woman’s known locations of water sources, she had no way of diluting her unbearable stench.
“We appreciate your presence in thinking of us, but are currently full up. May we suggest our competitors?”, the greeter said before closing the door on her. It was all said in one breath, so it was more like “Wegladyoucamebutwe’refullgosmwherelsebye.”
It was a shame the Girl wasn’t accepted, since there were plenty of affected women who could’ve offered advice, moral support, and horror stories that’d she’d greatly identify with. One such example was an expectant mother whose belly was transparent, showing her newborn as a series of blurry radio lines. Another was someone whose baby existed in a quantum state where the fetus was both dead and alive.
The most extremely afflicted was a woman who’d been pregnant for 50 years. It wasn’t from the baby’s refusal to come out, but from a particular species that demanded heavy gestation, and apparently, the baby hadn’t been incubated long enough. All attempts to remove it prematurely had been met with unfortunate disaster, from doctors being suddenly swallowed up, and scalpels on the bulging stomach becoming liquified.
“Are we sure she’s not just fat?” one of the women asked. “Trust me, she is”, said a senior member who had the unfortunate fate of having all her ovaries fertilized at once so that the moment she gave birth, she instantly became pregnant again. At the ripe age of 45, she already had more children than she knew what to do with.
“Worth it”, she said of the mysterious stranger whose sperm was very fertile. She was very secretive of her lover’s identity, despite not having seen him in all that time, vainly hoping that maybe, just maybe, he might come back to her. There hadn’t been any other reports of women continuously giving birth, so the chance was still out there!
With her planned group activity prematurely cancelled, the Girl had little more to do than wait. But just standing around doing nothing wasn’t her kind of thing. She needed to keep moving to counter the constant movement inside her stomach. Staying still would be equivalent to death.
Left to her own devices, the Girl spent most of her free time walking around, making mental notes of which places closed early in her presence and which ones didn’t. Getting around the City was difficult, not the least because of her feet which were swollen and continuously hurt, but because of the way streets were designed. In order to prevent unwanted strangers from going where they weren’t wanted, all the street signs had been blackened out. Only the ones in the know could skillfully navigate the twisting corridors due to their street smarts.
Thankfully, because of the restrictions of her ankle bracelet, she could never truly stray far away, and after reaching the boundaries, could eventually make her way back to a focal point, where the Garbage Woman would be waiting to take her home.
The Girl longed for the day when she’d be paid and be able to settle her debts. So when everybody started getting their pay, she was surprised that she wasn’t included among their number. The first question she had for the Garbage Woman was something she meant to ask the Foreman, but had been scared off, and hadn’t bothered to follow-up.
“When do we get paid anyways? For that matter, why’d they pay you, and not me?”
“When did you start working?”
“Three days ago.”
“The middle of the week”, she figured. “You’ll have to wait until they tally up two weeks worth, then they’ll give you what you’re owed in one lump sum along with everybody else.”
“It takes them that long to tally up the totals?” She was surprised at how long she’d worked - it felt longer. And she wasn’t sure if she’d survive long enough to get her lump sum. At least it wasn’t delayed to a month later. Then she’d really be in trouble.
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