Month 1
Mei knew the date.
She signed an eighteen-month contract as the sole courtyard food cart vendor. There was a utility rider. Someone had left a cover sheet clipped to it.
Asset: North Campus - Building 2Term: 18-months (non-renewable)Site decommission Oct 31
There was a yellow highlighter line running through the October date.
The coordinator came back from the copier, unclipped the top sheet, and gave her her pass.
Just before twelve, the doors to the office stairwell banged open, and a small rush of people in blue lanyards came out. A pleasant-looking young man was first in line.
“I’m Dev. Are you going to be here every day?”
“Four days a week, and a rotating cart on Fridays,” Mei said.
Month 6
When fall came around she knew most of them by their orders, before they even reached the window.
She’d picked up a stainless steel table from a hospital liquidation sale, and she used it to pull her own dough. She usually got to Bay 4 before sunrise. The broth took hours: pork neck, ginger, black vinegar, and vegetables. The steam would be rising by seven at the latest.
Sometimes there were still lights on in Building 2 when she arrived. She’d chatted with them enough to know they were working on a big project. Something to do with translating rules to a central model.
It was raining on Thursday.
Hannah worked in quality assurance. She came down early to get four bowls on a cardboard tray.
“I don’t know if I’ll finish it today,” she smiled. “We hit milestone one. Head office already sent us sheet cake.”
Mei gave her an extra egg in her bowl anyway.
“Watch the tray on the stairs,” she said.
Month 12
On a spring Thursday, the entire third-floor team came down at once.
They had a cooler of beer. Brought out a couple of folding tables, which they pushed together in front of Mei’s cart.
“They gave us this afternoon and tomorrow off,” Dev explained. “We hit milestone two three weeks early!”
One of the managers gave a short speech congratulating them. They made a cheer when he told them North Campus had “zero defects”.
A woman parked her car and waved to Dev as she got out. She was pregnant, looked like she’d just started showing.
He brought her over and introduced her like Mei was part of the department. “This is my wife, Claire.”
“We just closed on a house on Ash Street,” Dev said. “Ten minutes walk to the East Gate. Claire and I are going out to celebrate.”
Mei nodded and smiled.
“Oh, and did you know there’s a petition open for you?”
She shook her head, “No, what for?”
“Two hundred signatures for Facilities to brick in this corner so you can have something more permanent than just the cart.”
Mei didn’t say anything. She rolled the final ball of dough flat, and cut it wide by hand. She dropped the ribbons into the water, and made up a bowl.
“Extra scallions, please,” said Dev. “Claire loves them.”
Month 17
By September, there were never any lights on when she arrived.
“The models are handling ninety-eight percent of traffic,” Dev told her at lunch.
She smiled a polite blank.
“It’s so smooth,” he said, spooning chili oil. “Been good to cut out the late nights, too...Carl keeps me and Claire up anyway.”
A couple of men in gray coats and orange lanyards ordered after Dev. They paid with Accordis “per-diem” cards.
That night Mei changed the fifty-pound flour sacks on her order to twenties.
Month 18
Mei lit her burners at five. Her utility disconnection notice was taped to the meter box behind her. End of day.
The parking lot was full earlier than usual.
At ten-fifteen a man in a gray coat wedged the stairwell door with a block of wood. People started filing out. Some of them carried flatpack boxes.
The man collected lanyards as they exited.
She saw Hannah walk past Bay 4 carrying a desk lamp, a framed certificate under her arm.
There was almost nobody left to order lunch. Mei turned the left ring off and lowered the pot to a simmer.
At 1.30 she was pondering whether to close up. Bay 4 was empty of everything except the oil drips from the cart. Dev came out of the stairwell with a gray crate against his ribs. A mug and a pair of indoor shoes peeked out the top.
He walked up to her counter and looked back at the dark glass of Building 2. Set his crate down.
“You still got broth?” he asked.
Mei dropped a handful of noodles into the wire basket.
The steam left a dark patch in the concrete slab above the cart.
She ladled her broth. Added the noodles and the greens. She wiped the rim of the bowl and set it on the counter in front of him.
A story from the Static Drift universe.
Article Photo by Monika Borys on Unsplash.