Sylvester Johnson

Miss Austin

English Compostion

Aug 19, 2022

My Job (STL Zoo)

The employee entrance is rusted, and creaky, and has not been cleaned in years and the

ground beneath has been scraped away from the gate swinging. This entrance completely

contradicts the prestige of the visitor entrance. Flickering lights dimly light a hallway with

nothing but a few lockers, none bigger than a small safe, and leads to the kitchen. On top of the

lockers lay belongings abandoned by former employees with a thick layer of dust showing how

long they’ve been there.

The back of the kitchen is the prep station where produce is chopped, seasoned, and

cooked in preparation. large metal counters on wheels line the left and back walls with an

assortment of different-sized baking pans and bowls underneath that look out of place, being at a

restaurant that sells chicken strips, fries, and burgers. Only around ten of these dishes, these

dishes are used in a day so the other fifty-something just collect dust. On the right of the kitchen

is a computer on a makeshift stand made from an old filing cabinet with a keyboard rack in place

of one of the drawers. The heat from the fryers on the front wall can be felt throughout the whole

kitchen and after a whole day of working you feel a few pounds heavier from the grease in the

air layering on you and soaking your clothes. A digital clock clings to the left wall displaying the

time in big red unmistakable numbers to be sure that no employees get their lunch times mixed

up. In every corner or crevice ceiling or floor, there is some kind of trap for the abundance of

flies and roaches that comes with having a restaurant in a zoo, though sometimes you see some
Sylvester Johnson

Miss Austin

English Compostion

Aug 19, 2022

exotic insect in a trap that probably escaped from an exhibit. sporting a bright yellow color

which makes them almost blend into the walls in darker areas but the yellow of the walls is too

aged and faded for them to blend in brighter areas. A door in the right back corner leads to the

dish room and is the source of the rotten meat smell that radiates through the kitchen and the

loud churning noise of an industrial dishwasher echoes through the kitchen with the backroom

being its source. Racks of dishes are everywhere in the dish room, most of them belonging to

other smaller buildings peppered throughout the zoo that are all connected to this larger

establishment.