My Job (STL Zoo)

Our employee entrance has rusted and creaky and has not been cleaned recently, and the

ground underneath 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 are used

daily, so the other fifty-something 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 fryers on the front wall emit a significant amount of heat throughout the whole

kitchen after an entire day of working you almost feel heavier and more sluggish 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 ensure no employees get their lunch

times mixed up. In every corner or crevice ceiling or floor, there are traps for the abundance of

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

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 back right 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 belonging to smaller

buildings peppered throughout the zoo that are all connected to this larger establishment.

=] .ment.w