The Flesh Laundry Shop

The owner neatly folds the towels on the rack, checks the door of each washing machine, and turns on the opening sign on the door. It’s another day in the Flesh Laundry Shop.

When the sun has not yet risen and the street has yet been packed with people, the first customer enters. The blonde haired woman conceals herself from the wind with a thin black jacket. Her hair is tangled, her mascara is smudged, and her stocking is ripped. Today is her son’s primary school graduation. The woman wants to look decent and to feel decent. She heads directly into the dressing room after nodding at the owner. She takes off her clothes, puts on a towel, and walks to the washing machine at the end of the row. She pours the laundry detergent in, enters the machine, and closes the door. The machine starts working, drowning her with water. The woman closes her eyes and gets spun around forcefully in the constant swirls. She wants to wash off all the dirt that she gets while smoking cigarettes on the side of a highway, the scornful looks that passerby throw at her, and the pathetic moanings of random men at nights. After thirty minutes, the machine slows down and stops. The woman walks out and spends another fifty minutes in the drier. Putting on her clothes, the woman pays her bill in cash. The owner looks and smiles at the woman. It is not a smirk, not a mock, not a grin, but it is simply a smile in the eyes. The woman exits the store, feeling more like a normal human being. She is ready to return home with her son, to be his mother.

When the owner is having his late lunch, a young girl wearing a Pikachu t-shirt enters the store with her eyes fixated on her phone. The young girl is an otaku who only stays at home and obsessively watches manga to pass time. She has not drunk a drop of water for two days, and her water is cut as she has not paid the bill for three months. So she was forced to go to the convenience store to buy water. At the store, a stranger accidentally swung his arms onto her hand. Rubbing her hand harshly with soap to wash off the disgusting feeling of human interaction, the girl still can sense the itchiness on her skin. Noticing the Flesh Laundry Shop on the other side of the street, the girl decided to spend her precious thirty minutes killing the fidgety sentiment that is lingering on her fingers. She hurriedly takes off her clothes in the hallway, squeezes herself in the washing machine without putting in the detergent, and locks the door loudly. The girl does not dry herself afterward but immediately gets dressed and rushes to the counter. Her mother’s credit card is declined. The girl tries her father’s card, and her father’s card gets declined as well. She glances up at the owner and glances down on the floor. The owner returns her card, tells her to pay him back another time, and wishes her a good day in this sunny weather. She blinks once, and twice, and says thank you to the owner. The otaku slowly walks out of the store. The 1109th episode of Pikachu is waiting for her.

As the owner is about to close the store, through the window, he sees a police car pulling over. A female police officer enters with her hand around a shaking girl whose hollow eyes fiercely stare back at the world. The young girl cannot talk, she cannot look at people, and she cannot get a sense of her body anymore. Walking home after school, the girl was dragged into a dark alley. The girl screamed. The girl cried. The girl paralyzed. And the girl is desperate to feel clean again. The owner and the police officer exchange a look. The owner walks out of his store, and let the officer gets ready for the girl. After two hours of washing and drying, the girl still keeps scratching her face, her legs, and her chest.

At 12 am, the owner turns off the light and drives home with his boyfriend.

At 12 am three years ago, outside a laundry store, a gay man ruminated at the poster in the store “Clean yourself for a better world. Clean yourself to return with God. Clean yourself to enter heaven.” He had been waiting for the whole day to go inside. But going inside would mean that he admitted, that he violated the holiness of the body that God gives him, and that he carried a sin within him. Going inside would mean that he was not strong enough to protect himself, that he was a dirty creature, and that he was raped. The man did not enter the store that day, but he returned home and opened the Flesh Laundry Store.

~

Indigo L is a Government and English Literature double major. Loves the sound of birds on an autumn morning.