D.O.P.-T. (Tuesday)

[weofodthignen]

The alley behind the store is as unsalubrious as you might imagine. The restaurant next door used to be some kind of Asian and have one of those makeshift shrines behind it: a sweet potato with offerings jabbed into it. It's been a Korean barbecue for years now, and they're open till 2 am, so the kitchen crew are out there washing up and disposing of food refuse during the first half of my shift. There are also noises of glass bottles being sorted coming from behind the gate to the liquor store's section on the other side, and later in the night someone scavenging for bottles to return for the deposit sometimes scales that and makes a lot of noise. The back of the alley is the tall privacy fences at the bottom of the backyards of the houses in the street parallel to El Camino; a typical tract of comfortable family houses, mostly occupied by very hardworking families. I occasionally open our fire door to put out boxes, but try to minimize it. I noticed this summer that immediately behind our store, a huge bush with those large bell flowers, 8 or 9 inches long, was spilling over the top of the fence. I only saw the flowers by the light coming out of the store, but I think they were dark cream. I meant to take in a camera and capture a photo, but the bush was pruned back some time ago.