Sewer soup

Sewer soup… There is nothing like walking in from your lunch break and finding yourself wading in pools of sewer water that stretch down the length of the frozen and dairy aisles.
The thought of standing in someone else’s waste products never really sat well with me, however the thought of sanding in a puddle of hundreds of other peoples waste makes me feel downright nasty. Then the smell, oh the foul smell of death and a rotting old man’s cologne about knocked me out.
I’m not sure what was worse, walking thru the puddles of brown slimy water or the thought of accidently slipping and ending up swimming in the mess. I stepped lightly; I pulled my pants up so they didn’t accidently drag thru the stew and splash the mix up my leg.
I needed the floor cleaner. On my way to the back I heard the voice of a young girl ask her mom what that disgusting smell was. I was convinced that the smell was penetrating our entire inventory of fresh food. I got the floor cleaner and started sucking up the mess. The machine moving the sludge around made the smell worse. I became dizzy.
As I got more and more light headed I felt myself lose my footing. I tried to brace on the machine, but as I did I pulled the handle and that made it speed up. I lost one foot and felt the other slipping. I let go of the machine and it surged forward ramming into a rack of jarred pickles. The rack collapsed. Glass, pickle juice and pickles joined the mess of shit that was already on the floor. Soon so would I. I fought the slide of my foot and over did it. Suddenly both my feet were behind me and I could feel myself falling. I looked down at the spot where my body was going to land. There was nothing I could do, nothing to reach for, and nothing to break my fall. I was going down full force and nothing was stopping me.
I threw my hands in front of me to block my fall. Glass tore thru the palm of one hand and a pickle blocked the other causing my wrist to roll. My knees hit with a splash and my thighs followed. Soon my chest was hitting the muck. I made one last attempt to avoid my face hitting the foul liquid but failed. As my lips nose and face hit the soup I let out a grunt that was followed by a sharp inhale, which sucked up sewer shit from hundreds of people and pickle juice into my mouth and lungs.

What a great day to work at a grocery store.