I drink savory barley tea. > Bonds Gallery

I drink savory barley tea.

I walk to the bathroom. Half-asleep, I walk,
and come across a large door. It's a sky-blue iron door.
This door is three times larger than a regular door.
Ah, this is the basement level. It's a warehouse.

I'm at the wrong place. I look for the bathroom.
I climb the stairs. All the lights are off.
Only the emergency exit lights are on.
I head up.
Ah...this building is huge.

It's the first floor. As expected, the interior of the building is dark.
Only the emergency lights are on.
The hallway inside is very large. It's so dark that I can't see the far end to either side.
So it feels like a very, very large space.
Ah, this is like a library.
Or some kind of government office.

I head to the left.
There's a bathroom on the left. I check the men's and women's bathrooms,
and enter the men's room.

Inside the bathroom, there are two men cleaning. I nod briefly to them.

They return my greeting.

I feel a little relieved.

The vast, dark space was a bit scary, but
I was relieved to see someone here.

The bathroom looks five times larger than a regular bathroom. It's long.

I urinate.

And there's a kettle on the sink.
It's filled with barley tea. I know exactly what's in it.
It's thick, brewed barley tea.

I'm thirsty, so I pour myself a drink of the dark brown barley tea.

Without asking their permission, I drink it, of course.

My thirst is quenched. The rich, strong flavor of the barley tea is palpable.

And I place it near me.

This kettle belongs to the cleaning staff.

So I don't think I should leave it like this,
so I put it back where it was.

- I have no choice but to put it back.

A man is on the phone. "Are you from a pharmaceutical company?"

This man cleans bathrooms, but he also manages the water supply.
He manages the city's water supply.
Something's wrong with the water supply or system, so this man's solution is to put a pill in the water.

He's probably changing some of the supply to a liquid like barley tea.
He keeps talking on the phone at length.

I just listened to his conversation and knew what was going on.
He's doing important work.

This is a testing lab.
Young employees are conducting tests.
They were conducting experiments on tap water earlier.
There are two of them. But they're not getting the results they want.
They've run out of reagents, and they're disappointed.
And they're about to throw away the small sample bottles.

The bottles have five or six concentration levels written on them with a marker.
Oh, they're measuring the standard, but it's not working properly.

I tell them. - Try again slowly.

I think it'll work out if I just try a little harder. Since it's an area I'm familiar with,
I think I can help them.