Cactus

We are often called “junkmen.” Why? We have to disassemble the debris, but cleaning up trash isn’t related to our job. “A burial team” sounds even worse. And we don’t do burials. Once, in the dock of the transfer station Gibson-11, one of the workers, nodding at us, quietly said: “Carrion-eaters.” That was pretty disgusting. Kolya Zhdanov, the second pilot of the “Pelican,” turned toward the talkative man with such an expression that I thought: he’ll surely kill him. The worker probably understood where things were going too, and, for good measure, slipped into the narrow gap between stacks of empty pallets.