The Uninvited [antikvár]

She stands on a chair, trying to steady the hose. The water comes in spurts and gushes from the rusty pipe that crawls along under the ceiling. That is how they shower, by diverting hot water that is the factory's runoff and merely appears clean. Three years ago, when the factory partially shut down and turned 60 percent of its employees into "reserve workers," collecting only 20 percent of their original wages, Dan came home carrying a soap dish, a comb with missing teeth, and a pair of broken plastic slippers for the public bathhouse, and he told Little Plum that he had cleaned out his locker and would never have to work the night shift again for the rest of his life. He was not worried about getting a job until he found, two months into his reserve worker status, that he and Little Plum only had fifty-five yuan in the bank. Not even enough for the two of them to have a Big Mac dinner at McDonald's.A couple of days later, Dan saw an employment ad in a newspaper. It said that a five-star hotel needed security guards, and that candidates must be taller than 1.8 meters. As a tall, strong, good-looking man, Dan figured he had a chance. He went to the hotel in his best outfit, a polyester sports jacket atop khaki slacks, with a pair of black leather shoes to match a fake Dunhill bag he borrowed from a neighbor. As he wandered into the lobby, a woman approached him asking if he was here for the meeting. He nodded yes, and she said the meeting had already started. She ran him up the escalator, through an indoor balcony, and out to a ballroom with tables laid for a banquet. A banner hanging over the podium said "Donate Your Wealth, Plant Forests, Fight Desertification, and Take Back Our Green Fields!" The woman asked him to please sit down wherever he could find a seat, then disappeared.He sat at a table next to the door. The banquet had already begun, and he was starved, so he swept through the dishes in front of him