Washed

Hi, I am Stacey, I have lot of time to tell you what happened to me today as I won't go far until at least tomorrow, well... maybe the day after tomorrow.

I am a maid in an hotel in silicon valley. Being a new hotel in that area, it as all the techno stuff you can imagine for the guest. It is also highly automated, guests luggages are brought to the room by robotic carts. I can't tell you how these robots work but they are really are cool to watch moving around.

So this afternoon, just after lunch break, I was going to open a room after knocking and waiting as we have to do even if we know the guest left hours earlier when one of those robots said in is soft female voice, "Please could you move to the side? I would like to pass".

I turned around and saw the robot almost touching the opposite wall and waiting. My cleaning cart was at an angle in the hallway blocking it. I quickly realigned it along the wall on this side so the robot was able to continue its way. I then turn toward the door, turn the handle and opened the door. We don't need card as a bracelet sends a signal to the lock as soon as it is within 12 inches. As I raised my eyes, realizing I opened the wrong door, I saw 2 guys around the table with a pile of money if front of them and a few bigger guys standing around them. They were all looking at me. As one of the sitting guys shouted "get her" the body guards started running toward me. I turned around and made a dash in the hallway, went around the corner as I heard one of them saying "that way". I saw a door on my left and went through it before closing it behind me.

As I walked in, the light turn on revealing the floor's stockroom. I was trapped. Without any phone and my walkietalkie on the cleaning cart, I could not call for help and those guys will surely smash the door open unless they fire through the door. There was only one exit possible: the laundry chute. I pushed my hand and head through the opening, shifted my weight and let me fall 5 floors down hoping there will be a few sheets to soften the fall. I did land head first on a pile of sheets, a little groggy. It took me a moment to realize I had to get out of the bin fast as the laundry was all automated. As I turned around to get up those 4 feet plastic sides, the bottom opened and I fell another 5 feet down. I was now entangle within the sheets. The bottom trap had been opened by the computer running the laundry machine. As soon as the weight passed a specified level for 3 seconds, the system is triggered as a full load.

The sheets fell in a bin under, on a conveyor with a buffer of 5 bins before being dumped in one of 3 washers. Hopefully, there are other bins full of sheets waiting to be cleaned ahead but as it is after lunch break, chances are slim. As the conveyor started moving, I tried to remove the sheets around me and get up. The conveyor was still going, my arms were easy to free but as I started pulling my left leg, I felt a sheet wrapped around my ankle. I pulled as much as I could, dug with both of my arms to free my foot. The conveyor finally stopped. I was able to free my left foot.

I was sitting on the pile of sheets, as I started to get up, the bin started shifting toward my back, I jumped as far I could go in front of me, pulling on the now falling sheets with both hands and feet but as the last sheets fell, I slid on the chute, into the washing machine I went with the sheets and pillow cases. Before I could got up, the opening closed. I was now trapped in the washing machine. It is a 5 feet diameter cylinder about 4 feet long. I am stuck in it with a pile of bed sheets and pillows. As I sat there pondering on my bad luck, then the soap started spraying and landed all over me including my hair. As soon as the soap stopped, warm water shot out on me. Nice, now my hair is ruined. Nothing can get worst today.

A few minutes later, the water stop flowing on me. I barely had time to think what was coming next that the drum started rotating. I tumbled with the sheets. I wasn't tumbling hard enough to break any bones but it was hard breathing with those damp sheets constantly falling on me, on my face, on my back, my arms and legs as we all tumbled in that huge drum. Soon the soap began to bubble and things got worst. I regularly had a mouth full of bubbles trying to breath. This continued for an interminable period. When it stopped I was worn out as I never been after a day of work. I just laid there with a pillow case on my face. I barely moved it aside as the water was running out of the washer. Then came the spin, the drum started spinning quite fast, I was stuck on the side and went looping around it. Jets of water where coming in for the first 20 seconds then we spinned at high speed for what seemed an eternity.

When the spin cycle finally ended, I was stuck with the sheets on the side of the drum, head near the bottom and my feet upward. A squirt of fabric softener was sprayed and I received some in my mouth. Luckily, not much, I was able to spit most of it out. Unlike the scent, the taste is awful. As rinse water was coming in, I freed my legs from the sheets stuck on the side of the drum and turned my face toward the water to rinse my mouth. I went through another round of tumbling, had more softener in my mouth, diluted at least that time. I just let myself tumble along the sheets as I had no more energy. I just watched when I was breathing in not to drink too much water and drown. The rinse cycle was much shorter than the wash. Another spin cycle came after that.

At the end of the spin cycle, I was glued horizontally just below midlevel on the side of the drum. I could not move at all. Soon after the door opened, the drum started to turn slowly and rubber fingers started to inflate around the drum pushing on the sheets and me. As I started going up the other side of the drum after going on the bottom, I felt myself peeled of the side and felt to the bottom of the drum where I gently tumbled. The washer rotated toward the opening and I felt with the sheets down the opening on a conveyor. Unable to move, my heavy wet clothes stuck on me, I went with the load up the conveyor and was then dropped on another chute and into the dryer.

The door closed on the me as I was still unable to move. Not long after the dryer started to spin and warm air flowed in. I just let myself be tumbled with the sheets, soon my clothes and hair started to dry. Breathing was easy in the beginning with all the moisture raising from the sheets and myself. After 15 minutes, the air started to dry and breathing was harder. I quickly learned to close my mouth. As I was just letting me tumble, I was able to regain some strength. I sensed the air becoming cooler as the load, including me, was dried. A few minutes later, the door opened and the dryer started to rotate as the washer did.

I fell into another plastic bin with the dried sheets. Although I had regained some strength, I was really dizzy from all that tumbling in the dryer. I was unable to move in the middle of the pile of sheets for a good 30 seconds. I got up and as I was trying the balance myself when the sheet under by feet was pulled by 2 arms that placed the corners of the sheet on the folder. I felt backward on the sheet as it was placed on the metal bed, as the arms finish to place the sheet, holes in the metal surface suck air pinning the sheet on it before the lower half raised and bent the sheet in 2. It all happend so quickly I had no time to react. As I was on it, my legs where folded over my torso. Ouch, my legs were hard pressed down. Shortly after, the top of the sheet was folded opposite way, my neck was bent hard and my head push toward my chest. My legs where now folded at the knee and were pinned on top of my arm at my side. Quickly, the portion of the sheet on my left was folded over to my right and the portion now on my right on top of me.

I just realized what happened before I sensed pressure all around me, felt myself and the sheet rotating 90 degrees and more pressure behind my head and on top of my feet. I understood that the machine just put 2 large bands of strong paper around the pile of sheets I was in. Next came more sensation of being moved around as the machine put the pile in the stacker until an automated cart bring the piles of sheets and pillow cases to each floor's stockroom for the next day at night.

So this is the situation I now am in. Folded in a bed sheet, stacked in a pile of 10, waiting for the card the bring me and the sheets on the floor tonight and be release by a coworker in the morning. Maybe it will be only in two days as the hotel has 20% more sheets than needed and I might have to wait until tomorrow night to be brought to the floor. I am not sure about that either as the ride to the staker as been bumpier that I thought it would be.

The pile I am in might have fallen as it must be bigger than expected and got knocked off beside the machine. Nobody comes here except the janitor once a week to sweep the floor and connect new soap and softener container to the washers. He did all that 2 days ago. As he is lazy, he might not clean this spot more than once a month. This is if he can see where the pile might have fallen.

So this is my position, stuck inside a folded sheet, itself placed in a pile somewhere in the basement of the hotel. Hopefully I will be found and released tomorrow, maybe only in 2 days or maybe... who knows when.

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13.03.15