Machine Story (WIP) (UPDATED)

Hi Guys! Below is a story I started working on today. I have not yet edited it (or finished a draft) so it is still very much a Work in Progress. However, I like where it's going so far. PLEASE leave your thoughts or any feedback below. Also let me know if you would like me to update this when I write more. :) Okay love you guys thank you good bye. have fun reading my story teehee.

One other quick note- anything in Bold indicates a new chapter and a POV change. These chapters do not have consistent titles or formats outside of being bold.

UPDATE- As this is a newer upload (my old one is glitching very bad) it is not fully formatted. Live with it!

On 6/12/2024 at Approximately 18:00 I Performed a Wellness Check at 55 Mill Avenue Apartment 2C

I had been requested to perform a wellness check on Oscar Kowalczyk on the evening of 6/11/2024. At approximately 18:00 on 6/12/2024 I arrived at 55 Mill Avenue, an apartment building on the south shore of town where Mr. Kowalczyk had been residing. I noticed a foul odor immediately when I stepped out of the car. I did not relate this odor to the incident, as there was a nearby creek connected to several storm overflow chambers. The property manager, Denise Allen, was waiting outside to help me into the apartment. Due to her position I allowed her to follow me throughout the wellness check. Once we entered the building the smell became stronger, indicating to me that it may be coming from the apartments, rather than sewage or runoff. While approaching the apartment of Mr. Kowalczyk, Ms. Allen pointed out several structures and tubes along the wall. She said they had been installed by Mr. Kowalczyk without the permission of herself or any other Albatross Properties associates. She also explained that she and the other tenants believed Mr. Kowalczyk’s residence to be the source of the odor, and that some of the tenants had moved out or were temporarily staying outside 55 Mill Avenue to avoid the smell. When I inquired why she had not already evicted Mr. Kowalczyk, Ms. Allen explained that he had lived there for three years so far without incident, that these problems have only grown out of control in the past month, and that Mr. Kowalczyk had become impossible to contact. Ms. Allen also told me that Mr. Kowalczyk has recently replaced the lock on his door, preventing her from investigating the stench herself. As we approached Mr. Kowalczyk’s door the smell became overpowering. It smelled metallic, with qualities like gasoline and asphalt. However, it also smelled earthy and fecal. It was this fecal smell that caused me to initially attribute it to the nearby creek. With the information Ms. Allen gave me, I suggested we wait outside as I called for backup. 

When we arrived outside I radioed for help and I requested that whoever responded bring masks to ward off the smell. Officers Jenkins and Carmen arrived at the scene at approximately 18:45. They brought with them a box of N-95 masks that Ms. Allen, myself, and Officer Jenkins and Officer Carmen could wear. We re-entered the building. When we got to Mr. Kowalczyk’s door we briefly discussed how best to open it. We had no means of unlocking it. Since there were no lock smiths available so late on a Thursday, Officer Carmen elected to break the locks by pushing repeatedly on the door. This succeeded in opening Mr. Kowalczyk’s apartment. 

When the door opened, the smell again became overpowering, despite the masks. At some point after this Ms. Allen left the area, although neither myself, Officer Jenkins, or Officer Carmen noticed when she did. The door also had to be pushed open, even after the initial locks had been broken, because it made direct contact with many large metal boxes inside the apartment. There was barely enough room for the door to open at all. On either side of the entryway there was metal structures, seemingly built by Mr. Kowalczyk. Between these structures was an extremely narrow passageway that led deeper into the apartment. There were also tubes extending out of the passage, connecting to the other structures in the hall. 

The passageway was dark, and seemed to turn shapely a few feet in so that you could not see what lay deeper in the apartment. A very faint orange glinting, like fire, reflected on the surface of the metal. There was also a variety of sounds which were unable to be heard when the door had been closed. There was a constant whirring like that of a conveyor belt, as well as a honking or blaring sound that seemed to indicate some machine continuously starting and stopping again. There was an occasional hiss, like steam or air being released from some tight space, as well as a constant and irregular squeaking noise, a clamour, and a creaking. Myself and the other officers were concerned about entering the passageway, as besides the orange light it was also very hot, which caused us to worry about a potential fire. However, there was no smoke that we could see, so Officer Jenkins, who was the only officer capable of squeezing through the small passageway, chose to enter. 

Officer Jenkins entered, shouting to us throughout the experience. He called out to Mr. Kowalczyk but received no response, and did not initially see Mr. Kowalczyk in the building. Officer Jenkins called to us, explaining that there was a lot of machinery inside, including tubes, valves, funnels, gears, belts, buttons, pipes, conduits, wires, outlets, gauges, cranks, various cooling chambers, furnaces, and levers, along with many gallons of bulk chemicals like oil, antifreeze, bleach, and vinegar. While the passageway itself was very short, deeper in the apartment was an equally cramped collection of items, causing serious inhibitions to Officer Jenkin’s ability to maneuver and see. Officer Jenkins then told us there were many cages filled with innumerable rats, some of which were dead. We agreed this was likely a partial cause of the smell. Due to the cramped conditions and the rats we decided the apartment was not safe to explore, and that Mr. Kowalczyk was most likely not present. After Officer Jenkins left the apartment we closed the door to prevent the smell in the hallway from getting worse. Then we went outside where we radioed to the station at approximately 19:30. We explained the situation and requested a biohazard team be called to deal with the rats, as well as any other things that may be causing the smell. It is my understanding that the biohazard team did come to the site, as well as the Fire Department, to deal with the cramped space. While I waited for these units to arrive I walked around the perimeter of the building. On the back wall, which was facing the creek and some small patch of woods, I saw a few windows I assumed were connected to Mr. Kowalczyk’s apartment. The windows were completely opened, the screen and glass had been removed. Inside the apartment it was black and cluttered, and there extended many more tubes, with more metal boxes attached to the outside wall in random places. Along the ground, and connected by more tubes to these windows, were a series of gauges, although I could not tell what they were designed to read. A pipe also came from the window and led to the creek, spilling out some foul-smelling brown liquid, polluting the creek with an iridescent sheen. Shooting upwards was metal chimneys releasing steam and perhaps other gasses out of the apartment. I did not see Ms. Allen again. Because I could no longer be of assistance I left the scene before the biohazard clean-up unit or fire department could arrive. Officer Jenkins and Officer Carmen were still at 55 Mill Avenue when I left. There is nothing else to report.

From: sally.vestal00@gmail.com

To: dallen01@albotrossproperties.org

Date: June 7, 2024, 9:50 AM

Subject: Re: Fwd: Maintenance Request Submitted on May 22, 2024

Mailed-by: gmail.com

Denise,

As I stated in my last email you will not be receiving any rent payments from me until the problems from apartment 2C are dealt with. This is the third email I’ve sent to you about it and it’s only getting worse. It is not my responsibility to make sure your tenants abide by the basic rules of safety and respect that everyone else in this building is required to follow. You can threaten to sue or evict me as much as you want, but this is my right according to PA law, as well as my lease. I am legally allowed to withhold rent until you make this building livable again. 

Because I cannot even sleep in my apartment anymore I am staying in a motel. I will not pay you until I am able to actually live in the place I am paying you for. And by the way, I am not the only tenant who feels this way. I know of at least one other person who has moved out to avoid all these problems. Please fix them immediately or I will be forced to have my lawyer contact you. 

Additionally, when I was in my apartment yesterday to grab some of my things, I saw that the coverings on the vents were removed and that there is some kind of work being done in my apartment. This is unacceptable. According to my lease you are obligated to tell me when you or work crew plan on coming into my apartment. I double checked my texts and emails and I have received no communication from you. I need to know why you were in my apartment and what you were doing.

Sincerely,

Sally Vestal.

From: dallen01@albatrossproperties.org

To: sally.vestal@gmail.com

Date: June 6, 2024, 11:32 AM

Subject: Re: Fwd: Maintenance Request Submitted on May 22, 2024

Mailed-by: albatrossproperties.org 

Dear Resident,

I appreciate the urgency of your request. I assure you that Albatross Properties is making a concerted effort to remedy these disturbances. However, we are unable to address any maintenance concerns while you are late on rent. As you are now six days past rent, and past the grace period, we cannot execute any of your requests until your payments are current. I have copy and pasted the consequences of late payments below, so that you are fully aware of the consequences of failing to pay rent, as well as your responsibilities as a resident at Albatross Properties.

“1.4 RENT PAYMENTS

TENANT will pay to LANDLORD the MONTHLY RENT, in person or by US Postal Service, first-class mail addressed to 121 Edgewood Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

The date of the payment will be the date the payment is received and acceptable forms of payment are:

Personal Checks – NO POST DATED CHECKS

Certified Checks

Money Orders

Online Tenant Portal - ACH

Electronic Cash Payment - NO CASH

1.5 LATE RENT

TENANT will pay the MONTHLY RENT and all other TENANT obligations (parking, utilities, pet fees, etc.) to LANDLORD, in advance and without request by LANDLORD, on the first (1st) of each month during the TERM of the LEASE. TENANT will incur a $50.00 LATE FEE for MONTHLY RENT received after 11:59 pm on the 5th of a month regardless of holidays, weekends, mail delay, etc. or for any account balance (consisting of RENT and/or any other TENANT obligation) that exceeds $200.00 after 11:59 pm on the 5th of a month. All payments will be applied to oldest charge first”

“3.7 DEFAULT

Each one of the following is an event of default under this LEASE; an event of default is also called a violation: A. TENANT'S failure to pay RENT when due; or

B. TENANT'S failure to do anything else that TENANT is required to do in this LEASE and which is not remedied in fifteen (15) days after LANDLORD gives TENANT written notice that this LEASE will terminate in fifteen (15) days after the date of notice; or

C. The giving of false information or false signatures by TENANT to LANDLORD at any time; or

D. TENANT'S abandonment of the LEASED PROPERTY without

LANDLORD'S written consent before the LEASE ends.

3.8 REMEDIES

On a violation of any provisions of this LEASE by TENANT, LANDLORD, without prior notice to quit, can:

A. Declare this LEASE terminated,

B.Sue to evict TENANT, obtain possession of the LEASED PROPERTY and recover court costs and reasonable attorney fees incurred;

C.Collect any damages caused by TENANT'S failure to do any of TENANT'S other obligations under this LEASE and reasonable attorney fees incurred;

D. Sue TENANT to collect the unpaid TOTAL RENT, LATE RENT FEES, unpaid TENANT obligations, damages, court costs and reasonable attorney fees incurred.

E. In any court action mentioned in LEASE, if an authorized representative (non-attorney) is used to file and attend hearings, a charge of $100 per hearing or legal proceeding attended will be assessed to TENANT’s account. An additional $50 Administrative Fee will be charged for filing an "Order of Possession.""

Have a good weekend,

Denise Allen

ALBATROSS PROPERTIES

Property Manager: 55 Mill Avenue

412-242-0273

121 Edgewood Avenue, 

Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

From: sally.vestal00@gmail.com

To: dallen01@albotrossproperties.org

Date: June 3, 2024, 1:15 PM

Subject: Re: Fwd: Maintenance Request Submitted on May 22, 2024

Mailed-by: gmail.com

Hi Denise,

Thank you for letting me know that I am late on rent. However, you should know that I am late on rent purposefully. This is the second maintenance request I’ve submitted related to this problem, and the first one was completely ignored. I do not care why the problem has not been dealt with. It seems that you have forgotten about your responsibilities as a landlord. Attached below are the pages of my lease outlining your responsibilities. 

Evict whoever is staying in 2C, solve the problem, or call the cops and force him out. I cannot live in this building as long as it smells this way. I would also like to direct you to this law which clearly states that I do not have to pay my rent until my maintenance request is addressed and the apartment is livable again. 

Sincerely,

Sally Vestal

From: dallen01@albatrossproperties.org

To: sally.vestal@gmail.com

Date: June 2, 2024, 8:19 AM

Subject: Re: Fwd: Maintenance Request Submitted on May 22, 2024

Mailed-by: albatrossproperties.org 

Dear Resident,

Thank you for your concern. I cannot give you a specific timeline, but I assure you we will have the issue addressed as quickly as we can. Unfortunately we have run into some issues while attempting to contact the resident in apartment 2C. These communication errors are not the fault of Albatross Properties. 

Additionally, I would like to remind you that you are currently one day late on rent. You have a grace period until the fifth of June. Please remedy this as soon as possible.

Have a good day,

Denise Allen

ALBATROSS PROPERTIES

Property Manager: 

55 Mill Avenue

412-242-0273

121 Edgewood Avenue, 

Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

From: sally.vestal00@gmail.com

To: dallen01@albotrossproperties.org

Date: May 31, 2024, 2:04 PM

Subject: Fwd: Maintenance Request Submitted on May 22, 2024

Mailed-by: gmail.com

Good Afternoon,

I'm just following up on this maintenance request. Do you know when this problem will be fixed? The stench is becoming unbearable and if this continues I don’t know how I will be able to stay in my apartment. Additionally, 2C is putting up things in the hallways that do not belong there. Not only are they eye-sores, but they seem to be mechanical or electrical. I doubt this man is a certified electrician, and these items seem highly unsafe. Not to mention the fact that this is a blatant violation of the rules.

I am urging you to talk to him and fix this problem as soon as possible. This is also the second maintenance request I’ve put in about this problem, and I never heard anything back from the first one. I’m becoming very worried not only that the smell will go unaddressed, but also that something seriously wrong and seriously unsafe is taking place in 2C. 

Please give me an idea of when you will have this problem solved.

Thank you,

Sally Vestal.

From: no.reply.maintenance@albatrossproperties.org 

To: sally.vestal@gmail.com

Date: May 22, 2024, 7:08 PM

Subject: Maintenance Request Submitted on May 22, 2024

Mailed-by: albatrossproperties.org 

Dear Resident,

Your Maintenance Request has been received. We will address your problem as soon as possible.

Thank you,

ALBATROSS PROPERTIES

Maintenance Team

412-242-0273

121 Edgewood Avenue, 

Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

Chapter 8

Avery pulled out her phone to show me a picture of this year’s class. 

“This is the girl I’ve been telling you about, Rachel. She’s just got so many problems.”

I laughed, but felt a little bit sad. Avery laughed too.

“I can tell she tries, you know? But she’s not doing good. Last week she bit joey.”

I shook my head and took a sip of my latte.

“There’s always a kid like that. A biter.” 

“I know. Just about every year. It’s just so frustrating.”

“Oh believe me, I know.”

“I mean, I just want her to do good. She’s behind in everything. But she’s smart, you know? Or at least I think she is. She’s just too self-conscious to do any work. I always see her second guessing herself. And she’s got all these behavioral problems.”

“Have you talked to her parents about it at all?”

“Not yet, so far it’s been too early to tell if she actually needs help. Plus, I think something’s going on at home. I want to be careful and not, well, cause more problems.” Avery sighed “I don’t know.”

I frowned.

“If you think something serious is happening, you need to report it.”

“No, no, it’s not that I think anything like that. I just think, I don’t know, maybe a relative is sick or her parents are fighting. Normal stressors, nothing too bad. I just don’t think she’s handling it well. But it’s about getting to that point that, I don’t know, I might ask the counselor to talk to her or something.” 

I thought back to the various problematic kids I’ve had over the years. My mind wandered to a young Oscar Kowalczyk. I thought, at the time, that the full name sounded like an old man name, so I called him Ozzie. He didn’t seem to care what I called him one way or another, and neither did his parents. They were just as distant as he was. Distant from me, distant from each other, distant from everything.

Most of the time, I remember Oscar seeming completely cut off from his peers. He played alone at recess and during breaks, he sat at a table with all the other quiet kids during lunch and didn’t talk. He didn’t smile much, or get angry. But he did cry- randomly, suddenly, and violently. He would become inconsolable, and always at the most inconvenient times, like in the middle of a lesson. Usually I would just send him to the nurse. I couldn’t just stop all of class to find out what was wrong. I sent him to the counselor, too. It wasn’t much help. The counselor told me Oscar didn’t talk much, and when he did he never said anything useful. He would comment on things in the most neutral way possible, carefully avoiding talking about his feelings or opinions at all times. Nothing seemed to make him happy, but it seemed the whole world made him sad.

Oscar’s father had worked in one of the few remaining factories in town, I remembered that, but I couldn’t remember which one. Was it the glass factory? Or the aluminum factory? Anyway, I remember Oscar didn’t play like the other kids. He liked to repeat things. He might stack blocks in an even line, or a straight tower, and then knock them down. Then he would rebuild everything the same way. When given paper and crayons he would draw circles. Just circles. Rows and rows of circles. He would try to make them as similar as possible. 

“Wow,” I said one day, trying to get him to warm up and talk to me, “You’re really good at drawing those! I guess you get a lot of practice. They’re so perfect you’re like a machine!”

It was just a random comment, not even really a joke, but it stuck. I started calling him Mister Machine, and so did the other teachers. It seemed like it never really caught on with the kids though, and that’s probably a good thing. During career day his parents came to the school. We asked all of the parents to come by, and talk a little bit about their jobs. Then we would have snacks, that kind of a thing, just to get the kids to start thinking about their futures. 

“And what do you want to be when you grow up?” I asked Oscar.

He spoke timidly, looking at me and then quickly looking away. 

“I guess I want to be a machine.”

“Oh! You want to work with machines! Just like Dad!” I exclaimed. 

Personally, I thought it was sweet. Then I looked at Mr. Kowalczyk’s face. He was serious, and motionless, but in his eyes was a deep sorrow. I thought I offended him, maybe even the whole family. I didn’t talk to Mr. Kowalczyk again after that. I didn’t stop trying to help Oscar, though, but eventually the year ended and he moved up to the next class. I couldn’t do much for him after that. Then he graduated from elementary school and moved up to middle school. Then I never saw him again.

But that was almost 20 years ago, maybe even longer. Jeez, where does the time go? I wonder what Ozzie Kowalczyk is up to now.

Chapter 9

In fact, Oscar Kowalczyk, or Mr. Kowalczyk, or Ozzie, or Mr. Machine, or whatever you want to call him, was in the apartment at the time of the wellness check. However, he was not in a good shape (or any shape at all, really), and therefore was quite easy to miss. This is on top of the fact that his apartment was dark, cluttered, cramped, noisy, and scary. These factors combined to make Officer Jenkins overlook the poor, deteriorating man amidst his life’s work.

You see, Oscar had for some time been laboring at his machine, which required increasingly more of him mentally, physically, and socially. Since June fourth he had begun a very intense process, which he intended to complete. This process required all of him, and so he was not available by phone or email. He had also made sure to change the locks on the doors to ensure he would have complete privacy and, by extension, complete concentration through the duration of the process. 

Now, we are not talking about some magical spell, some hermetic ritual which requires the complete concentration of the subject to cast a magic circle of protection as he repeats the chants needed to summon- no, that’s not what Oscar needed the concentration for. Rather, he needed to concentrate on follow through. While planning the process he felt a cognitive dissonance, a simultaneous fear and need. To complete the process he would need the self-discipline and resolve of a self-mummifying munk. Oscar had felt as though his brain was split in two. The one half was telling him to take a flamethrower to his creation (not that it would do much against an impenetrable wall of metal with a melting point of 1540 degrees Fahrenheit). This half wanted to pack away the few personal belongings he owned and run off to the Irish countryside, where he could hide away amongst the luxurious blankets of moss, smell the petrichor and be one with the earth again. The other half of his brain wanted to gouge itself out and replace itself with whatever part was needed to keep the machine going. 

But Oscar didn’t want that, but he did. It was complicated and hard to parse, even for him. “I think” he thought one time “I think that I don’t want to do what I have to do for the machine, but I want the machine more than I don’t want to do what I have to do for the machine.”

March 15 2024

Quit my job today. 

From: dallen01@gmail.com

To: kowalczyk123@aol.com

Date: June 5, 2024, 2:30 PM

Subject: Re: Resident Transgressions- Action Needed

Mailed-by: gmail.com 

Dear Resident,

This is your final chance to communicate with me and grant me access to your apartment. If I do not hear from you by 11:59 PM Tomorrow (June 6) night, then consider your lease terminated.

Sincerely,

Denise Allen

ALBATROSS PROPERTIES

Property Manager: 

55 Mill Avenue

412-242-0273

121 Edgewood Avenue, 

Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

From: dallen01@gmail.com

To: kowalczyk123@aol.com

Date: June 4, 2024, 3:00 PM

Subject: Re: Resident Transgressions- Action Needed

Mailed-by: gmail.com  

Dear Resident,

I am outside your door with the cleaning crew, but I cannot enter your apartment. Let us in or I will be forced to consider more serious action, such as eviction. 

Additionally, you will be charged a fee for replacing the locks. 

Denise Allen

ALBATROSS PROPERTIES

Property Manager: 

55 Mill Avenue

412-242-0273

121 Edgewood Avenue, 

Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

From: dallen01@gmail.com

To: kowalczyk123@aol.com

Date: June 4, 2024, 7:22 AM

Subject: Re: Resident Transgressions- Action Needed

Mailed-by: gmail.com  

Dear Resident,

I really do not know how I could be more clear, or how you could not know what I am talking about. You are clearly playing dumb and it’s not acceptable.

Not being logged into your email is not an excuse. I have also contacted you through mail, and I have attempted to call you several times. As a resident at Albatross Properties you must maintain some line open for communication. 

The three day period I gave you has ended. I will be by with a cleaning crew later today to address this problem. We can discuss further actions when I see you this afternoon.

Sincerely,

Denise Allen

ALBATROSS PROPERTIES

Property Manager: 

55 Mill Avenue

412-242-0273

121 Edgewood Avenue, 

Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

From: kowalczyk123@aol.com 

To: dallen01@albatrossproperties.org 

Date: June 3, 2024, 10:36 PM

Subject: Re: Resident Transgressions- Action Needed

Mailed-by: aol.com 

Sorry about that, I’m not logged into my email very often. I don’t think I will be able to fix what you’re describing, and I honestly don’t know anything about it. Can you please clarify what the problem is and what I need to do?

Sent from my iphone

From: dallen01@albotrossproperties.org

To: kowalczyk123@aol.com

Date: June 2, 2024, 4:49 PM

Subject: Re: Resident Transgressions- Action Needed

Mailed-by: gmail.com 

Hello?

Denise Allen

ALBATROSS PROPERTIES

Property Manager: 

55 Mill Avenue

412-242-0273

121 Edgewood Avenue, 

Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

From: dallen01@albotrossproperties.org

To: kowalczyk123@aol.com

Date: June 2, 2024, 9:01 AM

Subject: Re: Resident Transgressions- Action Needed

Mailed-by: gmail.com 

Dear Resident,

The problems outlined in my last email have still not been addressed. Your actions are clearly against Albatross Properties policy. They are also clearly unhygienic and unsafe. This is not an issue that you can procrastinate on. We want to give you leniency since you have been renting with us for many years without incident, but this is unacceptable. 

Fix these problems immediately or we will be forced to take more extreme action, including charging you fees and potential eviction.

Sincerely,

Denise Allen

ALBATROSS PROPERTIES

Property Manager: 

55 Mill Avenue

412-242-0273

121 Edgewood Avenue, 

Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

From: dallen01@albotrossproperties.org

To: kowalczyk123@aol.com

Date: May 31, 2024, 10:12 PM

Subject: Resident Transgressions- Action Needed

Mailed-by: gmail.com 

Dear Resident,

Please read carefully, as this email contains a request for you to take immediate and specific action.

We have received multiple maintenance requests related to your apartment. These requests explain that there is a strong chemical and sewage smell emanating from your apartment. This smell has begun to leak into the apartments surrounding yours, the hallway, and even outside. You need to remove whatever the source of that smell is, and you will need to clean your apartment to rid it of that smell. You must do this immediately or we will be forced to send in a cleaning team ourselves. You must allow the cleaning team into your apartment, or else you must move out. We will allow you to break the lease early and move out if this is what you would like, but there will be a fee for breaking your lease, as well as a fee for the cleaning crew. If you refuse to clean your apartment willingly or move out and allow us to do it then you will face eviction. 

We have also been notified that you are building and installing various things in the hallways and along the outside walls, and some tenants suspect that you are feeding wires or similar things into their apartments through the vents, plumbing, and under doors and through windows. You must remove what you have put in the hallway and outside immediately. You will be charged the cost of repair for any damage left to these walls. Furthermore, the accusations regarding you altering other tenant’s apartments are surprising and bizarre. If we receive any more accusations like this we will instigate police action and terminate your lease. Under no circumstances may you enter or alter the apartment of another tenant without permission.

While we normally allow 15 days for tenants to execute a needed task, due to the severity of this situation you will have 3 days to make significant progress on this. To reiterate, we need you to:

Greatly reduce the smell coming from your apartment through removing its source and cleaning your apartment as thoroughly as necessary.

Remove everything you have installed outside of your apartment.

Stop entering or altering other tenant’s apartments.

You have THREE days to take the above actions. 

Sincerely,

Denise Allen

ALBATROSS PROPERTIES

Property Manager: 

55 Mill Avenue

412-242-0273

121 Edgewood Avenue, 

Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

March 16 

Well today is my first day unemployed since I was 14 years old. But really, I am only unemployed on paper. I know what work I must do. I just woke up and so I haven’t started yet, but I think I already know what section I’m going to do today. I quit to give myself more time to think, to plan, and to research, but maybe it was actually just the job holding me back. There I was just a single cog in the machine. Maybe I wasn’t even that. Maybe I was just a glass window, peering into the world of metal and grease I was employed for. Now that I don’t have to worry about that job I feel a well of inspiration and understanding inside me. I don’t feel the need to think or plan now. I know exactly what I need to do.

March 20 2024

I’ve been buying a lot of materials and starting to build. 

Because I have easiest access to water in the bathroom, that’s where I think I’m going to keep the cooling chambers. I’ve made a few pools in there already (I say pools- really they’re more buckets of water), but I may need to knock down the wall so I can transport myself AND the equipment quickly and safely to the pools from the living room, where the center of my operations is currently set up. Other than that, progress is going good and I don’t have too much else to write here.

The Rule and Exercises of Holy Working

A. Thatcher 

The Atlantic Monthly

1893

In the whole breadth of the Appalachian chain running through that southwest corner of Pennsylvania, a cool and misty sun shone. Men observed this mist while rubbing their tired eyes and rising to tend to the farm or hurry to work. The women, who had already awoke a half hour prior, were searing necessary portions of pork on cast iron for all the hungry men. 

This gray sun wobbling in the atmosphere cast an elegant, silver shine upon the many rivers and creeks that run like capillaries through the old mountains, bringing life and virility to everything they touch.

Not that you would be able to observe this peaceful morning in the firey town of Pittsburg, located as the beating heart of our county, in the chest of our mountains. 

In Pittsburg the heavenly dew of the morning was squashed with a smoke so dense that the silver sun instead took on an ill quality. It seemed morning never came, and the whole of the city experienced an endless twilight; a sensation only furthered by the angry fires which illuminated the sky at night. It was dark during the day, and sunny at night. 

In this city, on the south shore along the Monongahela River, sat a squat, dank hovel rented by the MacIntyre family, which consisted of an old husband, around the age of 60, and a wife around the age of 45. The family had three children. A boy the age of ten, a girl the age of twelve, and another boy the age of 15. MacIntyre Senior had been struggling to keep up with work since the mill purchased new, specialized machines that could do his work at a quarter of the cost. He was once the highest paid laborer there, working in a specialized and skilled field that took months to learn and years to master. He had survived accidents, avoided maiming, watched men fall into boiling cauldrons of molten iron, catch on fire, fall from the catwalk, and have their heads cracked and flattened by heavy equipment. But he had survived. He felt he deserved a metal of honor, a pension, something- anything to soothe him in his old age and provide for his family. Yet he had no savings to show. He had lost his skilled job, and was struggling to keep up in the only other jobs still available to him, jobs that required a physicality and energy only possessed by men under 35. After years of hard work and ten hour days in the factories all of MacIntyre Senior’s bones creaked. He found himself stiff and in pain in the morning, and cramping and in pain in the evenings. And now with the newly added 12 hour days and 24 hour shift, MacIntyre Senior worried about fainting on the job and falling victim to the infernal jaws of the oven.

While MacIntyre Senior moved in and out of jobs, Mrs. MacIntyre had taken in borders to supplement the family's income. Besides their oldest son, James MacIntyre, who was now expected to pay rent the same as his father, Mrs. MacIntyre had two borders: Conor Doyle and Adrian Kowalczyk. Conor Doyle was a bachelor new to the city of Pittsburg, as he had explained to the MacIntyre’s. He had been living in the town of Johnstown previously, but had moved to Pittsburg for the opportunity it offered many years ago. He had no family to speak of, although Mrs. MacIntyre did not ask, and he had made no significant progress in building a family of his own, or gaining better position within the factories. 

This morning the smog sat particularly thick in the air, perhaps due to some humidity that weighed down the relentless dark. The red gas lights flickered sadly upon the streets, and MacIntyre Senior slowly pulled the blanket from his body to rise and begin his long day. As he stirred, so did Mr. Doyle and young James MacIntyre, who shared a cramped mattress with MacIntyre Senior. Several feet away Mrs. MacIntyre had laid a few chunks of meat on plain earthenware dishes and set them upon the undecorated wooden table. Alongside this were slices of bread, spread thick with butter. 

Mrs. MacIntyre herself had once been nothing but muscle and bone, with modest, but agreeable hair and a plain, but nonetheless supple expression. But now, after years affected by the smoke and ceaseless work of the busy town, she bore stringy patches of graying hair, and a thin and unwell expression. The food available went to her husband and the borders. Times were as hard as ever. Now she fiddled with some rag, dusting various tables and stools. As she did, puffs of black soot exploded into the air, and she hacked painfully as a result. MacIntyre Senior readied himself for the day while Mr. Doyle and James twisted their calloused bodies around the one, thin quilt on the bed. They avoided the work hours quickly impending, but MacIntyre Senior had learned long ago to rise early so he could finish two cups of coffee before trudging to the mill. 

Today was an unfortunate day for MacIntyre Senior. It was a day where he had no job to go to, no particular place to be; and yet, he rose just on time for work, as he had the last 30 years. He planned to join his fellow unemployed men in the long line outside, where they waited to see if they might be needed for the mill that day. He found himself increasingly surrounded by Hungarians who spoke hard languages shot off the tongue like canons, or chaffed it like scrubs. They were loud, he thought, and unmannered. He held his head high, and grouped with the other english-speaking men towards the front. These men were like him, mostly older, with a background in the skilled trades of iron and steel. Some of them were even union workers- or they had been, when they were employed. Now they were reduced to relying on the capriciousness of contractors and managers. MacIntyre Senior said to Mrs. MacIntyre,

“I hope there’s work that needs done today.”

“Yes.” She replied, automatically, while swiping her rag across the one windowsill of the house. 

But secretly, MacIntyre Senior hoped there was nothing to be done.

April 15th 24

ive been extremely busy building and putting things together. i’ve built deeper pools in the bathroom and they are stunning. When the machine is going in the living room i stick my hands in the pools. Soon i want to submerge myself completely in them. The water is relaxing and it helps my headaches. I have headaches almost constantly now. I have a hard time standing up and exerting myself, so i may need to take it slow or use a ladder if I decide to get in to them.

The nearby pet store uses the baby rats for snakes, i think, and maybe Im kind of using them for the same thing. I have almost a dozen now. Their bulbous eyes look at me and even now that ive removed the overhead light. I can see them seeing me. They are digusting to me. Their eyes are always wet and shining. I wonder what they think of me and if they know what their fate is. I’m sure they hate me. I’m sure theyre waiting for an opportunity to escape and eat me. It doesn’t matter. I have to do this to them. It’s for me, but its for them too. We all need it. They just dont get it yet. And maybe they never will, they are just stupid rats. 

i have nothing else to write about. ive had enough sitting and pointless writing for the day, anyway.

April 17 2024

I think because of the weight of the pools I may soon have to extend some supports outside. Also, I need much better ventilation and drainage systems. Unfortunately this does require more planning so it will be a while before i can make significant progress in this area.

On the other hand, my pressurized tubes came today so I can hook them up to the steam compressor. I also finally got my hands of a better welding torch and im hoping to expand production capacity on the left wall. 

I also need to get gauges asap. Ive just been eyeballing everything or manually reading it. Fortunately operations are becoming to big and I’m going to blow my machine up if i dont develop better protocols for keeping track of all this stuff

Unfortunately im continuing to have the headaches and the exhaustion. Its not that its making it hard to work, im as motivated as ever, but im fainting occasionally. Or at least i think i am. Sometimes im standing, and then im suddenly on the ground, not sure how i got there. I think thats how they say you know youre fainting. Plus, i have some mysterious bruises on my face. Im scared that i’ll faint and something will happen, and then i won’t get to finish my machine. Or that something will happen and ill fall into the machine. Now that i know what it can do to flesh i feel vividly aware of its danger, and of its power. I don’t want to know what i would look like coming out the other side.

April 18 24

I can’t believe I ever woke up for work on the daily and wasted my time there. Since i have begun to focus full - time in my machine i have discovered so much of my needs quelled. I rarely feel tired (i dont even need to sleep anymore), and i can go so much longer without food than before. Sure i faint, my body is tired, but mentally im the best ive ever been. Of course i still have most of my physical needs. The machine is mostly mental. I don’t ache like i used to. I don’t yearn. I don’t cry. I don’t get over excited and i don’t get afraid. My mind is singular and pure and strong. I can’t wait to see my machine in full. 

April 30

Tonight I will go into the halls and start taking measurements. 

It's getting harder to ignore the growing demands of the machine and unfortunately the rats only provide so much. Based on the readings I think I know what the machine requires but I know I won't be able to continue helping it grow if I follow through. I will have to come up with a more sustainable plan. 

Chapter 22

Oscar Kowalczyk knew not what the purpose of the machine he built was, he only knew that he must build it. This was despite his reservations, fear, and pain. The machine was, after all, for power, for innovation, for progress, and for experimentation. All good things, and all things that occasionally require sacrifice. And so, our Oscar figured, he must find within himself the concentration needed for follow through.

But what of this process? And how did Mister Machine come to the conclusion that for his machine to thrive, he must, well, increase his entropy? Oscar first discovered the requirement of the machine through the rats; or rather, a singular, very unlucky rat. Allow me to tell you the story.

The Story of Ozzie Kowalczyk and the No Good, Very Unlucky Rat (Sub-chapter)

Late one fine evening Ozzie Kowalczyk was laboring by his magnificent and powerful machine as usual. The windows in his apartment were shut tight, with heavy blankets standing at attention to shoo out any pesky natural light that attempted to blaze the skin of our very isolationist protagonist. However, if you could see outside, you would see, to the west, a hot red sun sinking low behind the hills, which were only a few weeks away from commencing their annual three-month summer cicada scream fest. A few narrow clouds laid like needles across this scene, glinting shades of rich purple, magenta, and pink. Higher up the sky took on a darker, royal blue robe, and to the west the sky glowed a magical, but less-royal shade of blue. Unfortunately for the rat in Ozzie’s apartment, it did not have the time to sit on Ozzie’s windowsill and watch the final bursting colors of daylight, it was a busy rat, it had mouths to feed. Well, in reality, this rat only had one mouth to feel: his own mouth. You see our rat, much like Ozzie himself, was a bachelor rat. However, he liked to say that he “had mouths to feed at home.” This had a hint of irony- he felt. He was an irresponsible rat, with no intention of ever being committed to taking care of hungry, baby rats; and so this irony tickled him. “I have to find food and get home!” Our rat thought to himself as he scurried around the increasingly labyrinthine corners of Ozzie’s apartment, “I have mouths to feed!”

Our poor, unfortunate rat may have been irresponsible, and may have only truly been searching for his own dinner, but he certainly didn’t deserve the fate he had coming. You see, our rat had clamoured into some tight squeeze, surrounded by metal above and below, and to the right and left. Though he did not smell anything appetizing, instead only something rather astringent and unpleasant, he curiously stuck his nose in this crevice, partially searching for some forgotten, stray, nonaromatic crumb, and partially investigating the bizarre scent abusing his nostrils. When he did, his clumsy and irresponsible rat ass knocked some unknown object in front of the space he had entered from. So now, he was surrounded by metal on five sides, with cardboard blocking the front entrance. Our sad rat quickly began to panic in the small hole. “The walls are closing in!” He thought. In the dark, with only his trusty schnoz to guide him, he knew that ahead of the cardboard lay some unpleasant chemical agent; and yet, with no other option, he began to dig frantically at the vulnerable, pre-frayed corner of the cardboard box. It wasn’t long before he tore and chewed a hole large enough for his rat body of considerable size to shimmy through. On the other side he was pleased to discover something not immediately caustic. Although he could not identify the exact properties of this chemical, our rat observed that he was struggling to swim to the top of many large (large to him- small to us… unless you are a rat reading this) and powdery pellets. If this rat could have seen in such dark conditions, he would have also noted that the pellets were white. 

Meanwhile, Oscar Kowalczyk was near to the box, readying himself to give his machine a cleaning cycle. Too absorbed by the process, he did not notice that the top layer of his bleach pellets was shifting and wiggling like a mudskipper dancing to the water. Soon, he was lifting the box, rat still hopelessly trapped, and walking over to the funnel of his industrial-grade vegetable pulverizer, which he had purchased off of Ebay from a dead farmer’s wife’s new boyfriend. All at once, he turned he box over, rat and pellets alike falling into the relentless teeth of the machine. Our rat tried to crawl out, jumping from pellet to pellet and scraping his tiny rat claws against the metal siding of the funnel- but it was like trying to walk up a down escalator- he just kept going down, only slower. 

It only took a moment for Oscar to put down the empty box and peer into the funnel before he noticed the scrambling rodent atop the chalk white sea of bleach. In actuality, he could have slammed the off switch on the pulverizer and saved the rat’s life, but in his shock and horror he forgot entirely that the process could be stopped. He jumped and lifted his hands up, ready to greatly risk his own structural integrity by plunging one down into the funnel and collecting the rodent himself, but he soon thought against it. Instead, he stared as the rat began to fall into the machine.

May 4th 2025

I can’t stop picturing myself falling into the machine. Maybe picturing isnt even the ripht word. Its like painting with my mind. Ribbons of blood and flesh and thick swirls of red here, white there, a startling bone and a loose nail, playful visual poetry. Not even the best artists could imagine paintings capturing the emotions i feel. I don’t know that anyone else has ever felt them, before, i might be the first, i might be alone.

It’s not good. It’s bad. I’m afraid constantly of it. I know more than i ever wanted to what the machine can do to me, to anyone. And i know what it feels like too, affer the last few injuries. I still shake a little bit when i think of it. I still feel sick. I still don’t feel right. I wish there was something i could do to stop this, but the protective measures that would make things better just… dont work in my apartment. Its too small, and im the only one doing all the work. It’s not good, its wrong. Im sleeping next to the gears practically, or next to the bubbling and angry cooling pools. One wrong turn and i become a painting. I cant live with that. I don't know what to do.

The Rule and Exercises of Holy Working

A. Thatcher 

The Atlantic Monthly

1893

Mrs. MacIntyre faced a ceaseless barrage of soot that stuck to her dress while she worked, the surfaces while she was resting, and the air while she existed in any fashion. She had developed a terrible cough, passed on to her daughter and youngest child, Kate. As well, she experienced persistent shortness of breath while she was fretting about the house, and especially as she delivered lunch to her men at the mill. 

MacIntyre Senior had finished his breakfast and left the house, shutting the dry old board door hard behind him. Mrs. MacIntyre started at the noise. Although MacIntyre Senior had not meant to slam the door, the frailty of the cheap home could not compete with the industrial strength he had developed from years of hard labor. Across the room and from behind a gray sheet that hung from the ceiling to separate the meager one-room building, a sheet perpetually sticky with coal dust, Conor Doyle and James stirred. Kate, who slept on a small cot past the same curtain, first stepped out into the main section of the room. She found the table laid out with breakfast and sat on one of the wood stools.

“It’s not time for your breakfast yet.” Her mother said. “Go fetch some more water.” 

And with that, Kate was sighing and putting on her boots, pulling her coat over her shoulders and down hair, picking up an empty bucket, and exiting into the cold and smoggy street; careful not to slam the door as she left.

Mrs. MacIntyre looked at the other two sets on the table. Then she made her best attempt to shout, which was not much, as the soot in the air choked the noise out of her daily 

“Breakfast’s getting cold!”

Finally, the two men stepped out from behind the sheet, pulling it back so that the bed-room was fully visible. The sheets had been piled unevenly on the mattress, causing Mrs. MacIntyre to look on with disappointment. She did not mind making the bed, however, every minute with the bed unmade was a minute of precious warmth escaping the sheets. And Adrian should soon be on his way home. 

It was a cold morning, and it had been for several weeks. Mrs. MacIntyre’s heart bled for Adrian Kowalczyk. She knew he would arrive at the house ready to collapse, and with only an insufficient coal stove on the opposite wall Adrian would be cold when he laid down if the other men would not keep the warmth for him. Mr. Kowalczyk was new to Pittsburg, and new to the grueling factory schedule which permitted no breaks and demanded a stiff 12 hours of work per day. He was weak and unprepared for this rough lifestyle. Mrs. MacIntyre adjusted the pin on her apron. She thought that quickly going from the hot air in the factory, to the cold air outside, would shock your system and make you prone to syndromes- and she thought the naive and studious Mr. Kowalczyk was already prone to syndromes. 

The other men in the MacIntyre household did not care about Mr. Kowalczyk. In fact, MacIntyre Senior initially denied him permission to stay at the MacIntyre house. There were neighborhoods filled with people who dressed like him and spoke his language, and were from the same place as him. MacIntyre Senior found it unnatural that Mr. Kowalczyk wanted to stay with his family. However, Adrian had been determined to learn English, so that he may progress past common laborer and to a skilled position, or perhaps even a professional one. In the other Polish communities his neighbors planned to return to Europe with money saved in America. With this money they intended to buy wide plots of land for farming, indubitably raising their social strata in the home country. With no intention to establish permanency in our great land, they continued to speak their language. Although Mr. Kowalczyk had learned to mutter a small number of necessary English phrases promptly after his arrival in America, he sought to surround himself with this language largely foreign to him, so that he may become fluent in it. After being sent away from the MacIntyre’s, Mr. Kowalczyk visited every other door in this same Irish corner of Pittsburg, facing only a litany of rejections. That evening Mrs. MacIntyre took pity on Adrian Kowalczyk’s determined soul and through stressing to her husband that money was scant, convinced him to take Adrian in as a border for two dollars per week.

So far, the man had failed to advance in his mill position, though he had greatly improved his English speaking abilities. As he learned, he also labored hard each and every day, so that he ached terribly when his shift was over. Adrian became so stressed with vision swimming during his walk home, he began collapsing fast into bed, where forever pitying Mrs. MacIntyre would bring him dinner. If MacIntyre Senior were to observe the lousy sight of his wife delivering a polak meat in bed, he would likely throw the man out into the alley- so it was indeed lucky that he often worked opposite shifts as Mr. Kowalczyk, and that Mr. Kowalczyk had not yet needed such care after working the day shift. 

Today was the end of one such shift where Adrian Kowalczyk had labored from 6 P.M. the day prior, and would work until 6 A.M. this morning- only one half hour from the present time.