Sidework

By: Sasha Wol-Soon Hom

In this thought-provoking and often humorous page-turner of a novella, a Korean adoptee waitress and mother of four loses her home when the intentional community/commune where her and her family used to live - off-grid, in a canvas tent on 300-acres - is sold, ever since wildfires, floods, gentrification (a different sort of natural disaster), and the legalization of marijuana irrevocably changed the landscape of where they live, the coyotes now passing through more frequently. Now, surrounded by some of the wealthiest counties in the nation, the family sleeps in their van with their two wolf-dogs in the parking lot of a Walmart or Whole Foods or 24-Hour Fitness. Sidework takes place during a Sunday breakfast shift as our homeless hero waits tables at a popular ' Cash Only' diner tucked in the Redwoods, frequented by growers, rock stars, Dreamers, tycoons, and tourists alike. She hustles hard, flipping as many tables as humanly possible, knocking her already unstable co-workers out of the way. But each order she takes, each interaction- be it with Tom Waits, the Grim Reaper, a porn star, a tattoo artist, the barista with Lyme' s, a possibly, long-lost blood sister, or The Fates - serves only to bring her closer to her ghosts. Unnamed and unknown, from far off continents, they ask her what it means to be a good mother yet alone a good waitress when children are suiciding, orangutans are bulldozed from their homes, and the apple orchards are ripped out by their roots to make way for grapevines. And still, she can' t pass a background check to rent a home - not enough verifiable income. Until a Bohemian Grove escapee walks in and all the platters come crashing, right before the end of her shift. Intricately woven, lyric, and atmospherically layered, Sidework makes the mystic and mythic mundane while taking on issues of immigration, colonization, climate change, homophobia, history, family, motherhood, adoption, capitalism, genetics and the like, as well as the loss of more than just one co-worker.