I feel free.

Once again, they turn of the light and left me alone in the darkness. And there I was, all alone in the moist, warm room. The smell in the room is its own, I can feel the sent of freshly washed cloths but also the smell from stinky old socks.

Every hour someone comes in and gives me company for a short amount of time. This room isn´t the most popular place. It’s hot, most of the time it stinks, and you don’t want to stay here longer than you need. But when someone comes to visit it feels like a hole in my stomach fills up. Or maybe it does? Some days more than others, sometimes too much.

In my whole, long life, I have only seen darkness or rusty old walls with dust, but then this day came. I somehow got help to get out of my lonely place in the tiny room and for the first time I can feel the smell of saltwater. I can for the first time see the blue sparkling ocean, feel how the sun burns on my body and how the wind blows around me. For once I could feel free. This was my dream, to come out of that stinking room and breath some fresh air.

It was not for so long that my life was wonderful and free, I was soon dragged into my loneliness and the warm moist room. But now, when I am back in my place, the room looks like it´s almost newly painted and the floor doesn’t have a single piece of dirt laying there. The ones around me doesn’t react, in fact they haven´t react or talked to me all these days and years. It´s just me and all the dirty laundry.

This is the story of a washing machine here on our ship T/S Gunilla. This day both the washing machine and the washing room was deeply cleaned. It was one of the hottest days so far and you don’t even want to know the temperature in the washing room. The washing machines are now happier than ever.

Ina Strömberg