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On Top of Slag Mountain
The Walmart in West Mifflin is built on Brown’s Dump, also known as Slag Mountain. This slag was dropped off by trains from all of the surrounding steel mills around Pittsburgh. At the time the Walmart was proposed, there was concern that the earth hadn’t settled yet and the store would collapse in an avalanche of cheap junk. Truly, there was worry that the prices would keep on rolling, but down onto the streets below. Earlier this morning I was waiting for a bus to go back home, standing on top of Slag Mountain. It started out as a rough day.
The previous night I gave my girlfriend Chel a birthday present early, a pair of Galaxy earbuds. I bought them refurbished from Best Buy because they were supposedly guaranteed to be in perfect condition, they nearly half-off, and I was tight. At 31, I’ve finally managed to eek out a fair living between a job at an escape room and doing medical research studies on the side. The occasional writing or editing gig. The earbuds weren’t that expensive but the holidays had wiped me out. After Chel got a chance to play with them a while, the earbuds didn’t seem to be charging, but what do we know? We left them plugged in overnight. The hope was I’d wake up and hear they were fine, but sure enough they didn’t work. I was supposed to have a meeting with an agent that afternoon which got cancelled for a phone call instead, so I decided to spend the morning returning the…
