Done to
Posted by Carl on April 15, 2026 at 20:26:38
There is a feeling that I used to have when I was young. My brother had it too. We called it "done to". It was a kind of fizzy feeling in the forehead which could spread around to the ears, when someone - probably an adult - was doing something to/for you, such as tying your shoe-laces, wiping a smudge off your cheek, counting your fingers while telling you a story.
I had almost forgotten it until my 3rd week as a Glovo deliverer, when I was directed to a bar in Santa Cruz to pick-up 'Drinks sample'. When I entered the bar, I was ushered to an area without much light and asked to sit on a low stool with a material covered sponge covering. I could feel damp from the stool seeping through my jeans.
A possibly man with long flowing black hair arrived with a large jar (maybe 2 litres) of yellow liquid with a white plastic cap. It looked heavy for his slight frame. He had a calm, soft voice I was told the door would be unlocked to the delivery. He set the jar on a black wooden table beside me, and sat on a stool in front of me, and wrapped my hands in his, and gave my commission. That's when a feeling of "done to" blossomed across my forehead.
He said the front door at the destination would be open, and I should take the jar up the stairs into the first room on the right, and pour it over the person I found there, then piss on them.
I was agog when I went out of the bar and put the jar in my Glovo bag. It was not a short journey, because I was on my bike, the delivery was in La Laguna, up continual steep hills. And some of the way it was raining hard. I was very soaked when I arrived.
The house was just like it was described to me, and it felt like deja vu as I climbed the stairs and found the door on the right, which stood ajar. A person was sitting in a low, comfy chair, and he raised his head when I came into the room. I'm not sure, but it looked like the person I'd received the jar from in the bar.
I knelt down and took the jar from the yellow Glovo bag and asked, "I'm to pour this over you?" He nodded, with maybe I could say a calm melancholy expression? I did it carefully, and it felt like I was anointing him. The jar was heavy in the beginning and my muscles felt it. I poured from the top of his head slowly and it ran down one side of his dark hair. I continued to the end of his sleeve. Then started again from his head down to the end of his right sleeve. And then reached over his head and poured some down his back, and then around his neck, down his front and over each leg as far as his knee with the remainder. He looked at me and his lips moved to say some words I couldn't hear.
I said, "I should piss on you now?" He nodded, and looked down. I unzipped my jeans and I did as I was bade. It was difficult to start, but it lasted about 10 seconds, I think. Onto each leg and his clasped hands.
For many seconds I stood still waiting for what came next, but nothing did. I put the lid on the jar, and left it on the floor, picked up my Glovo bag and left respectfully.
It was the most surreal experience and I knew that I never wanted to do anything else. I freewheeled most of the way back into Santa Cruz and returned to the bar, but it was closed, and locked. I haven't been back again yet today. Can I get a job doing this kind of work regularly?
I keep wondering whether the person in the La Laguna house was the same as the person in the bar, who had wrapped his hands around mine, and given my that wonderful sense of peace. It was dim in the bar and rather dark in the La Laguna room as well. When I walked through the door from the hallway, I was blocking most of the light on the customer. And the light in the room came from underlit bookshelves around the walls. Well, it's only the day after the event. Maybe I will have been filmed making my delivery and will be on TV or something. I find myself not minding. The experience was worth anything.
It was a singular experience, wasn't it? I'm not imagining that? I'm a newstart a Glovo, but this must be incredibly rare, isn't it? Or isn't it?
And do you think it is a coincidence that task came to me? I guess others would have reacted very differently than I did.