IT WAS NEARING six o’clock in the morning as indicated by a large ironware clock that hung over the entrance to the factory floor. Jenny entered through the heavy doors, having trudged across the murky yard. The entire area was soaked by tenacious drizzle, as was her cloak and bits of uniform beneath it. Removing the outerwear, she folded it up and set it on a small shelf beneath her station along the central tables. Brushing out what wrinkles she could, she looked around at the same time, thankful that Evelyn had brought her to Sucio just over a week ago and was able to pull some favors so Jenny got in at one of Winthrope Limited’s locations.
While many of the neighboring mills and factories had already been at work for an hour or more, steam had yet to collect overhead in any of Winthrope’s facilities, the hefty machinery that normally hiccupped and belched the vapor to the rafters still dormant like some great, sleeping beast. In the shadows of pipes and pistons, Jenny stared at those unnerving work bots as they moved around, preparing to wake it.
I wonder why Mr. Winthrope doesn’t just upgrade those things to look more…
Suddenly, the doors burst open and Jenny’s attention fell on a stream of ladies flowing into the room, their light outfits reminiscent of a river cascading into channels formed by the tables. It was an impressive sight, all the women ready to get their long days started, though due to Winthrope’s generosity they would end an hour before everyone else, too.
“Today’s the day!” sang a somewhat round woman as she took a seat beside Jenny and cracked her stubby knuckles. Her gentle face was full of excitement, even though it was somewhat dirty.
“For what, Penny?” Jenny asked with a smile, clueless about what she was talking about. Nonetheless, her good mood was infectious and a great counter for the horrible weather.
“A visit,” whispered Amelia Ward giddily from Jenny’s left, her face red and nearly bursting. She looked like a matchstick.
“A visit from who?”
“Mr. Winthrope!” Penny and Amelia said together and the building literally shook with the sheer amount of swooning breath that was drawn in at that moment, then sighed melodiously out.
“T-that’s today?” Jenny said, now recalling a mention of something about it a day or so ago. She was trying her best to be indifferent, but inside she was happy for the chance to meet and hopefully thank him for being so upstanding.
“Really now,” said a downright depressing voice.
It was uttered by a harsh-looking woman with graying hair drawn up into such a tight bun that years of wrinkles were removed from her face. As she continued to speak, her long and un-tight neck wobbled.
“Decorum, ladies,” she underscored sourly through pursed lips. “This is a place of business, not one for girlish fancies or frivolity. Need I remind you Miss Ward that the last thing you need is for the foreman to catch you again. He’ll have you out on the street before your last swoon is out! The same goes for you Miss Langsdale.”
“Oh, come now,” Jenny said as the first set of pistons cranked. “If we must put in the work, why not get some enjoyment out of it?”
“Because it is pointless,” the woman hissed, stressing the S so much Jenny waited for steam to vent from her ears and a metal part to be spat out of her mouth for assemblage.
“It is pointless… to be happy?” Jenny asked in disbelief, the real parts forthcoming.
“Quite…”
Without another word to the miserable woman (she didn’t even know her name nor cared), Jenny snatched up the first of her components and set to put together a thing the other ladies called a controller assembly. The monotonous task continued for hours and Jenny fell into a mindless rhythm, allowing the time to tick by quickly until it was broken by two things that fast became just as repetitive. The first was not pleasurable in the slightest, having nothing to do with work but everything to do with the foreman and his salacious advances. One would be hard pressed to find anything that could induce vomiting faster than a detestable beard surrounding an equally loathsome mouth that insisted upon getting too close to one’s skin. The second had the potential to be much more satisfying, if it came to be. Periodically, the entrance doors would fling open and Jenny’s eyes would nimbly shoot over each time, anticipating Mr. Winthrope standing in the doorway illuminated by the rising sun.
Unfortunately, that had yet to happen, her gaze – along with that of Penny and Amelia – were instead met by the bun-lady’s cricked neck and dissecting stare. Jenny would make sure to frown at her, mulling over the sheer amount of spitefulness she saw in the workforce.
I can see why they would be bitter relative to the foreman and those always groping hands, she thought, but to see it amongst ourselves, rampant where it should be minimal, is disheartening.
In the week Jenny was there, she’d seen many overly catty reactions or heard judgmental remarks made by women about other women, but none were more the topic of discussion than she was. Perhaps it was because Jenny was the new girl from the other side of the wall, with a different look and differing point of view. To her, that was something that should be celebrated, putting on a united front against their issues instead of being constantly against each other in some competition without a prize. But apparently, such things should be suppressed, as done by people who needed a negative regimen as much as air to survive.
“Don’t mind her,” whispered Penny as she tightened some bolts with a wrench, slamming the tool down before handing the unit off down the line. “Until you arrived I was the target of her berating. To be honest, I always thought it was a means of deflecting the fact she’s smuggling some of these parts out of here.”
“Oh my! Really?” Jenny muttered, flabbergasted while casting a sideways glance. “How in the world?”
Amelia leaned over and Jenny dipped her head, expecting a juicy reveal.
“We think she has one shoved up front and another tightly in the rear,” Amelia said in a voice so mousy she could barely be heard over the general noise.
Jenny gasped, conjuring a visual before the trio tittered.
“That explains quite a lot,” she replied, catching a hawkish glare from across the table. They didn’t care, continuing unashamedly until their laughs were spent.
A couple more hours wound their way around the clock and lunch had at last arrived with the strike of noon. The machines and bots still toiled away as the women filed out of the work area for their break. Penny and Amelia stood, followed by Jenny who rose stiffly between them.
“Your back doing all right, dear?” asked Penny, placing her arms at the low of her own as she stretched. “After all these years, mine is murder by this time.”
“More like by the first hour,” said Amelia as her joints popped loudly.
“That’s because you need to eat more!” Penny said with concern, her narrowed eyes hunting for any sign of meat on the girl’s frame. “There’s no cushioning for your bones! You look like a rail.”
“I would if I could afford to,” Amelia scowled, now glancing at her thin arms in comparison to Penny’s plump ones.
Penny shook her head saying, “You earn the same wage I do and though it pains me – as nosy as I am – I’m not going to ask what you end up doing with yours. Nope; it’s none of my business!” Though she just denied it, she really did look as if she wanted to know. “Come on! Time’s wasting and you do need to eat!”
The pair of them set off but Jenny delayed.
“Are you coming?” Amelia asked, halfway to the door already. “We’ve only a half hour…”
“I’ll join you two shortly,” she said, wanting to spend a moment alone.
“all righty, just be sure you don’t lose track of time and go and miss break; we still have six more hours to go!”
“I won’t,” Jenny said as her two friends disappeared through the door and down the passage leading to the dining hall. She turned back around and sat for a moment, looking at the floor.
“I miss you…” she whispered, pulling from around her neck a filigreed silver locket attached to thin chain.
Placing it between her thumb and forefinger, she flicked the locket open and looked at the tiniest lumograph of her mother. The short banter between Penny and Amelia reminded Jenny of her mother’s often failed attempts to get her to eat vegetables growing up and, for some reason, the memory came in and hit her like a locomotive.
The minutes passed and while she reminisced, several footsteps approached behind her.
“Oh sorry, you two,” Jenny said, closing the locket and putting it away. “I did exactly what I said I wouldn’t and lost track of …”
“Your place?” said a voice that didn’t belong to Penny or Amelia. It was far more shrill, predatory.
Jenny rose slowly and turned right into a pair of beady eyes peering from beneath a familiarly taunt bun.
“I beg your pardon?” Jenny snapped.
“Oh look at her now, acting all innocent-like,” said a shrew-like girl with kinky hair that looked like it had been grabbed in too many random fits. “We know all about you now, don’t we Miss Persimmons?”
“Undoubtedly,” the uptight woman replied, her eyes never wavering. Behind her, the group of women grew to number a half dozen.
Jenny could feel her skin prickling, knowing where this was headed. Looking around for the foreman, he must’ve been at lunch himself; the space where he was normally perched in his window empty.
“If you would please hurry, Miss Persimmon, is it? I would like to spend what little time remains of lunch alone.”
“Persimmons,” she corrected, still hissing like a snake. “Funny that you mention you’d like to be alone now my dear Miss Boone; perhaps the company you keep at night keeps you quite… occupied.”
There was a round of heckling sniggers, punctuated by Miss Persimmons’ pretentious throat clearing.
“What?” snapped Jenny.
“Stop pretending!” the ratty girl charged. “We heard you arrived with Evelyn Richards! Some of us seen you! That louse is only good for one thing!”
“I hear she’s good for a great many things,” Miss Persimmons corrected snobbishly. “Especially when basking in the glow of a red light…”
Knowing how kind-hearted Evelyn was and that she was trying her hardest to champion equal rights for all, even the bitch in front of her, Jenny became enraged.
“I would strongly suggest that you watch what you say,” Jenny told her, leaning compellingly over the table.
“Or you’ll what?” Miss Persimmons asked, unfazed. “Show me how a wasteland jezebel handles a situation?”
“You seem to be doing just fine with that all by yourself…”
The mouthy girl’s jaw hit the floor, her bucked teeth chewing on the air.
“How dare you!” she squeaked, and a split second later she was shoving a palm right into Jenny’s forehead.
There was a flash of light followed by a flurry of intense spots, Jenny stumbling backward in a stupor right into something hard. As her vision returned, fuzzy at first, she leaned against the wall and saw the faces of Persimmons and her motley crew, aghast.
“Oh. My. Goodness! My sincere apologies!” Miss Persimmons insisted, dropping her shaking hands away from her mouth.
Jenny groaned before replying, “I’m not sure how sincere you can be considering…”
“This must have been an accident,” said a man’s voice from very close behind.
Jenny bounded away from the wall, spinning to discover it was no wall at all. There, standing in front of her was none other than Jesse Winthrope, debonair as ever in his tan suit and brown trench coat, even with a stack of crumpled documents piled in a heap over his leather shoes.
For a split second, it became so quiet one could hear a pin drop. The other ladies were still recoiled, arrested by fear and embarrassment while Jenny could only manage an awkwardly flattering stare right at Jesse’s face.
What are you doing?! she screamed at herself, becoming mortified.
Yet, before she mustered the energy to flee, something soothed her, something so astronomically impossible that she wanted to pinch herself to see if she was dreaming. Staring back at her from those beautiful brown eyes was the exact, same look.
“I… I am so sorry,” Jenny said at once, dropping to her knees where she started collecting the fallen documents.
He followed, planting a knee to the floor (and the ladies watching nearly fainted at the sight), smiling at the one time the sound of rustling paper could fill his heart with joy.
This is her, he thought excitedly. The woman from the market. What are the odds! I must speak with her about the attack, find out…
He stopped thinking as soon as his hand brushed up against hers.
What was this strange thing he felt? It was like the enjoyment he got out of his work but so much deeper. Something had passed between the two of them at that perfect moment, unseen but certainly felt.
Her skin is so supple and smooth…
Jenny felt the same way, obnoxiously thoughtless while her head swam in a cloud of delight.
His skin is so soft and warm….
They both looked at each other, wearing smiles inside and out, bursting with a feeling that should be long brewed, yet given in a moment of breathless surprise.
Their hands began to reach for each other to embrace.
“My goodness, what is the meaning of this!” came the voice of the foreman. Even his tone managed to foam like his lips, quickly snapping the duo back to reality.
Butler reached down and snatched Jenny’s arm away from Jesse’s, forcefully using his grip to jerk her to her feet.
“Mr. Winthrope! This incident is all my fault!” he proclaimed apologetically. “I assure you that I only stepped away for a mere few moments.” He looked at Jenny with revulsion. “I will see to it that Miss Boone is severely…”
“Excused,” Jesse replied tenderly, and Butler’s disgust turned to aggravation. “We cannot go around reprimanding workers that have done nothing wrong, other helping a clumsy fellow pick up his mess.”
We cannot go around consorting with employees nor those in classes that are beneath us either! Butler imagined himself shouting back to Jesse, but of course he stayed silent.
Jenny grinned but Butler looked more annoyed than usual. Releasing his vice like grip on Jenny’s forearm, she rubbed on it, a sharp pain shooting between her wrist and elbow.
“What are you all gawking at?” Butler exclaimed, looking around at the room, now full of ladies returning from lunch. “Back to work, all of you!”
The workers listened right away and there was a rush of breaths and a mass scraping of chairs as they all assumed their positions at the tables.
Jesse could not take his eyes off Jenny; there was something about her that had him held captive. She possessed not only beauty but an unbridled innocence that wanted to be tamed yet, at the same time, could itself tame the most savage beasts.
“What is your name?” he asked.
Lured not only by the question, but the soothing tone of his voice, Jenny looked right into his eyes again.
“It’s Jenny,” she said bashfully, amazed that he even asked.
“Jenny,” he repeated softly. “I like the sound of that. Boone is your surname then, if I take Mr. Butler to be correct?”
She nodded.
The way the conversation flowed, it was like they already knew each other, even though they had never met until a few minutes ago.
“Jenny,” whispered Penny as she tugged on the base of her uniform. “I like the sound of your name too but Mr. Butler doesn’t seem to right now. He’s looking quite heated! I think it’s time for us to get back to work…”
Indeed, the foreman was cross, his bushy beard and brows standing on end. Jesse glanced at him, thinking he looked a mess.
“It’s fine,” said Jesse to Jenny, his words riding an audible sea of gossip that had started to rise. “Duty calls to us both.”
“Yes, it does,” Jenny said meekly, forcing herself to tear away.
As she did, Jesse leaned in swiftly as if he were going give her a kiss. Jenny nearly collapsed with surprise. He wasn’t actually going to do it, whispering a message into her ear instead.
“Before you head for the shantytown this evening, please see me,” he requested. “I have some questions for you about the attack. I’ll return then and will be waiting outside the gates at quarter past six.”
“I will…” she said, not knowing anything better to say.
Jesse pulled back, making way for Butler who was waiting impatiently with arms crossed and foot tapping violently on the floor.
“And Mr. Winthrope,” she said, and he turned to look at her. “Thank you for being such a shining example for us all to follow.”
Jesse smiled, reaching the foreman. The two disappeared up the stairs and into the upper foreman’s office, Butler drawing the curtains once Jesse had closed the door.
The main clock’s hands struck the half-noon position and a bell tolled. Immediately, the assembly lines began working and Jenny finally sat down in her seat.
Her head might have been pounding from getting punched by a ratty girl’s fist…
Her stomach might have been grumbling from missing lunch with six hours left until the end of the day…
Her heart might have been beating so fast it could easily burst out of her chest…
Yet with all of that piling on top of each other, Jenny was more than content and for the time being, feeling good about her future.