Greed | Norton Campell

Opportunity

He breathed heavily. She was gone. And all he had left to remember her was... The pouch. It was pink, such a girly color to him but he didn't mind. He carefully pulled the drawstring of it. Inside, was the Gold Coin that Benny had given him. I completely forgot I lost it during the fight.. Norton thought. That wasn't the only thing in there. She had left him 12 gold coins, 40 shillings, and a small note.

It read:

Here's something to help you out for a while. I didn't give you as much as I wanted to.. hopefully you'll put it to good use. Take care, Norton.

She drew a little heart where she wrote her name. Did she like him...? That was a question that ran through his mind. To be quite frank, no. She didn't like him like that. She saw potential in him to say the least. Extremely hard working and dedicated to get out of his situation. You could tell the miners were intimidated by him, in a sense that no one cared to try getting out of their situation, but him. It was respectable.

He decided to tie the pouch to his bell loop. He was ready to do the usual. Sort and transport materials, loading and unload transports, general maintenance, etc. His wrist was compressed tightly so things would be a little difficult, but it wasn't as bad as yesterday when it first happened. He woke up at 4 today to make up for the 2-3 hours of work he missed yesterday. From now on, He would work harder than he ever has.

~(⁠´⁠ ⁠.⁠ ⁠.̫⁠ ⁠.⁠ ⁠'⁠)~

She finally arrived along the path leading back to her town. It was 6:00 AM, the sun had risen, birds were chirping. The atmosphere itself was calming. Upon entering the men near the stables had welcomed her, the elderly women at their locally owned tailer shop waved, and alot others had welcomed her back. She went down the road to where the wealthy had lived. Soon, she had reach her mansion.

It was quite a long path to go down, but she could soak in the sight of the green grass, flowers and all the beautiful butterflies surrounding the area. She quickly put her horse in the stables and walked into her home. "Welcome, dear!", called a housekeeper. You looked up at the staircase. "Clara! Good morning!! Do you happen to know where my father is?" Clara held the laundry basket under her arm tightly. "He's having breakfast in bed." You quickly headed up the staircase, heading down the hallway to see him.

Knock, knock, knock!

"Come in!" She twisted the doorknob , heading into the bedroom. "You're back. What did you think?" She kept her actual opinion on the mine to herself. Instead a fake smile graced her lips. "It was great! I think it'll be fun to manage in the future." Her father nodded silently. "You'll be managing 14 others, too. You'll be heading to a new mine today. I'm afraid I've gotten even more sick, and won't be able to tend to many duties for a couple of weeks."

This was your chance. You could explore more of each mine. Your dad being sick was the least of your worries, as bad as that sounded. "Where am I headed to next?"  Your father handed you more documents on his nightstand. "On your way to Swanson Copper, there should be a road that goes left. Take it. Wowdoole is your next destination. This mine's conditions are somewhat better than Swanson Copper. Get to it."

You nodded, taking the file and heading to your room. You quickly cleaned yourself up, laying all the paperwork out on your desk. It read:

Mr. Clarence. We've had a change of plans. Any boy over the age of 12 will now be working directly in the mines, not just on the surface. Working times must be moved up to 54 hours a week or 10 hours a day. We're changing pay from hourly to the quality of their work.