Masque: Endtime

Rush

You know the feeling of doing things faster than normal?

That feeling is only present in situations like danger or being late for something important.

I am late for work at the steel factory, despite being 13 years old while most of my coworkers are 25-30s. Actually, two of them were at least a hundred years old, at least 10 of them were 65. You could say I am the youngest among the people who work for a living, but no. There are children by the starting age of 6 who are now working in different jobs like delivery, cleaner, even big manpower jobs like factories in our city or whale oil extractions. Probably some jobs meant for smaller and younger types.

Ain works at a whale oil extraction factory. He had to work because originally Gil, his father, was the one who works for the family. After an accident on the job, Gil lost his right arm and left hand. He was a steel factory worker. He felt useless after the time he lost parts of him. I didn't like that feeling.

Lina, Ain's mother, took me in ever since my aunt lived by the clock. She's a caring wife and a good mother for her husband and five children. She really is a good person. Even if her youngest children, fraternal twins, are very naughty, she keeps her calm. She doesn't really show her temper. Unlike her two eldest daughters. They can't stand the twins disturbing them on their studies. I guess that's how family works.

I didn't want to accept their help without doing something for them. It... just doesn't feel right for me. Besides, I can't stand myself standing still in one place. That's why I am working for Ain's family.

Gil now has a mechanical right arm and left hand made from a close friend of his. Although his friend insisted for the prosthetics to be a gift, Ain and Lina promised to pay him back the expense and the price. I did too, even if they said I didn't have to. Gil now works as his close friend's assistant in a shop for mechanical parts and prosthetics. You can say his attachments made him stronger than before.

Five years of living with them, I feel like at home again. Ain's family are really something. They aren't rich or poor, yet they really have a strong bond.

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I have arrived in the factory. It looked just the same as always. Old, rusty and polluted. One big building with five pipes releasing black smoke to the sky. On the top of the wall hangs the banner of the 7th division. An anvil and a hammer surrounded by a large fire of red and orange on a grey flag. It represents our division as the Smiths. In my words, steelbenders.

I entered the factory with sweat flowing out of my skin to my white shirt and brown pants and boots, and ran to the lockers. I stopped in front of the wall where the time clock is placed. As I found my card, I quickly slid it in the time clock and pulled it out. After putting the card back in the wall, I got inside the locker room. In there, I saw my coworker almost done wearing the smith attire.

"You're late, Den." said Nol while putting on his elbow length leather gloves over his worn-out white long sleeves. He was wearing his old brown pants and heat-resistant boots behind his leather apron. His face was covered with a mask for our work, but it doesn't cover his youthful look of tan skin and light brown hair. He's a hundred years old, mind you.

"You too." I said to him while wearing my leather apron and mask. "If I have an excuse, its because of the twins. Kept us up all night."

"Sigh, kids are always energetic when it's sugar at night." he smiled at himself and to me.

Nol pretty much knows the twins back home. He's our neighbor who has three kids. The twins visit their home mostly on the weekends.

One time, Nol had a jar of sweets on the kitchen table. He forgot to close the lid after he took a handful. After a few minutes, he came back and the jar was empty. We asked the kids if they touched the jar. They said yes and explained that they wanted some candy and the jar was open. Can't say its their fault that the jar was empty. They were kids. Nol talked to them and just let the kids be. At least he's not like some people who hits kids when doing something according to them is wrong like touching the floor with their hands, drawing the walls with pens and crayons, running around the house. Things that some kids do.