[Nell]: 226.Stories.Shorts.The Man

WARNING!!! This story contains derogatory terms and death. Please do not read if you are offended easily, because I love you all and want to keep you as my friends! :)


It was hot in the steel mill. Steam billowed and sparks flew, while the molten metals poured. Most of the Chinese men working there had scars across their arms from stray sparks. The foreman lumbered past the rows of workers, who busied themselves at their task rather than meet his steely glare. He huffed and sweated, grumbling about the quality of labour.

Bert Adelgy was a repulsive man, with layers of fat dripping from every part of his body; fat stolen from his workers, or as he called them, his little chink slaves. The workers often called him iron man, for the pig iron that was the mill's main commodity, but Bert liked the sound of it and often made his working girls call him that.

He laboured up the stairs to his office. Before he went in, he shouted an announcement; "Lunch is CANCELLED! You didn't fill you quota today! So get your lazy, yellow asses MOVING!" he slammed the office door, and settled in his swivel chair.

"Mac's been selling me some cheap china. Not doing enough work around here," he muttered. Then he leered at the young woman who lived on a matt on the floor of his office. "Come here, my little slant. Did you get my gift?"

The woman was small and lithe, with a dangerous intelligence in her dark eyes. She brought out the pomegranate he'd given her earlier, and came over to where he sat. He gestured with his hand, and she began feeding him the tangy fruit, the fuchsia seeds looking like tiny sail boats in the ocean of his slobbering maw.

"Ah, that's better! Now how 'bout a little kiss-" suddenly the woman slapped him hard across the face. The surprising blow sent him tumbling out of his swivel chair. He growled in anger, and tried to get up, but his head was still reeling.

"This is to avenge the honour of the women you have taken, and the lives of the men you have spent in your steel mills and factories," she spoke in harsh English. Bert tried to respond, however he couldn't take a breath to speak. He was choking.

"We will no longer live in your little huts and work for nothing," she kicked him till he rolled onto his back. Foam poured from his mouth and his blubbery body writhed in agony. "You treat us worse than those mangy dogs that guard us. We are people too, da gui!"

She spat on the still man lying on the floor, and left the office.