Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Work (07/27/06)
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TITLE: Lord, give me patience, please! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Daniel Hall
07/30/06 -
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I was the end of the line for the candy bags. Either I placed them in a box and sent it through the tape machine, or the bags simply piled onto the floor as they swept past my grasping fingers. And there many of them lay, so many that a chocolate mountain was rising higher and higher; so high, that my supervisor blazed a trail to my side and stared at the geographical newness.
My pride was scarred, for some around me laughed, others disgustedly rolled their eyes, while others slanted their brows and glared at my sweaty and red neck; at least, I thought I felt all this.
Then, my boss quietly grabbed some boxes, packed the mountain into them, sent them towards the tape machine, patted my shoulder, said, "You'll get it," and walked away.
I wondered about his sanity. Did he have any? Would he like some of mine? Did he need some time off? And now, another mountain base formed. A half-hour later, another mountain had risen. Again, the supervisor came, grabbed boxes, and so on. But this time he said, "Put your hands this way when you grab the bags," and he stretched out his hands in a particular manner, then walked away after patting my shoulder.
"My hands this way?" I shouted in my mind as the first bag of another mountain fell to the floor, "My hands this way? Insane! Have you ever done this before? Apparently not!"
But then, I put my hands that way, and four bags ran into them as naturally as a bee finds a flower. I picked them up, turned my hands and found the bags in the perfect position for placement in the box. I dropped them there, and repeated. It happened again. I sent the box to the tape machine. I think, with uncertainty, that two minutes passed before I added to the mountain, then five, then a half-hour.
The bell rang. I rotated. My next job, for a while, was shaping boxes and sending them down the line to the candy packers. This job I could do well, but I could only think of boxing the candy bags, and how much I had improved that round. I returned to the packing spot two more times before the day's end, and though a few bags sped by to the floor, no mountain was formed, and no supervisor blazed a trail. I was happy. My supervisor was the sanest man I had ever met.
The day almost over, I had returned to the box shaping station, and owned an ear to ear grin. Then, I noticed another mountain. My first reaction was to claim responsibility, but I quickly remembered that I was not at the packing station. A young lady was beaded with sweat and exasperated as bag after bag sped by and onto the floor. I empathized. I would have helped her, but I could not vacate my station. I looked for the supervisor, hoping that he would aid her, and reveal to her the wonderful hand secret, that she might partake in my joy. Alas, he had gone to his office to begin his paperwork.
Finally, the shift bell rang. The day was over, so the line shut off. The candy stopped coming. I immediately moved toward the lady who had jerked an empty box off the line, and had bent down to begin packing the mountain. At my approach, I noticed the beginning of tears, so I said nothing, but rather grabbed a box and picked up candy bags until the mountain was gone.
With a sigh and a frown, she thanked me.
"You'll get it," I smiled.
"It'll be a while, if I do," she said shaking her head.
"Don't I know it."
She laughed, "I know you do. I saw your Alps."
I smiled goofily. "Work," I muttered, "you have to work at it."
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