People can be surprising.

I thought that Wade, the apprentice machinist who works on the presses around the corner form my machine, was a total idiot. He took three weeks to understand that when the extruder is running, stay the fuck away from it. About one in a hundred times the steel bar that slips through the press will kick back and, if you’re standing behind it.... well, let’s just say the worker’s comp pay isn’t going to cover a new ribcage. Yeah, Wade was a True Moron.

Well, there’s another reason I figured he was an idiot. He was a meth-head, a tweaker. Each and every lunch break he came back to work and couldn’t stand still. Buzzing’ on that crystal. Of course, you smoke or shoot that shit, you’re an idiot.

Turns out I was wrong. When I went out to smoke a Winston, Wade was sitting at the picnic table behind the plant reading a book. Unreal. I wasn’t even sure he could read. But there it was, a story in a bona-fide book by someone or other, and he was reading it.

Fuckin a. He wasn’t a total idiot after all, was my first thought.

But when I gave him a ride to the Minit-Mart after work, and he told me what the story was about, and what he wanted to do, I almost crashed my pickup.

Gotta get back to work now, but I promise to tell ya soon. Here's a hint- it involves a mental hospital and some syringes.


Courtesy of Ralph "Gunny" Gunderson, Union Steel Works, Carbondale, CA.