The Factory Read online

  Across the room and at the peak of the rafters was a round window of colored glass, much like a lone and deserted stained glass window belonging to a church. Sweeping the beam across the rest of the attic, he almost dropped his flashlight when seeing a human figure standing in the middle of the floor and looking right at him. After taking a few fearful steps back he managed to utter,

  “Who are you?”

  When there was no answer and thoughts of a quick escape raced through his mind, the beam revealed that the dark figure had no legs, as if floating there like a ghost. The shaky beam flashed up and down to reveal how a fearful imagination could cause havoc and shroud the truth. Rather than a ghost haunting the attic, it was an old dressmaker's dummy his grandmother must have used to assist in making dresses. His only defense of a trembling hand was that he was after all in a creepy dark attic.

  At the far end of the attic the beam of light located a large wooden table. Thinking that it might make a perfect workbench he ventured toward it. As he took that first step into the attic he suddenly felt something brush through his hair, like when walking through a spider web. A quick tilt of his head avoided fear but not curiosity. He discovered that it was a string hanging from above and attached to a light fixture. When pulling it, suddenly a light bulb came on to expose the whole attic. The large table was cluttered and dusty but he knew after a little cleaning this would be his domain, his private room in the castle.

  The next morning Gary was rudely woken by the demand of a screaming alarm clock. He had spent most of the night cleaning off the attic table and exploring his new workplace. A sleepy Gary ambled into the kitchen, sat and ate his oatmeal in silence. Ruth was at the sink cleaning a pot when she turned to him and said.

  “It’s Tuesday so I have to go into town again. As always, you stay in the house and don’t get into any trouble.”

  Knowing that he had already gotten into trouble by disobeying one of the commandments of the house to only stay on the main floor, he had trouble looking up at her. He meekly lied,

  “Can I still go for a bike ride at ten o’clock?”

  Not suspecting the real intent was to meet his dad, she replied,

  “Yes, as long as the chores are done.”

  A short while later Ruth left the house by the back stairs and made her way to Jasper Street and the bus stop. After taking the garbage out to the big container out back by the shed, Gary was ready to meet his dad. While sitting on the front porch waiting for him, he eventually saw a large noisy truck come along Jasper Street and stop in front of his house. It looked like the sort of dump truck one would expect to see at a construction site. Not thinking that it was his dad, he remained seated and waited. When the window rolled down and he saw his dad sitting in the driver’s seat he got up and eagerly ran to him.

  It was a struggle but after climbing up into the cab of the truck, Gary did a good impression of a midget sitting in the large passenger seat. He looked at his dad and asked,

  “Is this your truck?”

  “What? You think I stole it or something?”

  Judging from the way his grandmother had slurred him, Gary could be forgiven for exactly that thought. Rick continued,

  “Nah, not this one. I do odd jobs for the Factory. This belongs to them.”

  Gary asked,

  “What do you do up there?”

  “You’re a nosy little brat huh? Just wait and see.”

  Gary had trouble sitting high enough to look out the front window but that was not what held his attention. As they drove along the Copper Mountain Road, his eyes scanned the cab of the truck. Down in the foot well that his feet could not reach, he saw empty beer cans. There was also one in his dad’s hand. He had never smelled alcohol before and guessed that’s what the reek was. There was a short cigarette burning in his other hand. It never came to him that it was ten o’clock in the morning and his dad had already gone through four beers. Rick asked,

  “Did the old hag see you sneaking out of the house?”

  Not understanding the obvious animosity between the two, Gary let the slur go and replied,

  “No, this is Tuesday. I don’t know why but she always goes downtown on Tuesday mornings.”

  He did not see the sneer on his dad’s lips or understand the evil attached to the uttered words,

  “Good to know.”

  Gary had biked up to the Copper Mountain Road before and knew they were driving up to the Factory. What he had never done before was get past the front security gate and the two armed guards there. Stopping at the gate, Rick rolled the window down and presented his ‘gate pass’ to the guard. The guard suspiciously looked at Gary and asked,

  “What’s going on here Rick?”

  “Oh, don’t mind him, he’s my kid. I’m just doing a little take your kid to work thing. He won’t be no bother.”

  It was clear that the guard was not happy to go off the page regarding security but reluctantly gave into the seemingly innocent situation.

  Driving through the factory grounds, Gary saw a helicopter sitting on a giant ‘H’ landing pad. Most of the buildings were old and dilapidated but a few of the smaller ones were new. None of the people walking about paid any attention to a dump truck roaring past them. Gary was surprised to see many people dressed in suits and some in white smocks as if they were doctors or something. Some wore a uniform with an insignia saying, IIC. When he asked his dad what that meant, he waved it off as if it were nothing.

  “Crap, I got no idea. Best not to ask anybody what they do here anyhow.”

  Rick stopped the truck and backed up to a warehouse loading dock. After feeling the bump, he turned off the engine, jumped out and said,

  “Come on. I’ll show you one of my jobs here.”

  After climbing up on the dock, Gary saw a large metal contraption. His dad explained,

  “It’s a commercial shredder and compactor. Nothing comes out of this property intact. Everything is shredded or compacted and then I drive it over to the incinerator on the other side of the compound.”

  Beside the shredder was a large pallet loaded to overflowing with computers, motherboards and wires dangling out of components Gary did not recognize. A jolt of excitement shot through him. There were also reams of paper and general garbage that an office might discard. Rick turned on the shredder and as it roared and spurted into action, he threw the discarded items into the hopper. From the exit pipe chips spewed into the back of the truck. When the pallet was empty, a man on a forklift brought over another one filled with the same assortment of discarded things.

  Gary watched his dad destroy what to him looked like perfectly good junk. He then saw him holding a large computer motherboard crowded with processors, memory chips, and components he didn’t know the purpose of. He handed it to Gary and said,

  “Don’t let anybody see you throw this behind the passenger seat.”

  Gary didn’t see taking garbage as theft. It was going to be destroyed anyway. However, judging from his dad’s command of ‘don’t let anybody see you’, he knew it was something he should not be doing.

  By the time they were finished shredding and destroying everything, the space behind the passenger seat was crammed full of computer parts. They then drove across the compound and backed up to what Gary understood was a massive incinerator. Pushing a lever tilted the truck box up and everything slid into the mouth of flames. Rick looked at his son, lit a cigarette and said,

  “The stuff we stole outta hold you for a while huh?”

  Gary was overjoyed and it showed in his smile and wide eyes. So this was what it felt like to have a father in your life. It felt good and easily outweighed his Grandmother’s hatred of him.

  Parked in front of the house, Rick sat in the driver’s seat drinking beer while Gary made numerous trips up to the attic with arms full of his confiscated electronics. When he returned for another load, Rick swallowed another beer and said,

  “Hurry up kid, I got things to do and places to go.” />
  When he escaped with the last armful, as he prepared to run back to the house with it, he paused and wanted to say goodbye to his dad. However, he was disapointed to see that he simply put the truck in gear and drove away without so much as a wave good bye. How was he to understand that it was not an acceptable thing for a dad to do?

  Back up in the attic, Gary’s new work table was full of the things he helped steal from the Factory. Knowing that it was just past one o’clock in the afternoon and his grandmother would be coming home soon, he quickly made trips from his bedroom to the attic bringing most of his valued jumble of soldered tubes and wires up there too. Some of it would not fit on the table and so on the floor was a heap of the rest. Standing at the door, ready to run downstairs, he took a last look at his treasure. He was teeming with excitement and couldn’t wait to get back to it. He heard the front door open and ran down the stairs to greet his grandmother.

  Chapter 11

  The next day Gary ran to the tree house and pulled the string attached to the bell. When the returning signal permitted him to enter, he scrambled up the rungs. Sam was sitting at the table trying her best to move a ball dangling on a string with her mind alone. As he entered, she excitedly proclaimed,

  “Look, I can do it. Watch this.”

  Thinking that it was all foolishness, he neglected to consider her feelings and quickly blurted out,

  “In a minute. I got great news.”

  But she had great news too and was not pleased to be struck from it. Before she could object, Gary proudly announced,

  “I really have a dad. I met him yesterday and he is a nice guy.”

  He told her how they got into the Factory and stole junk computer parts. Although she was happy for him, she didn’t overtly show it. When he was finished, she turned her attention back to the ball on the string and again proudly announced,

  “Watch this.”

  A long minute later, when nothing happened he turned his attention to the couch and the clock parts on the floor.

  He heard her say,

  “Honest, I can really make it move by my mind alone.”

  In the days that followed, Gray had split his time between the tree house in the day and the attic at night. Because it was a secret from Grandma Ruth, he was limited to the times that he could sneak up to the attic. He had to wait until she left the house, her afternoon naps or at night when she slept. Because she went to bed sometimes as early as seven-thirty or eight, he took advantage and often spent most of the night in the attic. By this time he had already soldered many motherboards and computer parts haphazardly together. The fact that nothing ever worked did not soften his great enthusiasm. Many times he suffered the stink of smoke, burnt out components and occasionally one of his grandfather’s diode tubes would blow up but that didn’t matter. This was what he wanted to do, needed to do.

  He noticed the two different faces of the attic, one in the daytime and the other at night. During the day, when the sun shone through the small round window under the gable, because it was a multitude of colored small pieces of glass, a narrow stream of rainbow colors often beamed into the attic. Strangely, it shone on the mannequin making it glow and look spooky. It took a while but Gary eventually got used to the dummy as company.

  It was a different sanctuary at night. Except for an overhead light shining down on his desk, the attic was filled with shadows and dark corners. When all was quiet and he was focused, the creaks and moans of an old house invaded his concentration and turned on his imagination. Often he would hear what he thought to be the pitter-patter of little feet scurrying across the floor. When he left the desk to investigate with a flashlight nothing was ever found. Most nights he swore he had only been up there for a couple of hours when the morning light invaded the attic.

  One day when Gary was in the tree house with Sam, Ruth was busy in the house with laundry. With an arm full of Gary’s clothes she prepared to enter his room to put them away. As she passed the narrow steps leading up to the attic she thought she heard a girl’s voice up there. After a curious pause, expecting to hear it again she eventually gave up and passed it off as the frailties of age. After putting his clothes away and passing the stairs again, she heard it once more.

  Again she paused and listened. Because nobody was allowed in the house and Gary was not home, she grew concerned. A very clear and disctinct voice called down to her.

  “Hello?”

  In a loud voice intended to sound demanding, Ruth yelled up the stairs,

  “Who is up there?”

  As if not hearing the demand for identification, the voice came back,

  “Hello? Is anybody there?”

  Getting mad, Ruth again yelled up,

  “You come down from there this instance.”

  Like an echo the voice repeated,

  “Hello?”

  Determined to protect her house from intruders, Ruth did the unthinkable and most impossible. She took that first precarious step up the stairs to the attic. However, the effort to reach the third step was painfully felt in her chest and she quickly sat down. She heard it again.

  “Hello? Please answer me.”

  She wanted to yell up but the pain in her chest prevented it. It was a struggle to get back to the safety of the floor. While clutching her heart and with wobbly legs she struggled down the hall to her bedroom. Once again she heard from up there,

  “Hello? Is anybody there?”

  Back in the tree house, Sam concentrated on her Tarot deck. If the truth were known, as much as she believed what she was doing, she really had no idea. She turned and said to Gary,

  “It says here that you will soon go on a great adventure but danger is present.”

  Still befuddled at the many extra parts left over from his assembly of the clock, he had not heard a word. Recognizing that she was ignored, she suddenly blurted out,

  “Holy crap, look at the time. I told my mom I would be home for supper.”

  As she scampered down the rungs to the ground, she yelled back up to Gary,

  “See you tomorrow okay.”

  Alone, he continued with his too many parts dilemma but eventually also understood it was getting late. Grandma Ruth insisted that they have supper together and was warned not to be late.

  Knowing she was in the kitchen making supper, while in the foyer Gary kicked off his shoes and yelled,

  “I’m home Grandma.”

  Walking into the kitchen he was surprised to see no plates on an empty dinner table. Most puzzling, there was no Grandma standing at the stove. Curious, he looked in the living room and den. Because her coat and shoes were still in the foyer he knew she must be home.

  Walking down the hall, he saw her bedroom door was open. It was never left open. Taking a furtive look in, he saw her on the bed. He thought that was strange because she only took a nap after lunch. He softly called in to her but there was no answer. Because he was never allowed in her room, he carefully took only two steps in and called out to her. Sensing that something might be wrong, he bravely walked up to the bed.

  Looking down at her, he thought it was an odd position to take a nap. She lay at a strange angle with one leg dangling off the side as if simply flopping onto the bed and staying where she landed. She was on the covers but her head was not on the pillow, as if she missed it. She looked deathly pale, not good at all and he wondered if she was even breathing. Greatly concerned, he touched her cold hand and softly asked,

  “Grandma? Are you sleeping?”

  Too innocent to think the worst, only one thought prevailed, he was not allowed to be in her room. Escape before she woke up was now his greatest concern and he turned and walked away. Halfway to the door he heard a fragile voice from behind ask,

  “Gary? Is that you?”

  He turned back and replied,

  “Yes Grandma.”

  “Come here. I want to talk to you.”

  With fear and hesitation he approached and asked,

  “What’s
the matter? Are you not feeling well?”

  Her weak and trembling voice indicated a lie,

  “I’m fine dear. I just need to rest a little while longer. You can make yourself a sandwich for dinner can’t you?”

  When he nodded, her tone hardened just a little bit.

  “Gary, you know I have a strict rule about nobody allowed in the house right?”

  Again he weakly nodded and said,

  “Yes Grandma.”

  “Well, I know you disobeyed me. I know that you play up in the attic. Just after lunch when I was doing the laundry, I heard a girl’s voice up there. Why did you bring that girl you play with up there when you know you are not allowed to bring anybody in the house?”

  Shocked at the accusation, he quickly defended his innocence.

  “No Grandma, Sam and I were in the tree house all afternoon. We never went to the attic.”

  As if to emphasis his innocence he strongly added,

  “Honest.”

  Recognizing the impasse of accusation versus denial and too weak to argue the point, she let it go for now. At least he knows he has been caught and in all likelihood will not allow that girl into the house again. She said,

  “Very well. I need to take a pill. Will you be kind and bring me the blue vial from the bathroom shelf and a glass of water.”