"So where are you going to school at?" The man asked. I flinched but answered. "Oh cool, that is really close by, isn't it? Very cool. What are you going to school for?" I flinched again and sighed on the inside. He continued talking anyway. "Well, you will be training with Dory today. He has been here twenty years, so he should be able to answer any questions you have."

I looked at the young looking guy who was inspecting products. "He has been here for twenty years? But he can't be, he isn't any older than I am, is he?" The man who walked me out to the floor laughed.

"Who, Dory? Sure, he is the oldest person here. He is immortal, isn't he?"
I was floored. "Immortal? But why is he here?"

"Well, even immortals run up bills, don't they?" I agreed, I did see the logic behind that, and went and sat beside the ancient twenty-something with the bored look on his face.

"Hi, I'm Dory. This is inside inspection. You will hate it." I looked at him closely. "All you have to do is, see these cans, they have seven sausages in it, and they are right. But these over here are wrong so you need to put the right amount into the cans." I kept looking at him. "When you fix the can you put it on this conveyor. Up here you have these buttons; this one shuts off the different lines. I'm sorry but is there something on my face?" He asked. I shook my head really slowly. He continued talking, somewhat slower now. "Anyway, you look down there and you see that chute, it fills that tote down there and you have to change it when it is full—seriously what is your problem?!"

"I have a question."

"Yes, I am immortal. Okay? I am immortal and I work in a factory."

"No, that is not what I was going to ask."

He looked skeptical. "So… what were you going to ask me then?"

"Who are you? You are eternally youthful and you go by the name of Dor- Oh! Are you---

He looked floored. "You know who I am?"

"Yeah, you totally have to be---

"Yes, I am Dorian Gray. How did you know? You are the only person who ever knew me here! I am so happy," he gushed, in obvious relief.

I was nonplussed. "Uh… well, that is not who I was going to guess, actually…. wait, Dorian Gray, didn't you die at the end of that book?"

He was in a chatty mood now. "Well, no, I faked my death. Tax evasion, you see. But since I am immortal, I got caught and thrown into prison. When I got out, I was poor and had to start working."

"And so you have been working for two hundred years…?"

"And so I have been working for a hundred and twenty years. God, I'm not that old."

"Oh, my bad." I sat there for a second. "Say… did you go to prison for killing your friend as well?"

He flew off the handle. "WHAT! I did no such thing! And I will never go back there again, you hear me! But he fell onto my knife, you know. He fell onto it. But it does not matter because they never found the body, because he never died because he never EXISTED! I tell you its a LIE!" He might have said more, but it was hard to hear him as he ran off, and I was wearing those ear plugs.

----------

"Okay, so Jillian, you will not be working inside inspection tonight. Instead you will be sent up to the warehouse. Is that alright?"

I squinted at him while cleaning my glasses. "Uhm, sure, no problem. What am I doing, exactly?"

He shrugged. "Oh, nothing much. Just palletisng, not too difficult. Thor-y will train you."

I stopped dead in my tracks. "Thor-y?"

"Yeah, Thor-y. He is a good guy. Just, between you and me, if the machinery is not working correctly, get the hell out of there. He seems to think that if you hit something hard enough with a mallet that it has to work."

I turned and ran out of the factory because seriously, the bonus is not worth all this.