Learning to Live
Chapter Two: The Job
(Knives)
A good three days later the abandoned house was beginning to look less abandoned. The Sheriff had come by a few more times after that first night and had given us a few things to live on. He had supplied us both with clothes, food a few bits of furniture.
His charity was annoying me to no end. I'm sure he would want something in return for his 'kindness.'
I did not refuse anything he gave me, though, because I was sure that no human would have refused, if they were in our position. In any bad situation I'm sure they would have accepted any help that was offered them.
Egocentric pieces of human trash.
At one point he had brought over a doctor, and she had taken a look at Kestrel and bandaged and stitched wounds where she needed to. The doctor had confirmed my suspicions that Kestrel wasn't in a coma. I later did my own delving into Kestrel's mind and found that some sort of mental trauma had done enough damage to prevent her conscious mind from rising to the surface.
Kestrel just would not wake. No matter how many times I tried to shake her awake, she only let out a small whimper and refused to open her eyes. I wasn't certain what to do with her. Her situation was looking worse and worse by the day.
I was beginning to wonder if it would morph into a coma like state and if she would ever regain consciousness.
If this happened she would not starve, the doctor had set up an IV in one of the rooms where Kestrel now lay. The doctor assured me she could survive like that for a prolonged period of time before muscle atrophy began to take its toll.
For a couple hours everyday for those three days I sat backwards in a chair leaning my chin on the back of the chair running my psychic probes thorough her mind trying to find a way in. She had put up some kind of shield. I could not find any way of entering it. It was incredibly strong, stronger than I would think possible for a human.
But after two hours of intense work I could do nothing more than sit back, my own mind weary.
……………………………
By the fourth day I was determined not to get too heavily into any debt to the sheriff. Though his intentions seemed pure I didn't believe I could trust him.
That meant getting a job.
I paced the living room floor of the house for hours trying to tell myself that it was necessary. The absolute revulsion to even thinking about demeaning myself to that kind of position was almost enough to want me to mug some poor sap on the street.
Low profile. I had to keep telling myself to keep a low profile. Otherwise Vash might catch wind of me, however unlikely, and come dashing over and put me back under his wing to keep me from harming his precious humans.
No way. No way would I allow Vash to get the better of me again.
Finally picking up a local paper someone had thrown away earlier in the day I found something on the first glance in the Help Wanted section.
There were openings at the Plant for Plant Engineers and Technicians.
……………………………
I left the house for the Plant in the center of town, in the hopes that Kestrel would not wake in my absence.
The walk was a short one and I soon found myself in the tiny lobby of the Plant Facility. A woman wearing heavy amounts of make-up and idly chewing on a pen sat at a high desk in the center of the room.
Her gaze came up from some magazine she was reading, "Yes?" she asked in a nasal voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.
"I'm here for the job." I said standing at my full height, which did not have the desired effect on her because of the height of her desk.
"Mr. Gilles?" She drawled, pressing the button of a speaker on her desk, "There's a man here about the job opening."
"Send 'im in." A voice crackled through the speaker.
The woman pointed to a door on the left-hand-side wall with her chewed up pen, "Through there, it's the second door on the right."
I gave a polite nod but she had already gone back to chewing up her pen and reading her magazine.
Shaking my head disdainfully I went through the door, and entered a narrow hall. Pushing through the first door on the right as the woman had said I found myself in a cramped office. The place was stacked with books and papers, most of which were scattered on the floor.
Locating a path through the towers of computer printouts and news articles I managed to make myself to a desk where a man sat hunched over a tiny circuit board soldering something onto it.
"You're here for the Engineer job?" He asked without looking up.
"Yes."
"Are you qualified?" He still didn't look up.
"Would I be here if I wasn't?" I replied.
"Maybe. Maybe not."
Not sure what to say to that I just let it go; "I have been working with Plants my entire life. I assure you, I am qualified."
"We'll see about that…" he said and finally turned around.
I blinked. He had on some strange glasses with a large magnifying glass over each lens that made his eyes look four times the normal size.
I held back a laugh that suddenly wanted to bubble forth and kept a slightly bored straight face.
"Your whole life, huh? What are you like 24?"
"No I--"
"No biggie, one of our best Engineers is 23, the boy's a genius." He stood and stretched, taking his magnifying glasses off, "Name's Oliver Gilles, Administrator, and you are?"
"Uh… Joey Miller."
"Well Joey, you are the first one to answer in the whole month that I've had the ad in the paper… do you have any school documentation? Or a resume?"
"No." Damn. Hadn't thought of those.
"Really?" He shrugged as if it were no big deal, "Normally I'd require those things… but right now I'm willing to take even an elementary student who knows a little 'bout plants."
"I am not an elementary student." I said menacingly.
"Neva' said you were." He pushed his way though the stack of books, papers and the assortment of computer parts and out into the hall, "Come, I'll introduce you the Lead Engineer and I'll let 'er make the determination on you."
FFN is dumb. Wah! I blame FFN for all my troubles! And the poltergiests! Yes... they're all out to get me. -gets shifty eyes-
Anyway, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving... Mine was lazy and I think I ate too much. I felt sick... But that's all in the past! Yay! A new chapter! I hope everyone enjoyed. And hopefully with now difficulties I'll have next chapter out on Saturday. That is if I have no problems... the roof caves in, I get transported to Gusmoke via magic Kuroneko plushie, I decide to run off with the red truck or suddenly I loose my hands.
Yeah...
RR:
shadowneko003: Yeah, he's bing a wimp I think. Hehehe.
Rosebud: Yeah it did. Poor Vash. Always taking the blame. Knives needs to quit that, it's becoming a bad habit. As always I'm glad you enjoyed. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving! As for Vash, Meryl, Milly and Wolfy. They will be getting their own story after I'm done with this story.
sakurasango: Thanks, here's the next one. Hope you enjoyed.
El Hustino: Oh, don't worry about it. I'm sure you have a big enough plate for yourself already. Thanks. Knives is really going to have to work on his "people skills." Hehe, that's going to be fun. Hehehehehe. Last I heard the red truck got a makeover and now has speed stripes and monster truck tires. It now is in the regional Monster Truck Madness Parade in the City of December.
hope-is-4ever: -grin- -wiggles eysbrows- Knives getting a job. This is going to fuuuun. Here's you update.
DarkFusion: No biggie, FFN is a pain in the arse. I'm glad you think so. Here's you update i hope you enjoy this one, too. And they'd probably panic and run for the high hills. Or faint. The whole town would faint in one fell swoop. Hehehehehe.
