Chapter Four: Heroes and Smoke
Claudia used her best manners that lunch. When Simone was going on and on about her university, and how she was only working with the cherries for the experience, Claudia sat and listened. She even gushed about how lucky the girl was to be going back to Melbourne soon and enjoying their sunny weather, to which Simone raised a thin eyebrow in response.
She didn't even comment when Jared and Emily left the staffroom early, holding hands and giggling. Claudia had a feeling that they were heading towards the back room where some of the packers would sneak in illegal smoke breaks.
When Simone and Emily got up to leave for the next session ten minutes later, Claudia followed her out, not wanting to miss Simone's reaction in case Barry or Chester had already checked the seconds buckets.
"So it looks like we'll only have another day? It's gone very quickly," Simone said, directing her words to Emily and completely ignoring Simone.
"Yeah, looks like it," Emily said. "Usually we'd have had another week, but all the rain has left many of the cherries split."
"Oh yeah—" Claudia was about to speak up and say that she knew they were behind because of the cherries when Jared's voice cut through.
"Josie! Josie, look out!"
Looking up, Claudia saw Jared waving his arms around, eyes wide. Josie was walking away, her eyes narrowed, but when she heard Jared, she spun around.
"I'm not interested in—"
"Snake!" Jared's mouth open and closed, his fingers pointing at something near Josie's feet.
Claudia wasn't sure who shrieked the loudest: Simone, who had ran up the platform steps to get away, Josie, who had frozen and now sounded like a banshee, or Jared, who continued pointing and shouting, "Snake! Snake!"
"Is it safe? I mean, is it poisonous?" Simone said from on top of the platform.
Claudia rolled her eyes, happy that for once, Simone didn't know absolutely everything.
"Of course it's safe. I mean, no one's died yet, have they?" Claudia said, even though she knew there were only two types of snakes in Tasmania, both extremely poisonous. When she noticed that Simone relaxed a little, she added, "Well, except that one person."
Simone shrieked and clung to the platform railing. Her knuckles turned white, causing Claudia to chuckle a little.
She stopped, however, when Josie herself shrieked, and the severity of the situation came back to her.
Claudia froze on the spot. She had learnt in primary school that the best action when coming across a snake was to remain as still and quiet as possible until it slithered away. Running away usually provoked them, even though it was what most people did.
The big, fat tiger snake just a metre from Josie's feet, however, didn't seem to be moving away anytime soon. It reared its head as the girl tried to use her earphones like a whip to swat it away, her skin turning paler by the minute.
Emily had run back to the staffroom to get help, yet it seemed she wasn't quite fast enough for Jared. Recovering from his shock, Jared grabbed a nearby broom and sprinted towards Josie.
"Don't touch it!" Claudia said.
Jared ignored her, and using the broom like a javelin, he tried spearing the snake. The snake slithered out of the way, and with a hiss, launched itself at Jared's leg. It was almost in slow motion, the way it opened its mouth and its fangs dug into his leg, just above his ankle. Jared, of course, had forgotten to wear the appropriate footwear Barry and Chester required of them, and thus the snake managed to get through the material of his tracksuit pants.
"Ouch!" Jared yelled, followed by a few more expletives.
Clutching his ankle with both hands, he fell to the floor and writhed about. Sean, Trevor and a picker came running out, trailed behind by a ghost-white Emily, but the snake had already begun to make its way towards the shed's back door. The boys chased after it, but Claudia focused instead on Emily as she leant down next to Jared.
"Jared, Jared, did it bite you?" Emily asked. With wide eyes, she turned to everyone gathered around, "Did it bite him?"
Jared was wailing like a baby, moaning about how he was dying. It was quite possible that he was, but there was no need for the carry-on. Josie was now leaning over Jared, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Don't die, please don't die!" she said, which only spurred on Jared's wails more.
Emily at least had enough sense to make a tourniquet for Jared, wrapping her jacket around his ankle as tightly as she could. "Sit still," she said, then to Leah, who had just stumbled in, "Has Barry called the ambulance yet?"
Leah nodded, and for once, she had the sense to stop spurting any useless metaphors out.
Chester and Barry soon came out, as did the sound of ambulance sirens. The paramedics were quick to come to Jared's aid, ordering everyone out of their way and, after assessing the situation, lifted the boy onto the stretcher.
Emily and Simone—who had finally come down from the platform, pretending she had not been scared—informed the paramedics what happened. One of the paramedics then began to reprimand Jared for trying to play a hero as they carried him out towards the ambulance.
"Didn't I tell you not to touch anything?" Claudia said.
It was important for her to let the paramedics know that not everyone in the building was a complete idiot. It was a wasted effort, however, for they simply walked past without comment.
Jared, on the other hand, managed to get a few more words in between his moaning about the unfairness of life. "Yeah, but you didn't say please."
"I'm going with them, but we still need to finish up here. Claudia, Simone, will you be right to lead? Trevor will keep going with the bath when he gets in," Emily said.
Claudia went to protest and tell her that she could handle it on her own, but Emily was already out the door and the sirens of the ambulance could be heard once more.
Josie was still on the floor, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth. Leah put a hand on her shoulder, rubbing circles on her back.
"You know, snake bites are like nature… nature kissing you. You should be proud of Jared," she was saying.
"Really?" Josie said with a hiccough.
Claudia rolled her eyes. Clapping her hands together, she said, "Alright, up you get. Jared will be fine; it was just a baby snake. Anyways, up you get. Jared would want us to carry on and finish this."
Josie burst into fresh tears at the mention of Jared's name. Turning to Simone, Claudia said, "Well, are you going to let the workers act like this? It's not very boss-like."
Simone huffed. "And you think you're a boss?"
"I've been here longer than you, so yeah, I think I am the best to be a boss."
"Whatever," Simone said. In a loud voice and snapping her fingers at the girls, she said, "I'm turning on the machine. You have thirty seconds to get your gloves on and be up on the platform ready to start. Otherwise, I'll get the boys to chase that snake back in here."
Leah gasped and started helping Josie to her feet. Lee and Tiffany had finally walked in, having had their lunch outside and missed everything. Unaware that there was any drama occurring, they skipped off to work, arguing over whether or not they had just seen an echidna.
Claudia stormed up the platform steps. Sitting down on Emily's stool, she glared at Simone. "Well, aren't you going to start it?"
"You could have yourself." Simone rolled her eyes and pressed the button on the machine next to her. Everyone took their seats, including Josie, who was still sobbing.
Claudia reached across and pulled the first lot of cherries towards her. Finding three seconds straight away, she plonked them into her bucket and smiled at Simone.
The new girl was frowning into her bucket, not bothering to collect any cherries. She began to move them around and her frown deepened. Pulling out a cherry that looked like it had been bitten into, she glared up at her.
"Oh, real mature, Claudia," she said.
"Whatever do you mean?" Claudia tried to school her face into a neutral expression, but it was hard not to laugh. In her defence, the way Simone's mouth was screwed up looked like she had just eaten the rotten cherries rather than found them.
"This." Simone stood up and, sticking her tongue out for concentration, threw the cherry into Claudia's bucket.
"Oh, now that was mature," Claudia replied, fishing it out. To show how mature she was, she put it into the bin.
Simone muttered something under her breath and focused back on her work. There was a few minutes of peace, save for the occasional remark at Trevor, who seemed to find it amusing to dump entire buckets of cherries into the bath at once.
Then, without warning, Claudia was splattered with cherry juice. It didn't get into her eyes this time, only her face. Nevertheless, it meant that Claudia had to wipe the juice off before it stained her cheeks dark red, and thus she would be rubbing off the foundation she had oh-so-carefully applied that morning.
"Oops, sorry," Simone said with a smile.
Picking up a cherry, Claudia threw it at the girl. "Oops, sorry," she echoed.
Simone threw the cherry back. "What is your problem?"
"What's yours? You've been nothing but a stuck up snob ever since you got here. Just because your uncle owns the place, doesn't mean you do!"
Out of the corner of her eye, Claudia could see that Leah and Tiffany had stopped their work to listen in to the conversation. They looked away when she glared at them, but their hands did not pick up any cherries going past.
"I never said I did own the place. You're the one who is stuck up! You think you know everything about the cherries. I swear your head grew twice its size when Emily put you in charge," Simone said.
"It did not!" Nothing else would come out, so she picked up another cherry and threw it. It bounced off the conveyor belt and fell to the floor below.
"Stop wasting good cherries!" Simone said, even though she threw a cherry back.
From that point, the war was on. Cherries and insults alike were thrown back and forth, some larger than others. Leah was trying to get them to stop, shouting something like "Look out!" but neither girl paid her any mind.
"Such a suck up. All you do is boast about how good you are."
"Whiny little bitch."
"Get a life!"
Claudia's chest was heaving up and down, her face hot. She couldn't believe the nerve of this girl. She really was starting to hope that the snake had bitten her instead of Jared, just so she could get some peace and quiet, when Leah's voice broke over their own. She no longer cared about gathering up any seconds, instead finding rotten ones to use as ammunition.
"Look out! The cherries!"
Claudia glared at the Italian for interrupting. Seeing that she was pointing to the machine, her face pale, Claudia switched her attention to the belt. Black smoke was furling up into the air, a strange whirring noise coming from the control box. Scanning over it, she realised too late that as they had been arguing, neither she nor Simone had watched what the cherries were doing. Trevor had put too many into the tub, and now a pile of cherries had managed to get stuck between two layers of the belt.
Claudia jumped up, intent on pulling them out, whilst Simone pulled the emergency switch to stop it. Digging her fingers between the machine, she realised she would only be able to pull out half the cherries squashed in it.
"Great, now look what you've done. Are you happy?" she said.
"Me? You were the one not paying attention," Simone said. She didn't appear as annoyed as she did worried. "Uncle Barry is going to kill us."
A wail came from the other end of the conveyor belt at that. Turning to look where it came from, Claudia saw Josie burying her face into her hands. "My boyfriend's dead and now I'm going to get fired!"
Leah scooted over and resumed rubbing circles along her back, not too concerned about the situation. Tiffany, as diligent as she was, was taking the opportunity of the machine's pause to go through the cherries in front of her, picking out any bad ones she had missed.
"Ok, ok, let's not panic," Claudia said, even though her heart was beating a mile a minute.
She looked at the machine, trying to see if there was a way to get it running. It had at least ceased smoking.
"Maybe we could get the boys to help? They're supposed to know these things aren't they?" Claudia asked, not caring in the least if she sounded a little sexist. The fact was, the boys were given training on operating and maintaining the conveyor belt.
Simone shrugged. "We could try."
"Sean! Caleb! Get up here," Claudia shouted towards the boys.
Neither of them looked up. They were too busy talking to each other, waving their hands around as they reenacted their snake chase.
"Guys! C'mon! Enough with your bromance, we need your help."
Sean looked over. Raking a hand through his hair, he said, "Yeah? What's up? We've already checked the bins; they're not overflowing."
"The machine is broken! We need you to fix it. Hurry, please."
"Oh yeah, we saw that," Caleb said. He didn't bother to look up at her and instead pulled out a chocolate bar from his pocket and began to munch on it. "Just chillax."
Claudia was sure her eyes were bulging out of her head at this stage. Turning to Sean for help, she almost smacked her forehead with her palm when he said, "Yeah, too bad. Ah well, it might mean we get holidays earlier. I've been missing the beach."
"Sean!"
"What?"
Stamping her foot, Claudia looked over at Simone. In all the panic, the girl still looked flawless. Her hair wasn't falling out of its clasp like Claudia's was, nor was her make up cakey from sweating. She was perfect, and as much as it made her stomach churn or her heart ache, Claudia knew what to do.
"Simone, maybe you could ask Sean," she said, walking over to the girl.
Simone placed her hands on her hips. "I'm doing all that I can!"
"No, no, I mean, if you ask Sean, he might be more inclined to help."
Simone glanced at Sean before looking back at Claudia. She seemed to appraise her for a minute, and Claudia could have sworn she understood what she was going through. Without a word, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked over to the boys.
Claudia jogged up the platform stairs, unable to watch. She had seen Simone trail a finger up Sean's arm, her giggles echoing around the shed.
When she heard them coming up the stairs themselves, Sean saying, "I'll take a look at it," she moved to the side.
Sean bent down in front of the operating box. He winked at Simone, before opening the door. That was as far as he got, however, for he soon jumped back.
"Ouch!"
"What?" Claudia and Simone said together.
"It's hot," he said, sucking on one of his fingers. "Nuh, can't do it, mate."
"C'mon!"
"Nuh, sorry. Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much. It's not like the boss is going to back to see. He might have to fill in some sort of form because of Jared's bite. If he gets sued, well, he wouldn't be able to afford to run the machine anyway."
At this, Josie threw her head back and wailed. Claudia couldn't be bothered to tell her to shut up, especially when the shed phone started ringing.
Simone's hands shook as she picked up the portable phone and answered it. "Hello?"
Claudia tried to listen in, but whoever was on the line must have been whispering. Judging from Simone's expression, which changed from a relieved smile to a look of horror, she guessed it wasn't good news.
"Aha, alright, we'll soon you then. Bye."
Claudia waited for her to hang up before asking, "Well? What's happening?"
The girl swallowed. "Jared is alright, they got him to the hospital just in time."
Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, Claudia smiled. Jared might have been annoying and it was his own fault for getting bitten, but she hadn't wanted him to die. At least she didn't think so.
"That's good then, isn't it?" she said.
Simone shook her head. "Emily is staying, but my uncle and Chester are coming bac. They just need to fill in a few forms, but should be here within an hour or two."
"Crap."
Claudia looked around, not sure what to do. Her heart was beating frantically, the pace increasing as she saw how many cherries were still left to be sorted. An entire pallet of buckets was near the bath, as were the cherries still on the belt. If the machine was working, they would probably manage to finish them within the hour. By hand, it was a different story.
Simone clapped her hands together to gain everyone's attention. Lee and Tiffany finally looked up, their seconds buckets full.
"Listen up! Alright, the machine is down and unless you can all pull out your fingers, we'll be fired. Leah, stop eating the cherries and help Trevor wash the ones on the pallet. Josie, blow your nose and go help her. Tiffany, Lee, you both come here and—" Simone began.
Lee cleared his throat, walking over to the operating box. "Help?" he said, pointing to it.
Claudia rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, we need help—go start sorting out the rest of the cherries on the belt."
Lee looked at his feet, his face crestfallen, but followed suit. Tiffany resumed sorting out the cherries in front of her, laughing as she pushed them down the packing shoot as though it was a game. After grabbing a handful of cherries and shoving them in her mouth, Leah pulled Josie with her down the stairs.
Snapping on her gloves, Claudia sat on her own stool and rifled through the cherries.
Every now and then, Leah or Josie would bring up a fresh batch of cherries from the bath and spread them across the belt. Josie had ceased crying, save for when she found a heart-shaped cherry and started sniffling.
Arms aching, back muscles spasming, hands freezing, Claudia was about ready to give up. After half an hour, they had sorted hundreds of cherries. They were nowhere near finished, though, and a glance at the clock sent her heart into a frenzy again.
"We're not going to make it," she said.
Through gritted teeth, Simone said, "Of course we are. It's doable." She turned her head to look at the clock and suddenly, her pace increased.
Lee stood up, stretching his arms above his head. Pushing in his stool, he walked towards the staircase.
"No toilet breaks!" Claudia and Simone both shouted.
Lee ignored them, bi-passing the stairs and heading towards the operating box. Opening the little door hatch, he started to tinker with the insides.
"Lee, what are you—"
"Help."
"But—"
"Shhh. Help," he said.
Claudia looked to Simone, who shook her head. The girl continued sorting cherries, perhaps having given up. A few strange noises were coming from the machine, yet another glance at the clock had her continuing sorting herself. After all, the machine couldn't get any more broken.
The team sorted for another ten minutes before Lee stood up. Closing the hatch door, he walked over to the other end of the conveyor belt.
"Ah well, Lee, nice try—"
"Press button," he said.
"Huh?"
"Button. Machine start."
"He's saying start the machine," Tiffany said.
"Yes, thank you, I get it." Claudia rolled her eyes and pressed the button to start up the machine. She didn't hold her breath, and when the machine didn't start up, she shrugged again. "Oh well."
The machine, just like every person in the shed, chose that moment to be defiant. It made a funny noise, quite like a chainsaw starting up. Then, after a few more revs, it settled down, sounding more like a purring cat and its normal calm self.
Leah and Tiffany cheered in celebration, drowning out the annoyed grumbles of Sean and Caleb.
"You, you actually did it," Simone said.
Tiffany patted Lee on the shoulder, who had already gone back to sorting, a wide grin on his face. Claudia felt her cheeks grow hot, and after calling Leah and Josie to come back up onto the platform, worked to sort out the cherries.
They still had to work hard to get them done on time, but when five thirty rolled around, they had just about finished. They could hear a car pulling up in the driveway outside, and soon enough, Chester and Barry came inside.
"How'd everything go?" Barry asked, taking off his sunglasses and looking at the packed boxes.
Claudia and Simone shared a smile—the first in the day they had known each other—before Simone answered, "Pretty good."
Barry sniffed the air, almost as though he could still smell the smoke from the machine. It had dissipated since before Lee fixed it.
Nevertheless, to be safe, Claudia asked, "How is Jared doing?"
"Mmm? Oh yes, very good. He'll be sore for a while, but no real damage done. I dare say he'll be out partying before he knows it," Barry said.
Chester, meanwhile, had been inspecting the seconds pallet. "My word, you have been doing a work. Who's in the lead?"
Claudia took a breath and peeked at Simone. The girl almost smiled—almost—and shrugged. "We've lost track between us," she said.
"Ah well, at least they didn't go through to packing. I suppose I'll just have to eat the Freddo Frog myself."
"The what?"
"The Freddo; whoever filled up the most was going to get a chocolate frog to eat. You could maybe break it in half between you if you really wanted." Chester dug around in his trouser pocket, pulling out a chocolate. He held it up to the platform for Claudia to take. "I hope you don't mind if it's a little melted though."
Claudia looked at Simone, whose mouth had popped open. The girl caught her gaze, and for the first time she had witness, Simone burst out laughing.
"It's alright, Chester, you have it," she said.
The old man looked at the chocolate and shrugged. "Well, if you're sure," he said, turning to walk off.
"Absolutely!"
Claudia turned back to Simone. The girl had stopped laughing, her expression once more schooled into the usual, 'I'm better than you,' look she usually wore.
They probably would never consider each other friends, yet with only one work day left, they seemed to understand each other. They would work together civilly, and perhaps if they both returned for the season next year, things would be a lot more pleasant. At the end of the day, they were both adults and now had a year to work on their issues.
Chester cleared his throat. Looking down, Claudia saw that he had paused, a finger on his chin as though he were in thought.
"You know," he said. "You two girls, Simone and, uh, Kordia? Claudia, sorry, Claudia. The apple season is about to start. I might just go sign you two up if you're open to it; there's a farm a few kilometres away who will be happy to have some experienced fruit workers."
He hobbled away before either girl could protest. Simone huffed and Claudia echoed her.
Apples would hurt more than cherries if thrown, and Claudia had a feeling they would be in for a long ride ahead.