A smile in purgatory 火海一笑 (BxB)

What the Hell is wrong with you!?

(Timeline: Week 2 Friday)

After the 2-week performance review meetings, Hanson and Kexing returned to work. They had to move some materials from the backyard to the machines in the Turning department. Those were stainless steel bars, and would not rust, therefore they were stored outside in the yard since the company did not have a lot of room inside.

It was a windy day, and it looked like a storm was building up. The sky was getting very dark, and the first drops of rain had already fallen.

"Let's hurry up. We have to bring 60 bar stocks to the Turning department before we can go home for the weekend. They are running 3 shifts all weekend." Hanson told Kexing.

They ran to the backyard with 2 carts, each pulled 6 bars at a time, and made a total of 5 trips to get all 60 bars. By then, it had started raining really hard, to the point they could barely see. They quickly pushed the carts to the loading dock, and when they got in the building they were both soaking wet. Hanson was used to working under all weather conditions since he started doing Raw Materials. Rain, snow, ice, heat, you name it.

He thought Kexing would complain having to work in the storm, but he didn't. For as long as Hanson kept grabbing bar stocks, Kexing kept going.

Once they delivered the material to the Turning department, they went to the bathroom to dry up and wring out their wet shirts.

When Kexing took his shirt off, Hanson immediately noticed a big scar on his upper back. It looked like a severe burning mark.

Hanson would probably have asked Kexing about it, but he wasn't into small talk, so he pretended that he didn't see it.

It was almost time to go home, they only had about 15 minutes left.

Hanson figured they would practice on the database one more time.

"Say I need 416, half inch diameter, do we have 20 bars in inventory and where is it located?" Hanson asked.

Kexing loaded the database and typed 416 to filter the material. When he got to the shape, he asked Hanson "What's the shape?"

"I said half inch diameter, remember?"

"Yes, but what's the shape?"

"If it's diameter, then what does that tell you about the shape?"

"I don't know."

"The shape is round of course. Only round things have diameter... Don't you know that?!" Hanson got angry again.

"Oh ok." Kexing went to filter for round shape, but before he clicked on it, Hanson shouted, "STOP"

"Why?"

Hanson had anger issues and tried to control it really hard, but some people just have a talent in bringing out his rage.

"CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT'S YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM!?" Hanson screamed, no longer able to contain the steam that had been building up for several days.

Kexing was stunned. Despite Hanson had yelled at him time and time again, he had not screamed like that yet, and never cursed at him before. This was the first time.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Hanson continued, very agitated. It was getting late, and all the office staff had left, it was only the 2 of them.

"IT'S BEEN A FUCKING WEEK, THAT WE TRAINED ON THIS FUCKING DATABASE! YOU STILL CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT! I COULD STRANGLE YOU RIGHT NOW!"

Hanson punched his desk, this time, really hard. The whole computer shook.

"I'm sorry. I ... I'm really ... trying." Kexing said with a low voice.

Hanson noticed that every time he raised his voice, Kexing did the exact opposite, he lowered his.

"CAN YOU LEARN THIS, OR CAN YOU NOT? IF YOU CAN'T, THEN JUST GIVE UP ALREADY!"

Hanson punched his desk again. So hard the keyboard and the mouse both jumped.

"I can ... I want to ... I'll keep practicing..." Kexing said with a low voice.

"YOU'VE BEEN PRACTICING FOR 5 FUCKING DAYS! IT'S NOT NORMAL! WHAT ARE YOU NOT TELLING ME!"

"Ok ok... I'll tell you. When I was in the military, our camp got bombarded. Half of our troop died. The other half didn't, but got severely injured. A fragment of the bomb hit my upper back, the impact gave me a hard concussion. When I recovered in the hospital, the doctor told me that part of my brain might not work the same way as it used to. That I would have difficulty learning things, remembering instructions, that I would be mentally slower than normal people. Because of that, they relieved me from active duty."

Hanson was surprised to hear that. It never occurred to him that Kexing served in the military. That's right, Brian did say something about that today... But Kexing looked so young, Hanson thought he was a teenager when he first met him. Since he doesn't do small talk, how would he know how old Kexing was anyway?

"How old are you." Hanson asked, resuming his monotonous speech.

"Thirty."

"Where did you work before coming here."

"I worked at a distribution center. I was driving the forklift and sorting packages by zip codes. I worked there 3 years then the company went out of business, so I came here."

Then it all made sense now. The reason he could do that job, was because he only needed to read numbers, digits, for zip code sorting. And the reason he could learn the forklift so quickly, was because he used the forklift for three years already.

And that also explains the scar on his upper back. From the bombing.

"Hanson, I can learn this. I just need a bit more time. Please don't give up on me. I need ... your help. Nobody is going to help me otherwise. Like you said, I'm ... not normal." Kexing said with a sad voice.

Hanson needed a moment to absorb the information. He always thought that Kexing was just not smart but the truth was he served his country and got injured, and it left him partially disabled - not physically - but mentally. That's why he was struggling so much.

That also would explain why he is so hardworking and dedicated. What he lacked in intellect, he made up in hard work.

"After the bombing, I had PTSD, and my family couldn't deal with it, they said I was unstable, they got scared of me, and so they kicked me out." Kexing continued.

"Then I moved in with my roommate Tony. He was a high school friend, and also the only person who's nice to me besides my dogs Willie and Ziggy. After them, it's you, Hanson. I don't have many friends, I don't have any family. I only have a very small circle, which is you, Tony, and Willie and Ziggy. But Willie too, died half a year ago of a sudden heart attack. So now it's only Ziggy, you and Tony." Kexing's eyes teared up at the mention of Willie's name.

"You're the only one that actually takes the time to teach me. If you give up on me, nobody would help me anymore. I know I take forever to learn, but I promise you I will keep practicing until I get it right. Please don't give up on me." Kexing stopped talking after that.

Hanson stayed quiet. He looked at the wall, it was six o'clock.

"Go home. See you Monday." Hanson simply said.