Perception

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter twenty-two

Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.

J.B. Morton

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Two days later the men came. At first, I barely registered them as being anything out of the ordinary. Men came all the time; some dressed in overalls with hard hats tucked under their arms, others not. Men often came looking for cheap, off the books, labour. But with these ones there was something a little off with them, just enough that I noticed when they first appeared, even though I didn’t process what meant until much later. They looked uncomfortable, dressed in their expensive three piece suits with their polished shoes and buzz cut hair. It was like someone had shaved a bear to pass as a pig-faced lady in a traveling freak show. People would believe what they were sold until they got close enough to look.

   These men were selling jobs; fulltime employment for the next two months clearing out abandon farmland north of the city with the possibility of staying on after that. The only catch? They were only looking for men; unencumbered men.

    “Thank you. Thank you,” Samson exclaimed, pumping one of the suits hands. “When can I start? Will there be a school near by for my daughter?”

    The suits smile faded. “Your daughter?”

    “Yes, my daughter,” Samson repeated, still smiling as he pulled Delilah closer.

    “I’m sorry, but the accommodations are for employees only. No families are permitted. Can’t the girl stay with her mother here?”

    Samson looked sadly down at the girl, hugging her closer. “She has no mother. Surely she can come along? She could even work if she must.”

    “There are child labour laws you know. Besides, no woman allowed on site.”

    “There are discrimination laws as well you know,” Sandra called, pushing her way to the front. She had been arguing her point for the last twenty minutes at whoever was close enough to hear. “I can work just as hard as any man here! See if I can’t?

Where’s my job?”

    “It’s in the invisible pair of balls you have dangling between your legs. You have been told once, now push off!” The suit turned his back as if she didn’t exist.

   “Right,” Sandra muttered.

    Pushing up her sleeves, she took half a step back, raised her leg, then kicked, or maybe pushed might be the better word, him in the ass. Normally, I don’t think that move would have been enough to knock him over, but she was aided by the fact he had just started to bend over. He seemed to go down in slow motion as his arms cartwheeled and the crowd all jumped out of the way, leaving a nicely churned muck-filled landing for him.

    He flipped over faster then he’d fallen. “Why you bi–“

   “I’m bored, let’s go find Pete.” From high in a tree we’d been watching the show, but now I had had enough. Standing up, I walked along the branch. “Come on, we’d better find Petra.”

   “Do we have to?” Mark whined, still watching the scuffle.

     I didn’t blame him. Petra had been banging around the tent and ordering us around all morning. Truthfully, the whole reason we were up the tree was because we were hiding. Pete can be the most loving, sweet, yet eccentric person around, just don’t cross her. Me? If a person pissed me off I’ll either rage at them or punch them in the face. Then we’ll be all good till they do something idiotic again. Petra? She’s slow to anger, but when she gets there, it takes forever for her to get over it. And God help anyone stupid enough to get near her until she does.