|
|
Post by Milo on Sept 19, 2008 22:41:56 GMT -5
"Dat's okay" he replied, kicking his legs back an forth against the stone wall. " I saw Gwennie yestaday" he commented, almost falling backwards onto the sidewalk below. "she said she ain't seen ya in a few days" he waited a moment for her to reply but she was too busy finishing up her sandwich to reply and, eventually, he continued " ya must be busy if ya don' have time ta meet up wit' her"
|
|
|
|
Post by rhoda on Sept 20, 2008 7:12:56 GMT -5
"Yeah" replied Rhoda, stuffing the piece of old newspaper that her lunch had been wrapped in into the pocket of her dress. "it seems like the hours just get longer. But I did get Sunday off last week, though. I'm really hoping that they continue that from now on but I don't think that they will because they can't just shut down the factory every Sunday or anything" she shrugged, looking up at the grayish patch of sky above the mill. "oh well" she sighed, turning her head to the gargantuan building next to them, a weary look on her face " guess I have to go in pretty soon."
(anybody else can feel free to jump in on this thread if they want to. In fact, I'm kind of counting on it since, in case nobody's noticed, both of the characters currently on it are mine and it's not incredibly interesting RPing with myself.)
|
|
|
|
Post by eloiselewis on Mar 25, 2009 22:40:03 GMT -5
*New Day*
Eloise sighed as she stood at her station, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She debated as she worked, whether she liked school better or work at the mill. She only went to school one season, in the fall, the rest of the year she worked in the mill for the whole morning, and then spent the afternoon at home, helping her Mother sew, or just doing whatever she could do.
She didn't like school very much at all, unlike her older sister, Sloane, who loved books and writing and anything educational, to Eloise it was a bother. Who wanted to memorize dates and numbers and letters? But she didn't really enjoy being stiff either. She watched her sister work for a moment, her sister was alert at all times, working carefully. Eloise tried to be careful and pay attention...most of the time...
|
|
|
|
Post by rhoda on Mar 25, 2009 23:11:18 GMT -5
Rhoda hooked the string running past her onto a little moving hook on the machine for about the thousandth time that day her fingers were sore and her back stiff from bending over the machine all day. She let out a brief sigh as she continued with her monotonous task. she always tried not to waste time feeling sorry for herself but sometimes she couldn't help it. She wasn't the worst off in the factory. She knew that. But she still stuggled to reel her mind away from thoughts of how life used to be for her before her father had left. back when she was still a child, a daughter instead of a second mother for her little sisters, one of the women of the household. Back then she had been more carefree than she could even imagine now. Her only worries had been about schoolwork and what other girls in her class would play with her rather than whether or not there would be food on the table the next day or if she would still have all of her limbs and fingers at the end of the day. At that thought she glanced down at her racing fingers nervously before allowing her eyes to wander around the room again. It was almost sad. She'd been there so long that by now she had the rhythm of the machine memorized so well, she didn't even have to look at it.
After wandering around for a minute, her eyes finally rested on the little girl working in the station next to her. She'd been there for a few months and, from what Rhoda had heard she'd been here before for awhile though it couldn't have been too long or constant as she was still quite young and didn't have the slumped posture of most long time mill workers her age. Rhoda hadn't really talked to her that much since their stations were usually futher apart so she didn't know much about her but she looked to be a couple years older than Maude, maybe eight or nine. At the moment, she seemed to be just as inattentive as Rhoda, likely for the same reason. Truth be told, there was probably hardly a person in the room that wasn't bored out of their skull from the monotony of their job. Figuring that their would be no harm for either of them if she started up a conversation for a little bit of entertainment, Rhoda began to speak to the girl. "Careful you don't get your fingers caught in the thread" she chided jokingly "I heard that last week little Lizzie Barrett did just that and the machine sucked her straight in. She's alright now of course but Geraldine said it took them a full hour to pull her out."
|
|
|
|
Post by eloiselewis on Mar 25, 2009 23:20:52 GMT -5
"Careful you don't get your fingers caught in the thread" she chided jokingly "I heard that last week little Lizzie Barrett did just that and the machine sucked her straight in. She's alright now of course but Geraldine said it took them a full hour to pull her out."
Eloise looked up as a girl in the station next to her chided her, at first she thought the girl was serious, but saw the playful twinkle in the girl's eyes. She giggled softly.
"I heard about that. Sloane said it was a fib, but I think it happened." As she spoke, she kept her bright light hazel eyes on the string, making sure she was guiding it carefully, keeping her quick little fingers out of reach. "Do you think it hurt Lizzie? I know she's alright now, but it musta hurt, don't you think?' She asked curiously, glancing up at the girl briefly, her glance eager. She paused for a moment and smoothed her apron quickly and tugged her sleeves up higher out of the way before continuing her work.
|
|
|
|
Post by rhoda on Mar 25, 2009 23:36:03 GMT -5
Rhoda thought for a moment, surpressing a small smile. "Yeah, I bet it probably did" she agreed, nodding "she probably got really bad rope burn from the string. More than likely it wore straight through her dress. You know, they never shut it off before closing. No matter what. that's why if you get your finger stuck, it'll just cut right through it after awhile" she gave a slight smile though she wasn't entirely sure that it wasn't true after all, she had never seen the machines shut off and at least two peaple had lost a finger since she had been working there. The story about Lizzie Barrett, however, she knew was false. In fact, her friend, Geraldine had made it up yesterday just to see how many people would believe it. the truth was, as far as she knew at least, they didn't even have a Lizzie Barrett Working at the factory. There were, however, plaenty of girls named Lizzie, few of which knew each other's last names which Rhoda thought was probably what had kept the story going this long. "Do you know Lizzie?" she asked, testing the girl's honesty.
|
|
|
|
Post by eloiselewis on Mar 26, 2009 7:54:31 GMT -5
"Do you know Lizzie?"
Eloise looked at the row of girls, she had to stop and think on this one. She thought a couple of the girls were named Lizzie, but which one was Lizzie Barnett? She turned her eyes back to Rhoda, and then realized by the way Rhoda was watching her, with a hint of mischief in her eyes. A wide grin spread across Eloise's face.
"Wait a minute...There is no Lizzie Barnett, is there?" She asked with a little giggle. "Well then, I lost my fight with Sloane then. But that's okay. I do know the two Lizzies that work here, at least have seen them, and I have a dolly named Lizzie! I like the name Lizzie, and when your dolly does something bad, you can call it Elizabeth."
She talked excitedly, trying to keep her focus on her work. Eloise was glad that they didn't work in a factory with horribly loud noises, but work was strict, you had to be quiet if you wanted to hold a forbidden conversation while you worked, if you didn't want to get caught.
|
|
|
|
Post by rhoda on Mar 29, 2009 8:15:42 GMT -5
Rhoda smiled at her new acquaintance's honesty and astuteness. "you're right, there isn't" she agreed, nodding. "There's a Lizzie Cochran and a Lizzie Desmarais who work in this general area, those are probably the two that you know, and there are also three other Lizzies who work on the other side of the factory. i don't know their surnames but I do know that two of them are Russian and the other's Italian so it's probably pretty unlikely that any of them would have a name as English as Barrett" she continued, all the while her fingers flying across the face of the machine, connecting stings to metal hooks, seemingly independent of the rest of her body. "My friend Geraldine made the whole thing up just to see how fast it would spread and how long it would take before someone would think it was a crock. You see, we think it's important to know people's names and something about them when you work with them just in case they happen to be really emotionally deprived and decide that you're their best friend or something like that. I know it sounds absolutely mad but it happened to Geraldine this one time and it was not pretty. So when we're working and we don't have anything else to do, we try to listen in on what other people are saying to find out what people's names are and a little bit about them. some people say that it sounds too much like snooping in on people's lives but it can be really useful sometimes." she gave a slight shrug, a guilty smile on her face. "plus we just don't like to be bored."
She was entertained by the girl's enthusiasm about the name Lizzie and her dolls. It reminded her of her sister, Maude. She got just as excited about small things like that and she was always willing to share her enthusiasm with anyone and everyone around her, whether they liked it or not. Sometimes people got annoyed at her for it but for the most part it was harmless. She hoped this girl had better discretion though, not that she wasn't enjoying the conversation (she had initiated it, after all) but sometimes those kind of things just worried her. "yeah, Lizzie is a pretty good name" she replied, smiling "along those lines, I don't think I've introduced myself yet. I'm Rhoda Hunter and I'd shake your hand but that would require leaving my work for a few seconds which would probably get us both fired, so I won't" she explained, giving a small shrug as she finished.
|
|
|
|
Post by eloiselewis on Mar 29, 2009 9:14:21 GMT -5
Eloise sat quietly, working, yet listening eagerly. She actually wasn't that much of a chatterbox, she got excited sometimes and shared that, and anybody Eloise trusted could be her friend, but still, she wasn't much of a pesk, at least she didn't think so, Sloane called her a pesk sometimes, but that didn't matter. Sloane was her sister, so it made sense.
Eloise was amazed at the things she was hearing. This older girl was clever, and she agreed, that was a good creative way to endure the boredom. She would have to listen to others conversations' closer from now on, instead of day dream of playing in the streets and being away from the mill.
"How long have you worked here?" Eloise asked curiously. "You know a lot about this place."
The girl introduced herself, and Eloise grinned. "Rhoda! That's a beautiful name. I don't know any other Rhoda's. It must be great to have such a unique name. Well, nice to meet you Rhoda. I'm Eloise Lewis."
Eloise introduced herself with a wide smile. She liked making new friends, almost more than she liked candy, or playing stick ball in the streets. Girls didn't usually play stick ball, but Eloise loved it. She wasn't always allowed to play, the neighborhood boys would shoo her sometimes. But Often, Eloise's brother Freddy came to play, and he would stick up for Eloise and she would get to play. And sometimes they didn't even care if she played or not. So Eloise played whenever she could.
|
|
|
|
Post by rhoda on Mar 29, 2009 10:27:47 GMT -5
Rhoda thought for a minute before answering. well, I guess it's going on two years now that I've worked here. I had to start working after my Pop left but, before that, I went to school and stuff just like anybody" she let out a small sigh. "if I'm lucky that'll do and I'll be able to work somewhere else when I'm old enough. It doesn't have to be anything too fancy. just somewhere where I'll at least be able to do something other than just attach a string to hook all over and again all day. " she elaborated, a hesitantly hopeful look on her face. "So, what about you, have you worked here long?" she asked though she was already fairly sure that she hadn't. "and more importantly, did you go to school for long before you started here?"
she chuckled slightly at Eloise's continued enthusiasm. she sure did seem to like names a lot. "Thanks, I like your name too. It's pretty. I can't really say that I haven't ever met an Eloise before but, believe me, that's not so bad. At least people probably don't have any trouble remembering how to spell your name. People get mine wrong all the time 'cause there's a silent H in it right after the R and almost nobody can remember to put it in there." she shrugged it off and changed her focus back to the introduction "anyhow, it's nice to meet you. hopefully, Geraldine will get moved over here soon and you can meet her too. She's really fun. She's been working here since she was only six so she knows this place like the back of her hand."
|
|
|
|
Post by eloiselewis on Mar 29, 2009 14:10:51 GMT -5
"Well we just moved here last year, and Sloane was the first to get the mill job. I was going to just help Mama with the sewing and her seamstress work. But then Papa got let up when he was working in the trolly business. He was a mechanic! And he's always had a bad leg, ever since he was little. Mangled but they hired him anyway since he's so smart in the engineering an' all. But now all he can do is work in a little tin factory, that doesn't pay so well. So Mama took on more sewing work, and Freddy got a bigger job as an apprentice at the carpentry shop. And I had to come work at the mill. I've only working for half a year, Sloane started before me." Eloise finished and took a deep breath, that was a lot of talking for her, but she figured it made sense to explain the family situation.
Eloise nodded, smiling, hoping Rhoda's friend would come over soon. She liked meeting new people. She sent a glance in her sister's direction and then motioned to her.
"See her over there? That's my sister, Sloane. She's smart like you. She likes to read and go to school. I don't. I don't like school very much. It's hard to remember things for me. Sloane doesn't say much sometimes. And she's not always very happy, she gets mad at me sometimes, but she can be nice sometimes too." Eloise explained, as she continued the same job of bringing the string over the hook. She cast a glance around the room, trying to maker sure the factory owner, Mr. Briggs, wasn't anywhere around.
|
|
|
|
Post by rhoda on Apr 4, 2009 19:10:02 GMT -5
Rhoda nodded knowingly "that's too bad about your papa." she replied, sympathetically "but at least he's still around y'know?" she gave a slight shrug "You're lucky. Mine may have been a drunk but he was still my pop. I mean, really, I'd give anything to have him back job or no job."she wasn't quite sure that her mother shared that sentiment but, despite how much of a jerk he had been when he was drinking that was how she felt. She loved her family how it was but she just couldn't help but envy Eloise a little bit for having both parents. She felt kind of guilty for feeling that way seeing as many of the kids that she knew didn't have their mothers or their fathers but she just couldn't help but want more.
She was pulled away from her rare little bout of self- pity when Eloise pointed out her sister a few stations away. She chuckled a little as Eloise described her. "Yeah, big sisters can be that way sometimes." she said, smiling broadly. She could definately relate to the occasional meanness of big sisters. After all, she was one. "Well, being a big sister myself I can honestly tell you she probably doesn't try to get mad at you when she does. She's probably just frustrated and tired and stuff like that. It's a lot more work being a big sister than it looks."
She noticed Eloise looking around the room worriedly an d smiled again. "You don't need to worry about Briggs." she chuckled, making a not so wild guess about what she was looking around for. "he never comes down here to mingle with us common people. Heck, he doesn't even work her. That office up ther is empty most of the year." she nodded toward the door which loomed over all of their heads at the far corner of the factory. "and the manager only comes around every couple thousand hooks. and it's only been about half that. He's clear at the other end of the factory right now."
|
|
Thanks Jim!