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Factory Fire
A good friend of mine managed to talk to a factory owner to get me a job at his cotton factory. It was one of the very first jobs I had. I had been starving on the streets and begging for money once my mother died. Father had left us since I was a baby, at least that’s what mother told me. So I was very excited to get a job, because I could actually earn some money. I didn’t care how much I got paid, I just wanted some money to get some bread and water. I walked all the way to the factory because it was the only way. They had someone waiting for me, he called out
“ Ainsley Byron,” while saying it he looked up to see if anyone respond.
“ Right here sir,” said I walking towards him.
“ Come over here good lad, we’ve got work to do,” he said putting his hand on my back and gently pushing forward.
I walk in the factory and I see a huge ton of space filled with people and machines., I could barely breathe in there. It was so hot, I already could feel myself get sweaty. The man who brought me in was showing me the way around the factory. The factory was divided in 4 sections. I didn’t know what the sections had in them but I only knew the second section, the one that I worked at. My sectiones was the one where I would push the carriages of cotton to the last section of the factory.
It was almost getting dark, I had been working for 4 hours straight and I only had one break where Ii could go and have a sip of water. I wanted it to end badly, I did not see one smiling face since the moment i walked in there, they all looked like monsters that hadn’t slept for weeks. I was out of breath and I really needed sleep., I couldn’t stay there anymore. That’s when I realized that this job was a huge regret. I had some tobacco in my back pocket, so I looked around if there was anyone watching, and I rolled up some. I saw a window high up, I couldn’t reach it. So I grabbed a carriage that I would roll around and set in under the window and then climbed on the carriage. I lit the tobacco and started smoking. Luckily no one had seen me, then, I heard a high voice.
“Hey, you know you can get caught with that, and they might kill you.”
As soon as I heard that voice I jumped up and my cigarette fell in the carriage. I saw that the voice was from a little boy working there, I had a moment of relief.
“Go on you little brat, mind your business, I’m not getting caught. You made me drop my smoke. Go on now!”
I was very mad, it was the only smoke I had on me. I then saw a chief walk on and I dropped down and got on with my work. The chief walked over to me and said
“Are you good over here lad?”
“Yes sir,” I replied.
“ Well you better not waste any time, now go on!” He quickly yelled at me.
I got extremely frightened by his voice, it was like a dreamt of monster.
I then smelt something burning. It didn’t smell like any paper, it had a smell I never felt before. But I felt it coming from behind me, and the only thing behind me was that window. I quickly turned and I saw that the cart had had some cotton at the bottom which had caught on fire and then lit the cart on fire. I took three steps back and saw that the fire was up to my waist and it had to be put out. I yelled to one of the people next to me and told them that there was a fire. The woman then ran around screaming,
“ Fire, fire, there’s a fire, fire!”
Once she ran around then every woman and child was screaming, all of the men were trying to get out and the chiefs were running, trying to collect as much water as they could to put the fire out. I then went to see if the main door was still open, and it wasn’t, there were two people blocking it with their arms and body. They said that the reason they weren’t letting anyone out was because they were surely going to put out the fire so that all of us could go back to work. But when I turned back again to see the fire I see that the rest of the carts and the machines were on fire. I the middle of the factory the flames had risen higher than our heads.
I got too paranoid, I couldn’t just stay there and wait for my death, I had to get out. So I went to see from where I could get out. I saw that the left corner of the factory and saw that there wasn’t any flames there. So I grabbed a cart and climbed to a small window. I then crawled out and there I was, outside, on the top of the factory. The kid that caught me with the tobacco earlier saw me again and I told him to come up to the cart so he could escape too. Then both of us dropped down to the ground.
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