Rules of the Road by K. Aten

Author:K. Aten [Aten, K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

JAMIE’S DAY WAS not going well. Not only was she in the middle of a major revamp of one of her own lines, but it was also her day to cover the old line because they still hadn’t hired an engineer to take “Dave the Dick’s” place. The line was one of the very first ones in her building, and being older than Methuselah it ran poorly on a good day. The supervisor had called Jamie for an issue with one of the big in-line coaters. Unlike the other departments though, the two openings for the machine were on opposite ends of the line from each other. So if there was an alarm, you had to run from one end to the other to shut it off, then run back and see what was causing the alarm. Jamie was tired of running. About forty-five minutes before quitting time she was ready to be done. Her own line had called her with a tester issue so she called Bill to see if he was available to look at it.

“Sure, James. I’m smooth sailing ’til the end of the day since my lines had to go home early.”

She grabbed him before he could hang up. “Hey, if you get that figured out can you come help me with the dinosaur?”

“Yeah, let me just go check your tester and I’ll come over.”

The worst part about the layout of the dinosaur line was the fact that you had to exit the door at one end and immediately duck under an eight inch diameter steel pipe in order to get to the alarm controller. There were strips of plastic sheeting hanging down across the doorway so you didn’t see the pipe unless you were all the way out.

Jamie had just made an adjustment and went back into the plastic enclosed clean room to cycle a tray through. There were two line operators in the room with her, Jill and Sue. When the alarm blared again she spun in place, dodged around Jill, and ducked down to plow through the plastic door, anticipating the pipe. Unfortunately she misjudged the height of it and plowed headfirst into the steel like a charging bull. The loud “bong” sound drew Jill and Sue out of the room to see what happened as Jamie staggered and reeled from the blow. Jill caught her as she nearly fell and Jamie clapped a hand to the top of her head. “Holy shit, Jamie! Are you all right?”

Jamie righted herself and gingerly reached around the controller to shut off the alarm. “I just literally saw stars. Like real blinking, twinkling lights swirling around my head just like a freaking cartoon.” She moved her hand from the top of her head down to rub the back of her neck. Both were killing her. Her other hand stayed clutching the controller.

Jill watched her for a second. “I think you should sit down for a minute, that rung your bell. Do you feel dizzy at all? How is your neck?” Jamie looked at her curiously and Jill shrugged.

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