‘They made a mistake, a series of mistakes. Every decision that has led to this very moment has been a mistake and I disagree with the entire prospect of it continuing,’ letting the formal request for transfer fall to the ground, Helma was outraged by a combination of a frustration and blazing pride for one of her staff getting such a promotion.
‘Well, your headache has been sacked from the East and will bother you no more,’ Garen smiled, nearly reaching for a cigarette but managing to catch himself before Helma noticed, ‘You’ve always wanted to get rid of me, now I’m just a name on a terminal across the desert. We’ve even got the same job title, isn’t that a laugh.’
Allowing himself the faintest crackle of pride from the raised vein of Helma’s forehead, Garen leant backward and decided against pushing his luck by smoking in a hospital.
‘I really did enjoy working with you,’ he said with sincerity, ‘you were the first engineer that I’ve been able to have a genuine conversation with, even if it was about a different start to the same circle.’
Seeing that the tired rage had left Helma for a moment he saw it was safe to plough on.
‘You’re very proud, you know that? It was just lucky that the apprentice is as mad as you are, or we never would have found you in the rotor housing. No one wants to lose you over something small like pride, Helma.’
The engineer could only cough weakly as she tried to offer an argument.
She had been overcome by the smoke not her pride, if Garen acted half as much like he argued the electrician have volunteered to open the valve himself. “There’s smoke? Yes please Helma. Can I work there every day?” the apprentice had done well though.
Helma remembered hanging from the side of the Turbine for some time as the burning oil poured a thick black smoke into the air and slowly poisoned the strength that she once believed to be unending. The heat of the rotor had raised the oil pressure; In an odd twist, if she had done nothing the valve would have probably broken by itself. The force of the opening valve had sent her into free air and as her harness had miraculously managed to tether, Helma imagined that the swaying picture of the desert below was to be her last memory.
That’s when they called. That polite little voice who almost asked if they were allowed to save her. Helma had seen the apprentice jump into the rotor housing and haul her to safety, she had seen a fierce determination on their face and a strength that would have pulled horizon from the sky if it would help. Two fitters, who must have been volunteered to be brave enough, were able to open the safety valves fully and managed to keep the turbine spinning–admittedly with trembling hands and only after making peace with their gods.
She recovered in time. Through long days of contemplation Helma began to feel that the Turbine would change from her accident too.
There was a quietness to the hallways now, it was an ache that she could never quite name. The fires that had once drove her onward were now the light of a single candle. The pride that Garen thought was to kill her felt dulled; she was proud of the Turbine, the people that maintained it, nothing in a sense had changed for her. But as she closed her eyes, she saw faces, worried faces, faces of people that that smiled so joyfully when she came back. In time, Helma smiled too.
The apprentice had learnt quickly while she was away, they had joined the logging office and turned its chaos into something that was simple and accurate. Before long they had been promoted to the office’s head and now they provided the forecasts for both Turbines. All through listening, through asking the right questions the apprentice had grown. Helma shook their hand on the day that she returned and had asked for their name as there was no need to call them an apprentice anymore.
Man walked within the gardens of a god and found but only wind. This kingdom was vast and its lands were without voice, but still it called to man.
The wind held power, and those below created grand towers so that they may learn and so that they may see how this power is born. Ambition leads to that of the blind and man soon chose to no longer walk with the wind, they saw kingdom within these lands and in blindness they would reach for power, greed crossing their palm and their heart.
And so, a tower did fall.
Hubris spoke its name and in time man shall return to the matters of pride again, but those who watched will be ready to guide them. The apprentice had watched on that day and they had learned. They had come to respect the world in which they inhabit. They saw their life as a grain within the desert, and they saw the desert from above. It was life, it breathed as a single being and shook hands with sky upon the horizon. And with time, and with patience, one day those of the land and the untamed winds of the sky may once again walk with each other. And if united on that trail, we all shall walk within that true garden called heaven.
J. McCray
2022
Sunday Short Stories 