It was suffocating, the smell. Thick, strong, metallic, strangling, terrible smell. I coughed till my lungs hurt. As soon as my brother and I entered the factory, knew we were in deep trouble for being late. An adult started walking toward us almost immediately and my hope for sneaking inside the factory vanished instantly. My brother and I had never been late before, I made sure of that, but this time it couldn’t be helped. Didn’t really mind about what was going to happen to me, but I was scared as to what my brother was going to go through thanks to my mistake. OK hold of my little brother’s hand and held it tightly. The adult glared at us so viciously, thought fire was going to burst out of his eyes and burn us alive. But that was just my imagination. “Being late is not tolerated here. ” He said once he reached us. “l don’t care if you’re 10 or 7 years old,people shouldn’t be late to their job. And if they are, they should never be again”. I know just the way to help prevent this from happening again. ” Then the man walked behind us, grabbed a whip, and that was what became my brother and Xi’s first whipping. I froze. Isn’t repaired for the first strike. WHACK. My back erupted with pure agony. Crashed to the floor. WHACK. WHACK. WHACK. WHACK. WHACK. I forced myself not to make a sound by biting my bottom lip until it bled. Probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But not as hard as what came next. I turned to look at]ace, he was looking at me, and could tell he was scared for Then saw the man walk behind Jack. Was in so much pain, couldn’t get myself up. I was barely holding myself up with my arms. I knew I wouldn’t be TABLE to stop this even if it was what I most wanted in the world.
I watched in horror and despair as the man raised his arm above his head and the whip met my brother’s back. WHACK. WHACK. WHACK. Watching him get whipped is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. Knew he tried his best to stay standing just by looking at his face, but by the first whip he was already on the floor beside me. “Get to work. ” The man turned and walked away. Knew that if we stayed on the floor any longer, we were most likely be getting another whipping, so I willed myself up on my knees, and then slowly up on my feet.
I gently took a hold Of Jack’s arm and carefully helped him up. I grabbed his hand, and held tightly. I didn’t ever want to let go. Despite of all adjusts happened, the factory kept functioning as did the workers. No one bothered to look at us while we got whipped. No one tried to stop the man. People were still moving and talking. The factory was still noisy, metal scraping against metal, sounding like a painful screeching in my ears. The machines kept working, the mill, the spinning room was still up and going and yet, I felt as if couldn’t function anymore.
I’m not a machine. I can’t keep working. But need to, and have to. For my brother, because love him, and I’d do anything for him. “Jack, it’s going to be okay, promise. This won’t ever happen again. I swear it. ” Jack squeezed my hand tightly as a response. Right now we have to work. My brother and work at the third stage of cotton processing: spinning. The process of spinning happens in the spinning mill. It’s not a good experience. The factory is always hot, which gets very uncomforTABLE and causes work to be even more exhausting. Working is always scary.
Since I’m small, it always test really hard to work in these machines. Always have to keep a watch on my brother, even if its just a small glance, in order to have some kind of reassurance that nothing will happen to him if I’m watching. Always try to keep him out of trouble, but mainly I keep an eye on him to watch how he does his work because these machines can get really dangerous. Many children have died because being small, they easily fit between tightly packed machinery and as soon as a thread gets caught on them, they get caught in the machine and usually die a horrible death.
That’s why I always remind Jack to be extremely careful. We worked for six hours and at 12:00 noon, we had our first (and last) 40 minute break of the day. Jack and I shared a small piece of bread and went right back to work in the spinning room until 9:00 at night. Worked for an extra two hours, causing us to leave at 1 1 :O. I still don’t understand how I made it through the day and managed to avoid another whipping for both of us. I can’t understand, and probably will never understand why life is like this.
Jack and I work hard from 5:AMA to 9:pm, lust do two extra hours, just to get paved a few cents a day. Today, since my brother and I were late, we only received 3/4 of our earnings-There’s also the fact that I’ve always dreamed of becoming a writer someday, but since we can’t even dream about affording an education I know I don’t stand a chance. Life is so unfair. How wish things were different. If only I could provide a better life for Jack. I exited the factory, my arm around Jacks shoulders. Started walking us back home, to our room in one of the tenements in the city. The weather matched my mood.
It had rained all day, still was, and I was thankful to have the sound of water meeting the ground to calm me. Once we entered our room at the tenement, Jack and I went straight to bed after eating a small slice of bread that I was lucky to get us today. We sleep in one bed. Our room is pretty dirty, and as much as try, it is never completely clean. So many hours at work leave us out of energy to do anything after arriving home. Anyway, tomorrow Jack and I have to wake up at 4:AMA once again. I’m desperate for change, for tomorrow to be a better day, but one can only dream.
