Invisible man - Ralph Ellison [84]
"An engineer?"
"Yeah, that's what I asked you," he said challengingly.
"Why, no, sir, I'm no engineer."
"You sho?"
"Of course I'm sure. Why shouldn't I be?"
He seemed to relax. "That's all right then. I have to watch them personnel fellows. One of them thinks he's going to git me out of here, when he ought to know by now he's wasting his time. Lucius Brockway not only intends to protect hisself, he knows how to do it! Everybody knows I been here ever since there's been a here -- even helped dig the first foundation. The Old Man hired me, nobody else; and, by God, it'll take the Old Man to fire me!"
I rubbed away at the gauges, wondering what had brought on this outburst, and was somewhat relieved that he seemed to hold nothing against me personally.
"Where you go to school?" he said.
I told him.
"Is that so? What you learning down there?"
"Just general subjects, a regular college course," I said.
"Mechanics?"
"Oh no, nothing like that, just a liberal arts course. No trades."
"Is that so?" he said doubtfully. Then suddenly, "How much pressure I got on that gauge right there?"
"Which?"
"You see it," he pointed. "That one right there!"
I looked, calling off, "Forty-three and two-tenths pounds."
"Uh huh, uh huh, that's right." He squinted at the gauge and back at me. "Where you learn to read a gauge so good?"
"In my high-school physics class. It's like reading a clock."
"They teach you that in high school?"
"That's right."
"Well, that's going to be one of your jobs. These here gauges have to be checked every fifteen minutes. You ought to be able to do that."
"I think I can," I said.
"Some kin, some caint. By the way, who hired you?"
"Mr. MacDuffy," I said, wondering why all the questions.
"Yeah, then where you been all morning?"
"I was working over in Building No. 1."
"That there's a heap of building. Where 'bouts?"
"For Mr. Kimbro."
"I see, I see. I knowed they oughtn't to be hiring anybody this late in the day. What Kimbro have you doing?"
"Putting dope in some paint that went bad," I said wearily, annoyed with all the questions.
His lips shot out belligerently. "What paint went bad?"
"I think it was some for the government . . ."
He cocked his head. "I wonder how come nobody said nothing to me about it," he said thoughtfully. "Was it in buckets or them little biddy cans?"
"Buckets."
"Oh, that ain't so bad, them little ones is a heap of work." He gave me a high dry laugh. "How you hear about this job?" he snapped suddenly, as though trying to catch me off guard.
"Look," I said slowly, "a man I know told me about the job; MacDuffy hired me; I worked this morning for Mr. Kimbro; and I was sent to you by Mr. MacDuffy."
His face tightened. "You friends to one of those colored fellows?"
"Who?"
"Up in the lab?"
"No," I said. "Anything else you want to know?"
He gave me a long, suspicious look and spat upon a hot pipe, causing it to steam furiously. I watched him remove a heavy engineer's watch from his breast pocket and squint at the dial importantly, then turn to check it with an electric clock that glowed from the wall. "You keep on wiping them gauges," he said. "I got to look at my soup. And look here." He pointed to one of the gauges. "I wants you to keep a 'specially sharp eye on this here sonofabitch. The last couple of days he's 'veloped a habit of building up too fast. Causes me a heap of trouble. You see him gitting past 75, you yell, and yell loud!"
He went back into the shadows and I saw a shaft of brightness mark the opening of a door.
Running the rag over a gauge I wondered how an apparently uneducated old man could gain such a responsible job. He certainly didn't sound like an engineer; yet he alone was on duty. And you could never be sure, for at home an old man employed as a janitor