Never Break

Chapter Four: One Part Brave, Three Parts Fool

It was a disaster.

So much noise, smell of sweat, or chip tobacco, sometimes the smell of beer. And, of course, curses that would make God mortified. God! Ralph wanted to throw up at that time. He was completely gobsmacked at their behaviour.

Plus, he never visited any construction site earlier than that. So he wore his formal clothing. The consequence was horrible.

He had his pants and shoes covered in dirt, his shirt cuff was torn because of a nail on the wall somewhere. The PA patted him on the back and smiled. Ralph took that to be his embarrassment again.

Ralph sighed and and ran a hand through his evil-looking hair. He stood up and slipped on his flip flops. Ralph needed to find an attire for himself that would actually help him tomorrow.

'I still don't understand, why do they send actuaries there?' Ralph questioned to himself.

He opened his wardrobe and scanned the inside. Most of his clothing were sweats, formal shirts, slacks, trousers, formal or informal jackets or this and that. He needed something like...jeans and half sleeved shirts...with a jacket of course...it's always brass monkeys outside.

He started rummaging his wardrobe. As far as he remembered, he had a jeans and an informal shirts somewhere in there.

After a lot of rummaging, he found a dark jeans with a grey plaid shirt. They were crinkled. He sniffed at them. The smelled of mothballs.

'Eh...I have to wash them now. People aren't moths.' He grumbled.

He got downstairs while holding the two pieces of clothing in his hands. Ralph switched on the washing machine that laid at a corner of the dining room. He gave the timer for ten minutes and laid back on a chair.

His family me members were God knows where...he searched for them by sitting on the chair. He was successful in spotting any one of them.

'Thank the Lord, none's near the coast. Hehe!' He smiled goofily.

The machine washed his clothes and dried them up too. Ralph retrieved them from the machine and scrunched his nose at their horrible state. They were as crinkled as a wrinkled old lady.

Ralph turned the iron on and waited for it to heat up. He placed his shirts finely on the ironing board and waited for a few seconds.

He ironed his shirt the way his mother taught him in Aussie. In the same way, he ironed his jeans.

Ralph switched off the iron. He then went to check whether he switched off the washing machine or not. He didn't. Ralph slapped his forehead and switched it off.

He took his now neatly folded clothes and went upstairs. He put them back in his wardrobe making sure he didn't crinkle them at all. If he did, that would be a huge disappointment.

He then sat on his bed and began reading his book again until it was quite late at night. He brushed his teeth and changed into his night clothes. Flopping on to the bed, he closed his eyes hoping he wouldn't cock up anything tomorrow.

- - -

Ralph woke up the next morning, the thought of the difficult task ahead heavy on his mind. He took a shower and brushed his teeth. Drying his hair thoroughly he slipped into the clothes he had readied for himself the night before. He had his breakfast and went off to work...feeling a bile in his throat.

He didn't wear his cap though. The people there wouldn't mind his appearance. He was sure of that.

'There will be to engrossed in their own world to notice anything...even if her majesty was there!' Ralph thought with a heavy dose of hyperbole and grinned.