Ralph started reading the "Woman in White" after he had his dinner. He got this book as a birthday gift when he was twenty seven. It surprised him that he didn't get bored with it yet.
Actually, a person who could read Hamlet in archaic English countless times...couldn't get bored with one of the finest mystery novels...now could he?
But, he got bored with "Charlotte's Web" though. That's another thing. The book's different.
He didn't know what he felt for Percival Glyde-pity or anger. That pal was illegitimate but he had greed for money.
'Person in grey. Rest in pennies.' Ralph commented when Percival perished in fire.
His phone beeped, snapping his concentration. Ralph pursed his lips and retrieved it from the bedside table. His eyes widened after he saw from whom he had received the email.
It was his boss. More like, his boss's PA.
'Now what does he have to inform me? I hope it's not my demotion or...unknown and unintentional resignation. In fewer words...I hope it's not the last email I receive from that uptight gaffer. ' Ralph thought with a sigh.
He hurriedly opened the email with sweaty palms. His boss had a thing for keeping his workers in his palm. If one of them slipped from the palm...they would fall.
'I don't want to fall! I hate gravity!' Ralph got extremely frustrated when he found out that he forgot his own password of the app lock.
'Why did I give...that...that stupid lock?! It's pissing me off right now! Absolutely disgusted!' Ralph glared at his phone screen so that it could crack open...but nothing happened.
Ralph fidgeted with his app-lock. After a while of furiously drawing the pattern and entering backup pins, he finally had his email inbox displayed in front of him.
'I am just knackered down here!' Ralph exhaled as deeply as possible without hurting his lungs.
He tapped on his boss's (PA's email...same thing to Ralph) email. It opened.
Mr Murphy,
Your presence is required tomorrow at the newest construction site eight in the morning. According to Mr Daniels, he asked me to tell you that he would like to see whether everything's under control or not.
Mr Smith will accompany you tomorrow with all the necessary data required at the site. Be there on time.
Oliver Knight.
Ralph frowned after reading the email. He locked his phone and leaned his head against the headboard.
'Blast it!' He whispered.
'Not their cursing and swearing...again.' Ralph breathed out. Once he went to one of the construction sites of the company as an assistant to the PA...
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.
He reached the construction site and waited for the intern who was going to accompany him. He wasn't going to go into that hell-hole without him.
Soon, the intern, Mr. Smith, arrived. The 24 year old...kid...dressed in his formal wear. Just the way Ralph did on his first trip.
'Can't the company warn the interns about where they are going?' Ralph thought bitterly.
'G-good morning, Mr Murphy.' the guy stammered.
'Sh-shall we go and get this over with as fast as possible?' He looked unsure, sounded nervous too. Mr Smith felt exactly what Ralph felt in front of people.
Ralph felt a little sad. He slowly smiled at the Smith and said, 'Be careful of the dirt.'
'Be careful of the dirt? Thank you, sir...for the piece of advice.' Mr Smith mumbled. His face turned pale at the mention of dirt.
Ralph couldn't deny that he felt way better than this Smith. He was way more tensed than Ralph was. Plus he was worried that, it was a test from his boss. He couldn't quite show his weakness. Not to his boss at all.
'You brought the file, Mr Smith?' Ralph asked, gazing at the bag Mr Smith carried.
'File? Oh, sorry, sir! Yes. It's right here.' He fiddled with his bag and retrieved the typical silver company file.
'Then let's get going.' Ralph said and waited for Mr Smith to walk.
They entered the construction site. While his colleague tried his best get the answers out of the workers using his nervous tone (and occasional coughing), Ralph patiently took notes and did the calculations. He didn't talk to any of the workers, of course. He didn't need to. Mr Smith soon got confident enough, though his coughing was still evident.
According to Ralph, Mr Smith was the only human with whom Ralph had the longest conversation. And that was of only 1 minute and 20 seconds at a stretch... until now.
They went on investigating and inspecting works from each floor. When they reached the seventh floor of the under construction building, Ralph noticed something wrong with the number of cement bags. They seemed...odd.
Mr. Smith noticed his sceptic look and asked Ralph what happened.
'Sir, is there anything wrong?' Mr Smith asked him gently. The engineer was way too busy to move around with "a walking cane and a wheezing machine". In fact, he didn't even spare a glance at the two company workers.
'Look at the price of cement bags needed for this floor. It's just twenty thousand pounds. Have you noticed the price of cement bags from first to sixth floor?'
'Yes, sir. The initial price was forty thousand...and it gradually reduced.' Mr Smith answered. He coughed after that.
'Certainly. As we can see the number of bags are same. We have to assume that...believe that, the cement is of poor quality.' Ralph stated after he browsed in the web about the recent reduction of cement prices...but he found no such piece of information with regard to that.
'I'll ask the engineer about this at once.' Mr Smith said and marched of to the engineer. Ralph waited for him to return.
Ralph scanned his surroundings. There weren't many workers present in the floor. Those who were present, were near the engineer, working with the noisy machine. Ralph saw only one worker near him. He was leaning against the wall, inspecting a tool and a rope. Ralph considered that he must tell the worker to go back to work, but then decided not to.
Suddenly there was a loud noise, as if something huge just cracked, and a man's gasp. Ralph heard that. But he wasn't quite sure whether the people a few metres away from him heard that or not.
Mr Smith, the engineer and the workers were in a heated argument to actually notice what was happening.
Ralph rushed to the spot, near a sharp iron beam, the same worker who was leaning against the wall, was dangling from a rope, a look of pure horror on his face. Ralph noticed that the only thing holding him was the rope. His eyes widened.
Before Ralph could think of doing anything, the rope started to worn itself. It didn't have the strength of carrying the load of the man.
Ralph jumped on to the rope successfully catching it from the unworn portion, he tried to drag the rope up. But, boy, the man was heavy.
Ralph was too shocked to even scream for help. His lips just would part.
The worker's struggle caused to worn the rope again from where Ralph held it. Adrenaline rushed into his blood. He dragged the rope faster and then dove to catch the man's arm.
While he did that, his thigh collided with the edge of the beam and it sliced his skin open. His hand was scraped badly by some remnants of concrete. Blood pooled beside Ralph and dripped down from his hand, as he let out an ear-bleeding scream (now), earning everyone's attention.
'Oh God!' All the workers screamed together.
'Sir!' that was what Mr. Smith shrieked out. They all rushed towards the spot.
Ralph felt his hand getting number and his eyes drooping from the tiredness. Though, he held onto the man's hand. The man clasped Ralph's hand as if it was his only chance of survival.
It was.
The workers dragged both of them up. Mr Smith helped Ralph on his feet. But, Ralph's thigh burned. He couldn't support his weight on his legs. He fell on Mr. Smith.
'Somebody call 999!' Mr Smith yelled at the frightened engineer. He obeyed.
The pain kept Ralph conscious. He couldn't black out, even if he wanted to.
Mr Smith opened his jacket and tied it tightly around Ralph's thigh. Ralph screamed at the extra dose if pain. 'It'll be alright, sir.' Mr Smith tried to assure him. Then he grabbed a handkerchief out from his bag and tied it around Ralph's wounded forearm.
Ralph felt weary. He couldn't quite comprehend what he was doing. He started telling gibberish.
'Sir, please don't talk. It'll stress you out.' Mr Smith said in his usual concerned tone.
The ambulance arrived, taking Ralph to the nearest hospital. Before Ralph lost the last shred of his consciousness, he regretted being an idiot by being brave.
'After all, for being a hero, you need to be one part brave and three parts...fool. Ceart , an tUasal Smith ? Cinnte , ar dheis.' He had muttered before falling asleep, keeping a distressed Mr Smith awake beside him. Mr Smith prayed wholeheartedly to God to keep the noble soul alive.
After that...he took a puff from his inhaler...as it was hard for him to breathe.
***********
Hello, readers! Here's chapter four of NB from us!
The quote 'One part brave and three parts fool is from "Eragon".' :-D
We appreciate your interest on figuring out the gibberish that Ralph babbled at the end...it's Irish. :-)
And, again, thank you to all who reads this...piece of literary work a.k.a story. :-)
We will be truly grateful if you vote and comment on this chapter. (We must be truly desperate...#Loki! :-D :-D)
Thanks a ton! See ya!
Erik & Lydia.
P.S. Sorry for the grammatical mistakes and typos. :'(