Windfall

The Airship was about to land. It was laden with goods from Houston, way across the rocky mountains. I had never left my home town of San Francisco, but it was my job to land these birds from faraway cities that I could only dream of. I was standing on top of a top building, my feet locked in place while the wind howled around us, hauling on a rope to try and control the airship as it landed.

"C'mon, heave! You call yourself a man!?" The forewoman screamed at me. She was a very large and strong woman, but since I was the only male on the crew, she still expected me to do the brunt of the physical labor. Or maybe she was just bullying me, it was hard to tell sometimes.

I pulled as hard as I could, while the rest of the crew (all girls) pulled around me. The forewoman did nothing, she just yelled at us to pull harder. With all the rest of our efforts, we managed to just barely get the airship under control, and I could feel it slowly descend. A shadow fell across us as the massive blimp blotted out the sun.

Our goal was to bring it in to the mooring mast- the trunk of a redwood, roughly 100 feed high and 10 feet across- where it could be tied up and docked. Then we'd start unloading the cargo. But this was a difficult process- it required careful coordination from the ground crew (us) and the airship crew to keep it steady in the high winds, while we tied up all of its ropes to the mast as tightly as we could.

"Oy, you! Get up there and tie it off!" That was the forewoman again. She meant that it was my job to go first- the hardest and most dangerous job of all. But I'd done this many times before, and I was confident in my abilities.

I released my footing on the main platform, and stepped up to the mooring mast. But... right as I did so, a sudden gust of wind blew from the side. The airship lurched, pulling the ropes with it... and the one in my hand pulled me along, too.

With my footing gone, I had nothing to hold me in place. I went flying off over the side of the building. I held on to the rope for dear life. It would have been an amazing overhead view of downtown San Francisco and the bay, if I had been able to appreciate it- the rope was flailing all around, showing me every angle of the tall buildings and shimmering water full of sailing ships. But I could only concentrate on gripping the rope tightly and praying for survival.

My luck was good today. After a few minutes, the wind died down. The rest of the crew brought the ship in, and I found my footing on the landing platform again.

"Well! Go on then! Get to work unloading!" The forewoman didn't care at all that I had almost died. She didn't even give me a chance to rest- we had to immediately start the arduous task of unloading all the heavy cargo from the ship.

"Don't forget to write down the cargo!" She belted. Yeah, yeah, as if I didn't know that. I pulled out my trusty black notebook and jotted down every item I unloaded. It was small, and I kept it in my shirt pocket- luckily it hadn't fallen out while I was dangling from the rope! I didn't own much, but I loved this notebook it was an essential tool for my work.

The cargo was mostly luxury food for the rich. One sack of oranges. One crate of peanuts. One box of raisins. Etc. Even though I worked here, and had unloaded this stuff many times before, most of it I had never tasted- a poor dockhand like me couldn't afford it. Just once, I had been able to snag some berries that had fallen on the floor- they were delicious, but covered in dust.

I was even more tired than usual today. I had been working hard all week, and my fight for survival on the rope had taken away all my strength. So I messed up. I dropped a box I was carrying, and the contents shattered all over the landing platform. A bunch of peanuts spilled out everywhere, making a huge mess. Even worse, I had ruined this piece of the cargo.

"You idiot! What the hell are you doing!"

"Sorry, boss" I begged. "I'm just so tired... I can't even hold my arms up anymore."

"You're tired, huh? Ok then go home, and take a break, cuz you're FIRED! And that box of peanuts is coming out of your wages, get it?"

"NO! Please don't fire me, please! I need this job, and this will never happen again. I'm the best ropeman you've got!"

"You ain't nothin. Go home, and take those peanuts with you. Maybe you can sell them for a few peanuts, har har!"

I was totally humiliated, but after losing my job, I really did need whatever I could get. So I swept up the peanuts as best I could, and put them in the remnants of the box they'd been in. As I did so, I noticed something curious. Tucked away in a corner of the box was something green that didn't belong there.

Money.

I felt a shock of adrenaline as I realized what it was. Thinking quickly, I hunched over and covered it with my body so that no one else could see. I counted it, and there was about $20,000 of cash in there! Not enough to make me rich, but enough to pay for training and an apprenticeship. Somewhere I could use my brain instead of just my muscles, and where I wouldn't have to risk my life to satisfy the whims of a sadistic foreman.

"Hey boss! You can't fire me, I quit!" And with that, I left, trying not to give away my happiness at this sudden upturn in my career prospects.