Dim, humid, loud, and crowded was all Kite could describe about her job at the mill. She and a few other girls were in charge of cleaning and fixing the massive looming machines. Only shy over five feet tall, she and other children of the factory were often seen crawling under the equipment, untangling and taking away any knots that would stall the machine. Kite took a rag and began wiping grease on the levers, helping them move smoothly and with less noise.
“You got something on your nose there, Evans!” One girl sneered as her and her coworkers began to giggle as they were loading the spools of thread to the loom.
Kite laughed along with them. “I know! I just thought it would be more becoming! Face grease is all the rage!” The girls rolled their eyes at her and continued their work. Kite was used to this ridicule as she was often covered in grease, dirt, and soot from working on the machines all day. All she could do was laugh along with them. It was impossible to keep clean and proper like the rest of the girls. However, she did not mind as she took pride of being one of the fastest workers to help a machine start running again after stalling. She knew it meant the girls’ jobs if they could not get production running at a timely manner. Just when she thought her work was done, she heard another machine stall in the station next to her.
“I’ll get it!” She jumped up and ran over to the next station to tend to it. The screeching noise was almost unbearable as a wad of thread was entangled between levers. Dipping under the machine, Kite’s stretched her arm up to clear the mess. However, she felt the large ball of thread trapped between the levers and as she took it out, the levers moved, stabbing into her hand and pulling her arm up. “STOP THE MACHINE!! STOP THE MACHINE!!” Kite cried as she felt her arm caught in the machine, unable to let go. Suddenly she felt a painful pop out from her shoulder. When the machine was turned off, it was too late. Wailing in pain, Kite realized the bone was dislocated from her shoulder. One of the girls pulled her from beneath the machine, cringing in horror at the state of Kite’s hand and arm. “What is this ruckus! Get back to work!” The foreman took a swig from his flask before sauntering over to the commotion.
“What now?” He narrowed his eyes at the girls and looked down at Kite who was clutching her broken arm, crying in pain. At the sight of the foreman, she quickly wiped her tears and gathered her strength to stand up.
“My… my arm is broken, Mr. Bradford …” Kite stammered, trying to ignore the pain. The foreman let out a heavy sigh and grabbed her by the other arm, dragging her toward the door.
“I have no use for you, you stupid, silly girl. Get back to work when it can function again. You don’t come back in a month, you’re fired!” He growled as he shoved her out the factory door and shut it behind her.
Kite frowned as she took her apron to suppress the bleeding in her hand and held on to her arm, flinching at the pain as she began walking toward Riverside House. The owner, old lady Mrs. Finnigan, would not like this one bit, she thought. Mrs. Gertrude Finnigan was a wealthy philanthropist that owned several small businesses in Brooklyn. Most of her charity work involved helping the working class and obtaining a building at the Riverside Apartments was her pride, helping out working children and families obtain affordable housing, providing them with meals, health care, and even schooling. Kite was grateful for finding such a place to live in. It was a more pleasant living condition as opposed to the mill boarding house. Walking into the building, she heard someone at the dining room. She saw the girl place some flowers in the small vases on the tables. Kite leaned against the doorway, biting down on her lip hard in attempt to ignore the unbearable pain. “Luna?” She uttered. The girl was Mrs. Finnigan’s grand-daughter, who worked as the boarding house attendant. Her face was usually pale but when she turned to face Kite, she became as white as the table cloth.
“Kite! Oh my God! What the hell happened!?” Luna’s large, doe-like eyes widened in horror as she went rushing to her, realized the girl’s arm was definitely out of its socket.
Kite sighed, “My arm got caught in a machine today and I think it’s broken…” Luna frowned as she examined it and led her to sit down, leaving her for a moment to fetch the medical supplies. A few moments later, she came back with a bottle of whiskey and placed it down next to her.
“Alright, dear, take a swig of this and I’m going to put your arm back in the socket alright?” Luna set the supplies down and rolled up her sleeves. Kite bit her lip nervously as glanced at the bottle.
“I don’t drink, Luna. You know that!” Kite blew strands of hair away from her face as she picked up the bottle.
Luna rolled her eyes at her hesitation. “Trust me you’re going to want to drink for this. I’m putting your arm back in the socket and it’s going to be excruciating. Now drink.”
Kite cringed as she placed her lips on the bottle, and took a swig. The burning sensation filled her and was absolutely disgusted by the taste. She felt Luna take her arm and shut her eyes as she heard her counted to three. In a sudden swift movement, her arm was yanked back into her shoulder socket, popping it back into place. She let out a yelp from the sharp pain but before she could ask how she did it, she felt her arm back attached to her shoulder again. With a sigh of relief, she decided to take another drink of whiskey, cringing at the taste. Luna began wrapping her arm and applied a sling. After unwrapping the blood soaked apron from her hand, she began cleaning and dressing the cuts. She was used to seeing these injuries with the boys at the lodging house, with their usual brawls on the streets or from the boxing ring. However, it was more upsetting to her when young girls came home with injuries from their jobs. Factory work has always been dangerous work and it was times like these when Luna was grateful she did not have to endure such hardships. Helping her grandmother volunteer at the charity hospital from time to time, she knew how difficult it was for young workers to have access to health care. She vowed working at her grandmother’s housing complex at Riverside, she agreed to tend to the poor families and children living there.
Relieved at how fast she took care of her injury, she smiled sweetly. “Thanks again, Luna. I really appreciate this. I don’t know where I would go now that Papa’s away at sea. I can’t work for a while. Mr. Bradford said I may get fired if I don’t heal up in a month…”
“Anytime, Kite and don’t worry. You’ll heal up fine but you shouldn’t go back to work.” Luna frowned at her, packing up the medical supplies and putting them away.
“But I have to! Papa said I’m the woman of the house and I won’t be able to afford rent if I don’t work…” Kite had tears welling up in her eyes. Luna paused for a moment and smoothed her hair, giving her a reassuring grin.
“Don’t worry about that right now. I’ll take care of it. You can stay in the girls bunking area in the meantime. I’ll talk to my grandmother okay?”
Kite smiled at gave Luna a hug with her good arm. “Oh thank you! Thank you! I can help clean! I can help do laundry! Sweep the floors! Anything!”
Luna gave a slight chuckle. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. Just rest up that arm and you don’t need to do anything. Don’t make me catch you working with it! It’s a good thing you came to me right away.”
“I’ll take good care of it! Promise!” Kite grinned as she took one more drink of whiskey, already feeling tipsy. She stood up and headed toward the bunk room to rest for the remainder of the day.
