‘ I will see you later.’ That phrase just kept repeating itself over and over again in her head. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing…or rather wasn’t seeing. She faintly heard voices, people speaking to her but she did not hear them. All she could do was stare at the two giant slabs of metal and then at the blood coming from between them. She knew where that blood came from, she knew who that blood came from and yet all she could do was stare numbly at the scene before her. At one point she could vaguely feel two strong hands grabbing her by the shoulders and dragging her away , away from the crowd , away from the blood, away from all the blood. It wasn’t until the hands once again gripped her shoulders and shook her before she came back to reality. She blinked a couple of times and then realized she was sitting down. She looked at the hands on her shoulders and then right into the face of a large man with Chestnut brown hair and Concerned filled blue eyes.

“ ..Ya… back?” he asked uncertainly

She just nodded slowly unable to find her voice.

He looked at her uncertainly before asking “You Ok?”

Again she just nodded.

“ Ya sure? Cause I sure as hell wouldn’t be if I just saw what was left of my Uncle between two giant slabs of metal!” He said taking his hands off of her shoulders and stood up.

“Ye…yeah. Umm….I gotta get..home..Right..now!” The girl said suddenly standing up and bolting out the door.

“Damnit!” The man muttered. “Gears! Gears!” He tried to get her attention before she left but his shouts fell on deaf ears.

“ Hope he‘s gonna be Ok.” Came another voice from behind the other man.

The Large man turned to face another rather skinny one and shrugged “He’s always been a fighter, He’ll be fine..”

Gears ran down the street from the factory towards her tenement. It was only two blocks away and it didn’t take to long to reach if she was running. But this time it just seemed to take longer than usual. To be completely truthful Gears wasn’t even thinking about where she was going. She was just well…running. Somehow she found herself standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up at the man standing at her door talking to her Aunt who looked like she had just been through hell ,tears streaming from her eyes , she was shaking and leaning heavily in the doorway.

‘Damn it!’ Gears thought as she began to climb the stairs. She had wanted to be the one who broke it to her Aunt. Some of the guys that the factory usually sent to tell the families weren’t all that comforting and often made jokes about it in front of grieving wife’s and children. Half way up the stairs Gears saw the man turn around and start to approach her. She stopped dead in her tracks as the man came to stop just two steps above her.

‘Good. They sent BJ.’ Gears was relived. BJ was probably the only guy in the whole factory who could deliver bad news without rambling off into details and making the families even more upset than they should have been.

“ Hey Gears. Ummm listen I tink yer Auntie dere is bout ready to breakdown. It was to much fer her I tink.”

Gears just nodded “ Yeah she loved him a lot. Dey was real close.”

BJ looked over his shoulder to the woman in the doorway and then back to Gears “Y’Know yer gonna have to take care of her fer a few days right?”

Gears nodded and then frowned “Ise probably gonna lose me job.”

He nodded and thought for a minute before turning to her and saying. “Well Ya kin try an git a job back at da factory when yous ready at come back. We need more boys like youse.” Having said that he stepped to the side and started to head back down stairs.

Gears took a deep breath and slowly made her way up the stairs and then slowly to her Aunt. She was still leaning on the door, crying silently to herself, but that wasn’t what worried Gears. It was the distant look in her eyes that managed to set off a very uneasy feeling in the pit of Gears’s stomach. She slowly reached out and put a hand on her Aunts arm.

“ Aunt Fiona? Aunt Fiona? C’mon lets get out of the doorway.”

Her worry increased when her aunt didn’t respond to her. Remaining calm she gently guided her Aunt into the apartment and shut the door. She guided her Aunt to her favorite chair by the stove and had her sit down. Gears wasn’t quiet sure what to do, No matter what her Aunt wouldn’t respond to her questions, instead she just sat there and stared blankly off into the distance.

This continued on for a month, Gears remained home and cared for her Aunt. She would have called the doctor but she knew they couldn’t do anything. Her Aunt hadn’t spoken a word in a month and barley even ate.

Then all of a sudden her aunt began to walk about the house on her own. At night Gears would leave a plate of food by her Aunt and go to bed. In the morning she would wake up to find most of the food gone. Gears thought that her Aunt was finally accepting her Uncles death. She apparently thought wrong. One day she went out to get some bread and fruit, when she came home she went through her usual routine of putting away the food and then going to check on her Aunt. She crept into her Aunts room and found her sleeping on the bed. Gears smiled. ‘Bout time…she needed some sleep.’ Gears was about to leave the room, when she noticed her Aunt was holding something. It looked like a picture frame. Gears carefully walked over to her Aunt and slowly began pulling the picture out of her Aunts hands, Her Aunt had a pretty firm grasp on it so Gears lightly pulled up one of her hands and instantly froze.

Her Aunts hands where cold. Gears went to find her Aunts pulse, but she failed to find one. She quickly went to see if her Aunt was breathing, She wasn’t. Gears didn’t even bother to try any emergency attention. She knew by how cold her Aunt was that she had been Dead for awhile. Having realized this Gears slowly left the room and made her way out of the apartment and down to the street. Outside her building she calmly looked around and found what she was looking for.

“Excuse me bu…. I mean Officer. Um I think me Aunt just died.”

She led the officer up to her apartment and he went into the bedroom. A couple of minutes later he exited the room and grabbed Gears by the arm, pulling her out the door after him.

“Hey! Where da hell are we goin?” Gears shouted trying to free her arm from his grasp.

“Ise takin youse to da orphanich.” He said as he neared the stairs.

Gears Definitly did not want to go to the orphanich, She would go insane and the nuns drove her insane enough already, if she had to live with them well..She would be insane in a matter of days. She had to think fast they where almost to the first step, then she thought of it.

“Um Officer kin I at least git some of me stuff before you take me to the Orphanich?” She asked quickly hoping he would say yes.

The Officer shot Gears an annoyed look then reluctantly agreed.

“Fine, But be quick…and not to much!”

Gears nodded as the officer let go of her arm and she ran towards her apartment.

Once in her room Gears shut the door quietly behind her and began to stuff a medium sized bag with two extra pairs of cloths , her brush, a jacket, her extra hat and some sox. Once filled she slung the bag over her shoulder and Picked up a black toolbox sitting on the floor by her bed. She could hear the officer pacing back and forth and the hallway outside her door. It was now or never, Gears sighed and ducked out her open window on to the fire escape. She had been gone about 15 minutes before the officer got inpatient and opened the door to find her gone. He ran down to the street and looked around. There was no sign of her and he didn’t feel Gears was worth searching for. He turned around and signaled to another officer to get the medical cart and remove the body.

Gears sat on top of a giant furnace fiddling with two joints that seemed to be stuck together. She was too busy to notice the large man approach her from behind.

“Hey you new?” the man gruffly asked stomping his foot to get her attention.

Gears slowly pivoted around still in a crouched position and looked up at the mans pudgy grease stained face. She frowned at the sight of him, he was a big guy and he was standing a little to close to Gears for her comfort.

“You think yer better than me don’t cha?” He sneered as he stepped up closer to her. Gears calmly stood up and glared at the man.

“ No. I don’t think Ise better than you, so if you’d just move an let me through.” Gears said as she tried to step around the man.

“ I don’t think so.” the man said as he blocked her path.

Gears sighed and rolled her eyes. “ Look move now or I’m gonna make ya.”

The man Just Laughed and then looked at her as if she was crazy. “you gonna move me? Kid I’m twice your size and more of a man then you’ll evah be!”

Gears just looked at the guy and thought ‘ your right you are twice the man I’ll ever be…thank god.’

“Listen you little……’ the man began but he was soon cut off by some shouting across the room. This gave Gears the perfect opportunity to slip by him and leave him behind as she made her way toward what was beginning to sound like a big fight.

Sure enough there were a large group of men standing in the middle of the room cheering on the two fighters in the middle.

“Hey wanna place a bet?”

Someone asked her as she approached the growing crowd.

“No thanks Henry…hey do ya know who’s fighting?”

The tall blond man nodded “Yeah its Paul an Petah.”

Gears rolled her eyes and shook her head. “ I think I already know But I hafta ask, cause its tradition an all ..so why are they fightin?”

Paul hit Hummer…you know how Petah gets when people mess wit his little brother.”

Gears sighed some and said. “Yeah I know.”

“You gonna jump in an help Petah?” The tall man asked.

Gears just shook her head. “Nah it sounds like he’s handling it just fine. If he starts getting pounded into the ground, then I’ll jump in.”

Right about then the crowd started to dissipate and a boy with muddied black hair could be seen making his way toward the two. Gears looked at him he had a bloody nose and a pretty good shiner. Gears smiled at him as he stopped before them. “Nice fat lip ya got there.”

The boy smiled and gingerly touched his swollen lip. “Yeah thanks fer da back up there.”

“Well ya were doin fine all by yerself, ‘sides It wouldn’t have been fair, two against one an all.”

“What if I’d been losin?”

“Well dats different then, cant have Hummer bein an orphan.”

“Oh nice to see yer faith in me is so high.” Peter said with sarcasm.

Gears laughed some. “ Oh it is! It is!.”

Before the conversation could be carried any farther the work bell rang.

“Time to go home! Hey Gears wanna go get some grub?” Peter said as he started toward the door.

“Yeah hang on! Lemme get my stuff!” with that Gears disappeared back to her work area to get her tools.

“Its closed.” Gears said as she stared at her former place of work.

“Yup” Peter said as she shifted his weight around uncomphortably.

“Um..where we goin to work at now guys?” Hummer piped up from his spot next to peter.

Gears laughed silently to herself, then looked at Hummer.

“You an yer brother are movin to another part of town, youse already got a job at anuder factory.”

Hummer Looked at his feet and spoke rather silently.

“Um…Gears? Where are ya gonna go? Yer coming with us right?”

Peter shook his head at his little brother.

“Hummer, Bud ya know she cant. Dey wont let goils in an you know it. If she could still pass fer a guy then she would be coming with us, but She cant, Cause she’s a girl..and girls don’t work at factories, at least not where were going, cause…OW!”

Gears smiled at him innocently as he rubbed his forearm.

“Peter I think he gets the idea. You can stop rubbing it in now.”

Peter gave her a smile and looked at his brother. “She’ll be by for visits. But She’s gonna get a job here.” Hummer looked at his brother and nodded.

“Speaking of…Gentlemen I’m gonna have to leave ya early, I got a job interview at some store a block or two over. Bye!” and with that Gears took off down the street and out of their sight.

“EXTRY, EXTRY, HUNDREDS DIE IN WAREHOUSE FIRE!” Gears shouted as she waved her last newspaper around in the air, an old woman passing by took one look at her and bought the paper. Gears looked down at herself, she didn’t look to horrible, sure she had been sleeping in an ally, but she was fairly clean….well sorta. She was about to head out for something to eat but stopped when she felt someone tap on her shoulder. She turned around to face another girl carrying newspapers.

“Hey, you new?” The girls asked.

“ Naw I’ve been at this fer awhile now.” Gears said pushing a strand of dirty blond hair out of her face.

“What lodging house do ya live at?” The girl asked switching her papes from one arm to another.

“I don’t.” Gears simply said, now eying the other girl somewhat suspiciously.

“ Well I live at Bay ridge Lodging House its right over there, go check it out, we got a lot of vacancies, just tell em that Switchbladez recommended ya.” with that being said The girl turned and walked off.

Gears stood there for a moment contemplating weather she should go and check this Bay Ridge Lodging house out or not. It sounded Ok and it certainly sounded better than being out on the street, sure it was summer but winter would be on her soon and she didn’t want to fight another year in the cold. Having considered that, she made her way to the building that Switchbladez had pointed out. It looked nice and pretty well kept. She entered the Lodging House and looked around. She soon spotted a girl on the couch, who right at that moment spotted gears and got up.

“Hello can I help you?”

“Um yeah someone named Switchbladez said I could try an get lodging here.”

The girl smiled and pulled a paper off of a desk by the door and handed it to gears.

“ I’m Charity, I run dis place, da rent is 1 dollah an 15 cents a week and you need to fill out dis form.”

It took gears a couple of minutes to fill out the form, when she was finished she handed it over to Charity, who looked it over for a minute then looked up at her. Gears was half expecting to be denied lodging, so needless to say she was more than a little shocked when Charity looked at her and said, “ Ok well ya kin take a bunk upstairs the clean ones are the ones ya got to choose from, welcome to Bay Ridge Lodging House.”

Gears smiled and thanked charity, then made her way upstairs to put her things away.