A beautiful day was beginning to show. The sun had begun to rise, the clouds parted to reveal a delightful blue sky. In East Eden, as birds flitted between the bushes, trees, and the sparse, spaced out rooftops. Crows pecked at the recently harvested fields, prying for food such as leftover seeds or crops that were not yet harvested. Scarecrows were ignored. Indeed, the birds seemed to be completely settled.
At least, until a sound akin to the sound of a construction site began. Out of nowhere, only muffled by the walls around it, a heavy sound of drills pounding into metal began. And in a rather modest home, with a garage that doubled as a workshop, the source of the sound could be found. Inside of the workshop, tools were lined along the walls on racks, the majority of them in an orderly fashion. The lights were bright, something that could be compared to the light of the morning sun, and completely belying the completely covered zone. Within was a car, its wheels removed, and the hood opened up to reveal the engine. Walking around with a completely burst tire in hand was a rather handsome man. Yet he is not the main character in this bizarre story. No. That would be the one with a handheld drill, leaning over the hood of the car while forcing the drill down into what looked to be an important part of the car’s system.
In terms of attire, at first one would think she was rather normally equipped for the job she was doing. She had safety goggles and a mask that stopped her from inhaling dangerous particles or chemicals. However, that was where the normality stopped. Rather than proper gloves like latex, she wore ski gloves. Rather than thick safety trousers, she wore rainbow jeans, and rather than a proper shirt, she had a cooking apron and a long sleeved raincoat underneath. Finally, and most inappropriately, she had simultaneously socks and sandals, the absolute monster.
This was Mallory Lucklace in a nutshell.
Indeed, by conventional methods, this method of getting into a broken water container was not a good idea, however Mallory had quite effectively convinced her boss and close friend of allowing her to do while he fixed the rest of the car. By her somewhat questionable logic, the fact that they were on a time limit where they had a deadline for sending the car back. When they got the car for repairs, Mallory’s initial suggestion was rejected instantly – that is, to take the car completely apart, and then put it back together. Still, as they ran through basic diagnosis, more problems just kept occurring. A few of the tires were completely in disrepair and needed replacing, there was a broken window near the back, the hinges of a mirror were loose, and most importantly of all of that was that the water container could not be opened and had seemingly collapsed on itself, making it impossible to replenish any water supplies for the car. This would definitely cause long term problems if it wasn’t fixed, potentially even leading to the engine over heating and catching fire.
Still, if they wanted to get paid, the duo had to find a way to get the car back to working condition within two weeks. This meant that they could not order in a replacement water container, although the other things were much more simple fixes. As her boss pondered about this, Mallory herself came up with an idea that, at first seeming stupid, ended up being something that even her sensible boss agreed to.
By Mallory’s logic, if the original hole was closed up and impossible to use, then why not redirect it with a new hole, and turn the original hole into one that was sealed up? With this in mind, Mallory first tested if the metal of the container was one that would cope with being welded with a blow torch. After this was confirmed, her first step was simple – reinforcing the hole in order to make sure she could safely weld it shut, and then making sure that it would not split back open when she tried to create a new hole of the same proportions as the old one. She had done the welding the prior night, and was currently testing the strength of the bond by creating her new hole using a small, 2mm drill.
The metal held, a grin of pride under Mallory’s safety mask as she wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead using her forearm. “Hey boss! The bond worked! It’s a six mil hole right? Then we want to heat up the lip of the hole so that we can bend it into a shape suitable for the nozzle right? Don’t worry! I got this while you have all the menial boring labour!” The girl declared with a boastful laugh. Though he was busy lifting tires and moving around the workshop, an audible sigh escaped the man’s lips.
So, Mallory took out the drill bit without bothering to remove the batteries for maximum safety, walking over to a nearby desk and fishing the drill bit she needed out from the box there. Swapping it out, she walked back over with a spring in her step, before returning to her post at the car bonnet. There, she leaned back in, turning the drill back on and placing the drill at her designated drill spot, not having bothered to mark it with anything more than the 2mm hole that she had used as a test prior. Despite her bravado and her hyper active personality, her drill work was precise, boring a slow, accurate hole that she stopped every now and again to dust off from the metal shavings, and ensure that the hole was as smooth as if it had been done by a machine.
Indeed, this was the real reason he let Mallory work here, despite her impractical clothes and her terrible ethic against conventional methods. Indeed, Mallory was not a conventional worker.
But she was a damn good one.
Thu Sep 19, 2024 8:54 am by 
