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“Give that to me, you dolt!” Shoving the man aside, Hainer grasped the rope and took a wide stance. Slowly but surely, he started to pull the net out of the water, with another dock worker running over to help him. The net emerged out of the water, a gigantic fish revealing to be inside. It flopped and struggled, unaware of its surroundings, frothing the water around it. Hainer and his employee pulled the fish onto the dock, continuing to flail and put a fight. “Someone, club it!” Hainer shouted, signalling another one of his employees to run over. He wielded a small club, and swung it at the fish’s head a few times until stopped moving. Hainer then looked at the man that he had pushed aside earlier, before pulling the net in. “Seriously? Do I have to do everything for you?” Hainer approached the man, standing right in front of him and getting rather close to his face. “Look around you.” Hainer said to the man, in a rather upset tone. “Do you see all these people working? This is a busy dock, and that’s not even half of it. I have to deal with my quarry too, and then my debtors over the next few days, I don’t have time to tell you how to do your job. If you can’t cut it, I’m going to get rid of you. Do you understand?” Hainer looked at the man sternly in the face, fed up with the lack of work ethic.
“Y-yes, sir. I. just -” The man responded, until Hainer cut him off again.
“No, I don’t want to hear your excuses! Just get back to work, I already have enough on my plate as it is.” Hainer shouted at him, before turning around to walk off. He sighed to himself, muttering something under his breath. He hated doing his morning errands, for reasons like he just encountered. Not a day went by where some sort of problem didn’t arise. There was always something going on by either an employee, or the job itself and it was days like today where he seriously considered shutting everything down just to have time to himself. However, checking up on the docks was crossed off his daily list at least, and now he could move on to collecting his debt in town, before heading out to the quarry.
~
Moving through town, Hainer felt a bit more relaxed. It was a rather pleasant sunny day, which did indeed lighten his mood a bit. Not to mention the Hive district was exceptionally busy today, with people bustling around and kids playing about, which was a nice change of pace from the usual dreary vibe that blanketed the city.
“Going for a walk?” A voice spoke. Hainer turned his body, to see his grandfather standing there behind him.
“You could say that.” Hainer responded, giving a slight chuckle. “Luckily the only debtor I need to collect from this week, is Ben.” Hainer said, continuing to walk. His grandfather picked up the pace a bit to catch up to his grandson, and walked beside him.
“The handyman?” His grandfather asked.
Hainer nodded. “Yeah, that’s the one. He’s usually getting piss-drunk during the day, away from his wife.” Hainer couldn’t control people’s bad habits, but even he thought Ben needed a good smack in the face. The man would lie to his wife about going to work, but be too busy drinking his life away at the tavern. And when his wife questioned why he wasn’t bringing home any money, he turned to Hainer for a bit of a loan to cover his grounds.
“Well…try not to go too hard on him.” His grandfather said.
“Can’t make any promises, I’m a busy guy and I need to do this quickly. I still have to get to the Quarry, and see if everyt"hing is going okay there.” Hainer sighed, as he continued to walk.
“Oh, I just checked on the Quarry.” His grandfather responded. Hainer stopped in his tracks, turning his gaze to his grandpa.
“You did?” He asked, surprised. Hainer liked to do things on his own, however, he wasn’t against his work load being a bit lighter.
“Yep! Nothing out of the ordinary at all. There was some issue with someone needing the day off, but I let him.” He said. Hainer raised a brow, looking at his grandfather almost as if he was studying him. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe him, it was just…he wanted to check on things himself. “Besides, the execution is today remember? You won’t have enough time to go to the Quarry, and then back into town to see it.” He said.
“Oh, is that today?!” Hainer’s face lit up, surprised that he had completely forgot about the execution that was supposed to take place. “Well, I’m glad you took care of the Quarry then. Who’s the poor bastard that’s going up?” He asked his grandpa.
“It’s some thief. I don’t know his name, but he’s from The Willows. He thieves around, and he’s been given one too many warnings, so apparently the Mayor just wants him killed.” His grandpa shrugged.
“Well, that’s The Willows for you. Seriously, they make me sick. If it was up to me, I’d do a sweep of that place. How many chances are you going to give those people.” Hainer looked up at the sky, in thought.
“Hainer…not everyone was privileged like you growing up.” His grandpa said.
“Privileged? Father didn’t hand anything to me. I had to work for this. I could have just as easily been a bum, and not get anything form the business, and live my life in The Willows. Or better yet, move to some other town and be just as miserable. You either fight to get out of your situation, or stay rotting in the ditch.” Hainer shouted as his grandfather, hitting a nerve. If it was one thing that got under his skin, it was the notion that he doesn’t work hard.
His grandfather stood there, simply sighing as a response. Oh Hainer…one day you’ll grasp things better.