Hedwiges by Richard Short

Hedwiges lived in a small house on some marshland in the shadow of the factory in which he worked. The house was the only one on the marshes as few of the employees were willing to live in the reflected gloom of the factory, under its green-black fog and red rusting chimneys. Hedwiges, though, had no choice in the matter as his bosses demanded that he be in the factory the second it closed each night Hedwiges ensured that the machine kept on working while everyone else slept; stalking around the metal halls turning dials and flicking switches in accordance with a strict handbook of pre-sets. Hedwiges was unreliable and sometimes he made near-catastrophic mistakes, but Hedwiges would never fall asleep on the job like others would, as he was an insomniac and always had been.One night at just gone three in the morning Hedwiges paid a call on his friend Renthaus. Renthaus' conversation varied from the sublime to the primitive but as the night watchman he was one of only six people awake at that hour and he was, as always, found sitting in his bed-chair reading and drinking slowly from a bottle of slivovitz, one eye on the wall of a hundred tiny lights which informed him of any danger. The only other people awake in the factory that night were the girls from accounts (for money never sleeps!) and Hedwiges would pay a visit to them in due course!"I've seen a girl, Renthaus, and she is not merely a girl but a real woman! She really is sublime!" said Hedwiges, sitting folded in his chair like a huge grasshopper. "Huh?" grunted Renthaus."But I can't tell you her name, all I can say is that she is deliciously Iberian and a true woman in the way you have never known."Not knowing what that meant, Renthaus became intrigued and even put his book down (keeping his thumb in it in case he lost interest). Renthaus questioned Hedwiges who gave away little, keeping an imaginary set of cards close to his chest (which he drew away from Renthaus when his friend pretended to see them – "Oh no!" warned Hedwiges, "You're drunk", thought Renthaus).So Hedwiges talked and talked until his head was in the stars and his soul was as elevated as that of Goethe. "Well go and get this girl then," said Renthaus, his thumb twitching."Oh, but I can't, I can't..." Hedwiges protested, before jumping from the bed chair and running out of the surveillance room. An hour or so later Renthaus heard a clatter of arms and legs and then Hedwiges appeared with two girls in the starched grey dresses of the accounts department. "Renthaus, let me introduce you to Peggy Filartiga," Hedwiges said, pushing forward a plump dark girl, "and Anna Santa Rocha," and Anna stepped forward and took a seat on the bed chair. She was a real beauty Anna, very graceful and polished, and Renthaus was transfixed. As the night deepened the bottle of Slivovtz was passed around and the party became drunken and raucous. "You girls are very intriguing, why have I not seen you before? Do you not like to venture from your box room upstairs?" enquired Renthaus, "Well, no," said Peggy, and Anna giggled. "We are slightly afraid of the factory," Anna added. At this point Renthaus gave a huge cry of mirth and scuttling up in his chair he invited the girls to join him under his blanket. With the girls on either side of him and Hedwiges withdrawing into his seat Renthaus began to tell a ghost story about a devilish scarecrow who lived on a bog. The girls giggled and Hedwiges seethed, for the story was not a scary one and it didn't seem to have a point, apart from that of making the girls rock about with laughter and occasionally glancing at Hedwiges, who they recognised as the scarecrow. Hedwiges was distraught; drunk, lonely and mocked (sometimes in verse!). Oh! Why had he fed Peggy Filartiga to this black-eyed demon! The regret was really eating away at his insides as he sat barely hearing the ringing laughter of the lovely girls and the cruel meandering story. Sick to his stomach, Hedwiges rose and left the room, which became instantly silent in his wake. He couldn't return now. Instead Hedwiges entered the WC adjoining the surveillance room and not minding to lift the seat he took a shit directly upon it. This was all he could think to do!Hedwiges stared at the shit for a minute, the bare lightbulb buzzing in his ears. He then turned on his heel and ran all the way back to his home on the marsh, slamming the door behind him.