Brick Man

4 millenials.

Brick Man

Through tiny holes in beams and girders and slalomed down an undone brick ledge, the sunshine split a trillion times, met again, and then rolled a thin, early spread over an electric car.

They'd all think he was late, but Hymie thought he'd done pretty good.  It was eight seven--pretty good.  He stepped out the electric car and slipped his fingers into work gloves, which after two weeks of carrying mud and brick up and down and up and down had started to look like an old pair, like the other guys.

One of his boots had come undone on the drive and he bent down to tie it.  Heavy f*****g things with thin laces, thin like baby snakes, always coming undone.  They made driving his electric feel weird.  "Ah, these f*****g boots," Hymie sighed.

Mr. Barco was walking over, hands in overalls and eyes looking off into the scrub so he wouldn't have to watch Hymie bent like a b***h, tying his boot.

"Hymie!! Work starts at eight!  See these guys?  You start at eight, Hymie."

"Yeah I know, Mr. Barco.  Traffic was so s****y."

"Yeah, well, I mean, I don't give a s**t Hymie, OK?"

"OK sorry, Mr. Barco."

Mr. Barco got a f****n' load of Hymie, shook his strong, bald boss head, and walked off.

"F**k, what?" Hymie whispered.  Why do these guys think I'm such a piece of s**t all the time, he wondered.  Am I really such a piece of s**t worker?  I work hard.  I pick up all the garbage and scraps and s**t.  F**k, I don't know.  Fernando does, like, hard drugs.  Why do they hate me so much?  Hymie finished tying his boot and rose awkwardly.  They were so heavy and felt so weird.

All the Portuguese were already up the scaffolding, chatting in Portuguese about how much Hymie sucked.

"Hey Hymie!" shrieked Fernando.

"Hey, good morning Fernando!" hollered Hymie cheerfully.

Hymie got down to work right away, filling his buckets with mud from the mud mixing truck.  After that, he'd take the buckets way up there and dump it onto their mud boards.  He had to make sure they didn't run out of mud or bricks.

Once his buckets were full, Hymie trotted off to a new pallet of bricks and began unwrapping it.

"Hymie! Bring me my f*****g mud!" shouted Mario from the scaffolding.

"Ok Mario! Coming!  I'm just unwrapping these bricks!" called Hymie.

"Yeah, I see you with them!  I have bricks!  I need mud!"

"Oh yeah? You still have some?  Like, from yesterday?"

Mario started saying something back but fucked it and instead yelled to Mr. Barco in Portuguese about how unbelievably s****y Hymie was.  Mr. Barco made a few foreign gestures about canning Hymie and they both laughed.  Hymie jogged back to his mud buckets.

The job they'd been hired for was way way up there.  A communal garden and flowerbed ledge that ran around the 21st floor.  The people that lived up there, they could just lean out of their windows and water tomatoes, or pull weeds, or talk with the people in 21F, or whatever.  Cool, Hymie had thought, and he'd told his friends and they were like, yeah cool.

"F**k!  Climb it, Hymie!" screamed Mr. Barco as Hymie slowly picked his way up the scaffolding.  To get up there, way up, you had to be sure that there were things above and below you to hold.  Hymie knew there were, of course there were, but he would climb blind in fear of the moment and eventually he'd hesitate and once he did, Mr. Barco would scream so f*****g hard at him.

"Hymie!!! F*****g go!!"

Each morning they'd all briefly discuss whether or not they should be tied down while they climbed the scaffolding.  It took time to tie people down.  Hymie never said anything at these meetings.  Tied to what? he'd wonder.  The ground? He didn't understand.

"Well, if safety shows up, we're fucked, but f**k it.  Don't fall, guys."  Mr Barco didn't really give a s**t.

To get the mud to Mario, way up there, Hymie had to walk across a bullshit bridge made of old dirty wooden boards the Portuguese crew hauled around from job to job.  Mario was nested in the scaffolding, waiting.  He waved his trowel impatiently.

"Hymie, let's f*****g go, here.  C'mon now, Hymie."

Mario looked like an old cherry tomato head with coke bottle glasses.

"OK, Mario."

Hymie slowly made his way across the bullshit bridge.

Mr. Barco and the rest stopped what they were doing and watched, waiting.

"That's it, Hymie.  Right here."  With trembling arms, Hymie lifted his bucket and poured it out.

"There ya go," he said proudly.

"Ok, Hymie."

"Hymie! More mud! Let's get some f*****g bricks going!" shrieked Mr. Barco.

OK, f**k, thought Hymie.  He pivoted like an idiot in his boots and began making his way back.

"Hymie! Just climb down! Why are you walking back!  Just climb the f**k down there!"

"Right here?" called Hymie.  There isn't anything for me to hold onto, y'know?"

Hymie looked down at Mr. Barco and shrugged.  I'm scared, you mean f**k.  You f*****g jerk.  OK?

"Get the f*****g baby off of there! Hymie!"

"Hymie," whispered Mario.  "There's a baby."

Hymie looked behind him way up there and saw a beautiful baby girl all in a flower pot with a petunia on her head, teetering on the bullshit bridge.  She cooed and giggled and drooled.  Hymie knew if he fucked this up, he'd be fired for sure.  He got down on his bully and started inching his way across the bullshit bridge.  

"OK, Hymie," said Mario.

Hymie had his hands around the flower pot.  The little baby girl smiled at him.  Slowly, rising like a screw, Hymie stood up, holding the baby in the flower pot.  Mr. Barco and Mario were frozen.

Then Hymie shuffled his feet a little bit and fell off the bullshit bridge.  The boards just pushed away from each other.  Some of Mario's bricks fell, too.  Hymie held the baby to him and watched Mario as he fell.  Mr. Barco was screaming, "WOAH WOAH WOAH!" Hymie held her tight.

They hit the side of the mud mixing truck hard and bounced into the mixing apparatus.  Hymie, the baby, and the bricks.  The mixer turned on.

"Hymie!! Don't turn it on!" screamed Mr. Barco

All the guys raced up to the truck.  Fernando puked.  There wasn't anything they could do.  Then one of the guys said,"Hey, wait a sec, Mr. Barco.  Look!" and he pointed into the mud at some tiny bubbles.  "It's Hymie and the baby! They're alive!" shouted the man.

"Nope.  No way.  I don't think so," said Mr. Barco.  "Let's go.  Get this mud machine going.  Mario! Let's go!"

              The guys started walking back to the building.  Climbing up. 

Suddenly, a brick arm shot out of the mud and it's Hymie, but now he's a brick monster, ten thousand feet tall and strong as the universe, little brick baby hangin' from his fingers.  He screamed at Mr. Barco.  His eyes were wood burning and they roar.  Thick grey chimney smoke billows from his ears and nose.  He roared and roared and roared and all the workers were falling and clinging and screaming.  Mario ran to his truck and he's gone.  Brick Man howls and runs away, screaming and running and vanishing into the scrub.

            "You f*****g s**t, Hymie!" thunders Mr. Barco.  "Vamos, meninos!"

They never found him, though.  Hymie was gone.  He ran into the woods and built himself a log cabin like a real man.

    

Reviews

[Ariana Omnomnom]

I keep imagining all the Portuguese workers as my uncle Paul. He's a Portuguese crane operator and exactly like this. The plot twist at the end really got me going, he's like a superhero now. Kinda like the HULK. I like 👌

[Rebekah Smith]

This is wonderful.
I'm not quite sure about how to convey the jarring emotions it inspired; that stark flit across the two worlds within this story, the worlds of brick and baby.
The realism of this is what gives it its girth, I think. Being familiar with many a bricky, you come to realise that certain ways of being a man just won't be accepted on a site, will be berated, beat down and bullied, and that was really quite honest and penetrating here. Hymie is an outsider.
Dude...I just love this. Could comment for hours :)

[The Twin Arenas]

Thanks for the read! what a nice thing to wake up to. x

[faryn wolff]

Digging into your past work here, what the hell, why have I not read this before. Your prose is so GOOD. Kinda like experimental almost poetic sometimes biting yet genuinely fluid narrative. Despite delving somewhat into absurdity, still human and relatable.

[The Twin Arenas]

Jesus. I was so proud of this. Thanks for the read, Faryn. Means a lot. Stories can pretty easily disappear for absolutely forever.

[The Twin Arenas]

you know, after I wrote this, I was so proud of it. i wrote it out 5o times on the insides of old christmas cards from the re-use center, tied together with string. little books, like. Anyway, i was going to do something with them, but I lost my pride, thankfully, I guess, and they've been in shoebox under my bed ever since.

[faryn wolff]

Dude, this is your craft. I am definitely going to come back to read this. I want a dang Christmas card book. Brick Man needs to be published. Really.

[Mia Sparrow]

hymie was a very sympathetic character. there's always that one shumenud that people pick on. poor guy. but that baby thing was way out there. the ending was great. at least he got back at those portuguese. do they really swear that much. well, it was a good read because it kept me engaged and wanting to know what happens after.

[The Twin Arenas]

thanks. I think that's what is supposed to happen. appreciate the read. I know it was kinda long.

[Matching Socks]

What a trip. Is this connected to three ring circus somehow?
Fear of having to take care of a baby? It seemed like the kind if dream expectant or new parents have.

[The Twin Arenas]

Sort of. I needed a device to get Hymie into the mud mixing truck. Baby made the most sense, for a variety of reasons. It's not personal or anything. Thanks for reading. It's long.

[Matching Socks]

It's just long enough... Good writing. Is this part of something bigger or stand alone?

[The Twin Arenas]

stand alone, I guess/

[olla]

wow... a riveting story.. this had a vintage feel.. like something out of the late 19th to early 20th century.. when life had less value than the job at hand..

[olla]

I did note the electric car so I know it was set in modern times.. but some things are ageless..

[Deepwater]

keep writing you have a good understanding of the required langrage to write

[NoelHC]

This story rings so true, I have been at numerous work sites where the workers exhibit such disdain for safe working practices, and ridicule anyone that has a concern for their safety. You captured that attitude well here. This story has a "Twilight Zone" feel to it, I enjoyed it.