Currency of Blood

Sloss Factory's horros

Currency of Blood             by Sami Khalil

Sloss Factory’s horrors

Arnold was dying to understand. Nothing sufficed his curiosity, for answers were not coming obligingly in the least. Words, standing shoulder to shoulder with whimpering fears, flowered into a haltering silence, having the virtue of pernicious abandonment. While on tour of Sloss factory in Birmingham, Al., there was a carnal hankering to expunge indefensible thoughts, in the fashion of high peaks.

Make no mistake. This tour was an eye-opening to its history’s, past when in its heyday, made great steel from 1882 till it closed in 1971. One such notable horrific event was that of “Slag” the foreman. He had a sadistic spirit, a slave driver of the workers who despised him and his pushy tactics. To add insults to injuries, he hired armed guards who kept a tight ship, in a bone-chilling law and order thrills. Finally, disgruntled employees had enough, fed Slag into the furnace around October, 1906. When the guards heard the news, they all forsook the plant and fled for their lives. Slag haunted the furnace ever since.

Now, as Arnold stood over the furnace’s cat walk, while mired in those thoughts, someone tapped him on the shoulder, and when he turned around, was pushed down, plummeting into a pool of melted iron ore. It felt like a living hell. With a deep voice, punching his fists into the air, he became a half man, half demon, a burnt zombie. Frazzled, with an obnoxious miasma, he emerged like a sadistic leader, leading an outbreak of 100 angry workers to attack the “Magic City” turning it into a “Horror City.”

It fulfilled the prescient maxim: “He who does not survive the ghosts of the past, will become one, lurking in the shadows of hell.”          

 

Reviews

[S.zaynab.kamoonpury]

Woah extraordinary grave story, seems to draw from real sociopolitical events. The maxim at the end a befitting ending to it. Your eloquent diction renders the story professional. Kudos great writer!

Nice to read from you again....plz pleez do review/ comment/ write your thoughts under my newest poem too titled, ' sing a song of Taj Mahal.

[Sami Khalil]

Salamo Aleikum S. Zaynab. I can't thank you enough dear for your gracious review and kind self. I'm glad you inspire me with your feedback and encouragement. Take care...

[S.zaynab.kamoonpury]

Walekum Salam brother, u welcome.

[Sami Khalil]

:)..................

[Pryde Foltz]

Happy Halloween ... should be Horrific Halloween. Great tale blood and mayhem. You got a great back story for a monstrous villain here.

[Sami Khalil]

Whooeee! Thank you so much Pryde for this wonderful review and good wishes. Same to you. I hope Justin does not turn into one. Hahaha...

[Pryde Foltz]

I am a fan of him overall. He grew up in politics but maintains his sense of self and desire to do good with this time. The right-wing media likes to paint him as otherwise but I feel instinctively he is one of the keepers. We have a minority gov'n now and one leaning left, we should be okay for a bit:)

[Sami Khalil]

All true. Have been following. Happy Halloween and congratulations.

[redzone]

Well Sami that was one “hot” ghost story... er.... I worked in steel for some 10 years pouring hot metal from hand ladles and that boss sounds like he worked at my place too... your pen has created magic again Sami

[Sami Khalil]

Whoa! So good to know your story and how you can relate. So glad you liked this write. Thank you for sharing and visiting. Always an honor.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

"pernicious abandonment" oh my what a phrase....made me think of Gertrude in Hamlet...
I worked as a supervisor in a shoe factory for a couple years with a boss just like this...oh not quite to this extent....but he was a slave driver...very mean, quite sadistic...didn't care about people at all...
just cracked the whip...and there was an 80 year old woman who worked as steadily and hard as she could every single day...and he kept getting on me to get on her and push her harder....i fought with him over that....he didn't care for me...said i was too soft and wasn't cut out for management.
so i left there and managed in a restaurant for 30 years after that...
i still can hear him screaming at us all in his office...you bring back ghosts with this write...
j.

[Sami Khalil]

Wow! I love you sharing your story and real life event with us Jacob. I wish you can write a short story on that. I'm pretty sure you have a lot to tell. I thank you sir for taking the time and putting things in great perspective.

[Sami Khalil]

I'm so glad you proved him wrong....

[Sami Khalil]

The foreman kept the iron ore hot for guests.