Rust Belt Tails III: Trial Under Fire
#3 of Rust Belt Tails
This was the kind job that nobody actually wants, if they can help it. But after months of living at his mother Maria's expense for food and lodging, he needed to reutrn a portion of his living expenses to Maria and that meant, of course, finding a job. The very best (more like only available) job in the Detroit area was working at a factory in Flint cross-town for his father's old employer, Tarik Abdul-Aziz. His mother, Maria knew her son, Justin was a hard worker and a smart wolf but he would have to apply himself. And he knew that his days at the assembly line were about to begin as well- his path to the top of the world, being a leader of others would have to start with him being a follower. Justin knew would have to apply himself and there was no better place than the Ford plants located conveneiently enough in his hometown of Flint.
So on a bitterly cold November afternoon, Justin as two generations of Essenzas before him had done (as well as several uncles who had fled Detroit), enlisted for work at the Ford plant in Flint, Michigan. He knew that while Tarik, his father David's former employer was a nice enough lion (he even sent funds to help with Justin's college education in exchange for David's services), he could not stand laziness and incompetence- two traits that neither David or Justin would ever show, under any circumstances.The job interviews went by easily enough, the only problem being Justin's vagrancy convictions which he had pardoned by dozens of hours of community service so that he would be eligible for jobs.Very soon, he was approved for work on the assembly line for the government-mandated minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
From the first day on the job, Justin Essenza became aware of the monotony and boredom that almost a century of workers had experienced before him- even with an hour of lunch break, time still went by at a glacial pace. His world-weary and haggard appearance would only become even uglier with a job like this- Henry Ford's brilliant idea of having his workers take a certain part of the automobile in the 1920's resulted in mass production of the automobile (and the invention of a middle-class in Detroit) but also created the most boring and dangerous jobs on the planet. More than eighty years of innovation and technology softened but did not completely negate the original complaints of frustratingly-boring work. Justin's position included installing the car doors and windows and making sure the power windows worked as promised.
The job, once he attended the mandatory training sessions was easy but by that same token, was also repetitive. No social contact save for the hour of lunch break which he would spend usually with Tarik to discuss his father's contributions to the comapny or the other wage slaves was the only time he was ever free. Justin soon became the very thing which he had hoped to avoid- a robot devoid of any freewill, completely enslaved to the factory job he soon grew to hate. And he began to realize why David was so distant to both him and Maria- this was not the job that engendered good will but frustration at the static never-changing environment of Detroit and the rest of the Rust Belt, a region of the country that was underdeveloped and behind the rest of the nation economically
But where else would Justin, or for that matter any down-on-their-luck citizen of Detroit, Michigan and the surrounding area go? Jobs were incredibly hard to find in this area, especially the unskilled labor that a failed attempt at a college diploma could get. No employer would care that he had picked up some knowledge in the ways of the world at a college in Grand Rapids- all the employers would see is only a high-school diploma and pardoned crimes. So given no other choice, Justin would have to bottle all his resentment for the job and take his lowly post as a car door and window installer with pride.
So imagine his surprise when he was told to appear at Tarik's office- frightened, he thought he would be fired for a defective window or a door that swung off its hinges or a safety belt that could be the cause of a fatality. With his nervous system on overdrive, Justin opened the door only to find Tarik, the lion in a positive though businesslike mood with lunches for the both of them from a Lebanese restaurant.
"I understand what you fear about being fired- rest assured, that's not what I'm going to do to you. You've been working hard here for months and I know what your family is going through. I knew your father as a hard worker before his death some time ago due to cancer," the lion said as Justin ate the hummus and pita. He had grown somewhat accustomed to the food of the Middle East with some of the Muslim co-workers he had befriended while on the job who actually were geneorus to give him some food. (When you've spent extended time in homeless shelters, you take whatever food you can get.)
"I'll tell you the truth- this job is taking a lot out of me. I want nothing more to leave for Lebanon, my home country. I love America but this is taking all my strength just to keep holding on. And my wife would like to return." Tarik turned to the wolf, his hunger having gotten the better of him. "I will be leaving with my family in a few months for my ailing father-in-law who is suffering in Beirut. I want you to join me."
"Don't you think this is a bit rash?" the wolf responded to this bombshell of an announcement. Not every day does a wealthy overseer on his way to becoming the factory owner completely reverse field for the simpler life.
"I've given it some thought but it is the only way for me to honor my dying father's wishes. The weather is warm and rebuilding from the Lebanese Civil War provides my countrymen with jobs. And you too, if you wish. But you must leave your home. Speak of this to no one."
He left the office with quite an interesting dilemna- would he leave this wretched place for a warm, inviting, exotic land that his boss had spoken of? Or would Lebanon with its constant wars and tinder-box conditions in its neighbor to the south, be an even worse place for him to live than Detroit? Things couldn't get much worse from Justin Essenza's prespective- or could he lose evrything he had? Either way, the wolf had a decision to make, a decision with far-reaching consequences.