[ Gartersbee, June 28, Year 1403 ]
"Marie."
As she had done the day prior, Marie had slept in and not awoken after spending most of the night reading books. Although Hannah herself had been through this same experience of having to wake up Marie for the past few months, it still always annoyed her that she had to wake up somebody who was mature enough to wake up on her own.
"Wake up Marie." Hannah said, shaking her around like she did the other day.
"I'm up, I'm up."
"What were you reading this time I wonder," said Hannah grabbing the book off of her bed, 'Glebsman's Sea'. What's it about? A sailor of some sort?"
"That's about right."
"The more books you read the more I start to question you Marie, and what about that history book?"
"I finished it."
"Of course you would." said Hannah rolling her eye. "Well hurry up now, breakfast is ready."
"Oh, right. My apologies."
After getting dressed, she headed into the main room to see what Hannah had concocted this time.
She had made some sunny-side up eggs, something Marie couldn't even hope to accomplish such a feat as she would either char it or have the egg still be raw. Cutting into the egg, the creamy yolk spilled right out and began to coat the rest of the egg. Noticing this, Marie quickly ripped a piece of the baguette she had purchased yesterday and dabbed it onto the spilling yolk and ate.
"Delicious!"
"I didn't even do anything special to it though, just plain old eggs."
"It's still good either way!" Marie said while smiling at her.
"Oh yeah, I'm going to be busy doing after work today so I won't be able to do anything with you, are you ok with that?"
"Oh yes I'm fine, I also have something I needed to do."
"You do? That's new."
"Well I was thinking of going to visit my parents."
"That's sweet!"
"What about you Hannah? What are you doing this evening?"
"Nothing much y'know," Hannah said smiling, "I was just invited to have a bite or two at a café with Ferris."
"Seriously?!"
"Oh yes, I'm serious alright." she said, casually sipping a cup of coffee.
Marie was stunned by her boast, although she herself was fine with being alone by herself, she couldn't fathom the fact that someone as impatient and lousy as her could ever be even approached by a man, not to mention even asked out by one.
"Well? Jealous?"
"Am not! I'm just surprised someone like you could ever get a man!"
"What did you just say about me?!"
"You heard me, knucklehead!" said Marie.
"Why you little rascal!" Hannah said, grabbing her by the collar.
Although Hannah herself didn't have the intellect or calmness like that of Marie, she had guts and strength, the two were almost polar opposites of one another. She grabbed Marie by the collar shaking her back and forth, and she wasn't doing it softly or jokingly either, she was throwing her around with the ferocity of a bear. Hannah was always easily offended or hurt by things, even if it was a joke or unintended.
"Who the hell are you calling a knucklehead!?"
In a one on one fist fight, Marie would easily lose against Hannah and her temper, which seemed to be like a ticking time bomb that was prepared to detonate at any second. Once Hannah lost her temper, she was an unstoppable force that not even a brick wall would stop. In fact, if she really lost it, she probably would run her head through a brick wall. Everyone in town knew about it, so they always tried to keep her calm, save for Bell who seemed not to care nor have any common sense. Even the other residents in the nearby apartment rooms heard of the commotion, and wished the person inside, who they assumed to be Marie, that she may live or be spared.
The commotion went on for about a minute or so, until Hannah stopped to check her personal watch.
"7:47, you live today Marie, but the second I get home you're gonna get it alright."
She let go of Marie, who came tumbling down on the floor, gasping for air. Despite this, she got up rather fast, not wanting to be late for the assignment she would receive alongside Hannah, for she didn't want to be yelled at by Mr. Hayes either.
On the way to the police station, Hannah didn't say a word to Marie, as she was still rather infuriated and angry over what Marie had said, despite it being a joke. Despite Marie's best attempts to lighten the mood, it was futile, and in a sense, Hannah almost didn't even acknowledge her. Marie knew though that it would only last for so long, and by the time her date with Ferris was over, she likely would have calmed down by then, hopefully.
When they arrived at the police station, they rushed through the paperwork and check-in, and headed straight for the same meeting room down the hallway near Mr. Aubert's office. By now, most officers would have been at work or receiving their duties, thus the hallways were a lot emptier than they were the other day. Seeing this, Marie was worried, and wondered if Mr. Hayes was already in the meeting room handing out orders.
She received her answer when she burst into the room, panting as she did, and looked around, thankfully, Mr. Hayes was not present in the room at the time, but what was present were twenty or so eyes staring in their direction, questioning what had just happened to the two.
"Thank goodness, we made it on time." said Marie, gasping for air.
"Indeed you two did."
They had heard a voice behind them, and when the two looked ahead of them, the room was at attention. Putting the two pieces of the puzzle together, they turned around to see Mr. Hayes right behind them.
"Now could you please move out of the way you two?"
"Sorry!" they both exclaimed, before making way to the captain and standing at attention.
"Now then, for assignments. Marie, Hannah."
"Yes captain?" said Marie.
"You'll be getting yourselves a new post."
"You mean it?!"
"Absolutely. You'll be patrolling the industrial district."
"Eh?" replied Marie.
"Is that a problem?"
"No not at all Mr. Hayes!"
"Well then anyways, James and Mark, you'll be assigned to the residential area."
The assignments went on as usual afterwards, with everyone else receiving the same assignments. Their mishap with Hayes costed them an even worse position to be posted at, the industrial sector. Although the industrial sector was fascinating, it was filthy, and loud. The factories producing the goods also produced smog, and the stamping of metal sheets and goods was extraordinarily loud. Compared to the clacking of the boots and chatter of the people, it was magnitudes much worse to deal with. Nevertheless, the two decided to make the most out of the hopeless situation and went about on their patrol, also touring the place while they did so.
Hannah and Marie had split up to explore and cover more ground, and also at Hannah's request since she was still mad over that morning.
Although all the factories looked the same on the outside, they were vastly different on the inside, or at least, from the view through the windows covering them they were.
In one factory, sheets, rods, beams, and various other shapes of steel objects were being cranked out one after the other in a seemingly endless quantity.
Another factory was assembling automobiles, with various parts and frames scattered about. Workers could be seen putting the axles on the frames, then the wheels, and lastly the commodities and luxuries.
There were various other kinds of factories as well, fabricating and processing things like clothing, cans, food, planes, and a plethora of other manufactured products.
Marie had hoped for there to be a factory of somesort that built large ships, but such a thing didn't exist in Gartersbee. Shipbuilding was reserved for towns like Blueport where ships could be rolled off the line and straight into the sea. In Gartersbee, the only thing close to that was a small yard that built smaller wooden boats, but she herself never had the chance to go see it, and when she did come by, construction of the boats was already complete. The Urania River was big, sure, but it had no such space to accommodate large scale ship building like in Blueport, which was located by the vast seas.
However, there was one particular factory that did interest her, the factory responsible for producing aircraft.
Planes were rather rare to see due to their complex construction and special requirements. As a result of being able to fly, they need specialized components and materials, such as powerful engines, lightweight cloths or metals, and other parts.
Marie, interested in seeing what it took to build one, went to the factory and asked if she could take a look. The worker gave her the go-ahead and she went in.
When she went inside, her eyes were dazzled. Every bit of space in the factory was occupied by construction and materials. On the ground, piles of materials were stacked in neat piles, with there even being sections of the factory divided up into specialized units to construct propellers, engines, wings, and more. Rows of aircraft were lined up neatly like a row of soldiers in another half of the facility, all varying in sizes. Some aircraft appeared to be small civilian planes, while others were larger scale transport planes. Engineers could be seen standing working on them from the floor and on the actual wings and cabin itself.
Interested, Marie approached what appeared to be a cargo plane that was draped in a cloth or cover of some sort until a voice called out to her from behind.
"Heya!"
Marie turned around, looking to see who had called her, and looked up. It was one of the workers, who appeared to be finishing up the top part of the planes main body.
"You see that wrench to your right down there ma'am?"
"This one?" Marie replied, holding up the wrench.
"Yeah that one! Could you please throw it up here? I could use it about now!"
"Are you sure? It might hit you."
"What's the worst that can happen?"
Marie, sensing her stubbornness, gave in. She threw the wrench upward towards her, not too forcefully, but just enough the reach the distance. The worker caught the wrench and thanked her for the assistance. Marie responded with a smile, and headed off, silently panicking and celebrating at the same time.
Although she knew others would have loved her help, Marie knew that she was supposed to be patrolling, and that if she were caught not doing her duty, no matter what the circumstances were, she would surely get a scolding from Mr. Hayes, thus she went back to making her rounds about the facilities.
By the time she finished her patrols, it was around six, and she decided to head over to where she had planned to go since the morning, her parents' home. Hannah was likely heading to meet Ferris at their date by then, and likely wouldn't be back until around eight, so Marie had plenty of time to surprise her parents. With that in mind, she decided to get going so that she could maximize the amount of time she could spend.
On her way to their home, she thought it would be nice of her to buy them something, so she stopped by Bell's again, who, like yesterday, had sold out in his summer lemon bread yet again. Thankfully though, she was there for other treats.
"Three pouches of beignets, and a loaf of the usual bread as well would be fine."
"Three pouches? You don't plan to eat those all alone now do you?" replied Bell jokingly.
"Of course not! I plan to give some to my parents as a gift!"
"Ah! How considerate of you Marie!"
"It's only basic etiquette."
"True true. Well, that shall be nineteen marks and eighty pieces."
"Here." said Marie, handing him the marks and pieces.
"Thank you," said Bell, handing over the beignets and bread, "is Hannah not with you today?"
"Well, she had something she needed to attend."
"Oh? What may that be?"
"She's meeting with somebody."
"Goodness grief!" Bell exclaimed. "At her age? She is much too young for that! Speaking of which, won't she be livid that you told me this?"
"Well, she had the confidence to boast about it this morning."
"Ah! So she wants people to know!"
"Don't go around telling your customers about that!" replied Marie, worried about what may happen to her and Hannah.
"Oh Marie, you never change, of course I wouldn't run around saying such silly things!"
"Of course, whatever you say. Well, have a good evening Mr. Bell!"
"A good evening to you too Marie! Make sure to eat the beignets while they're still hot!
"I will!" she said, then turning around, hurrying down the streets as she made her way to her parents' home.