The Big Game
Jim woke up after Jessie, she had gotten up quite early as she and some of her friends were motoring to Dayton to see a championship football game. Jessie really loved the sport, perhaps something in her past led her to love the game. Jim rarely went with Jess to the games, they were always on the weekends, and of course, he had to keep the heating plant going on these busy retail days.
They still had not heard from the Patent Office in Washington, it had been many months. Jim knew it took quite a while to check out his particular process, but he didn't know that it took quite so long. Many of their future plans depended on the success of his process, and it would take some time to get a manufacturing plant run-ning to produce his pink wool. Jim got dressed, and put on his heavy mackinaw. He had checked the weather when he had taken their dog. Rusty, for a walk. Some day, he hoped to have a bigger dog, a Red Setter, but for now. the little Chihuahua would have to do. They had purchased it from a Smith family that lived out around Wilkins Corners. Jim was always a little self conscious when he walked the little dog around his neighborhood.
On his way to work. Jim stopped at the Diner in the Arcade and had two eggs over easy, home fries, some bacon and white toast. He knew they had good food and it was reasonably priced, and he sensed it would always be that way at the Dooley’s Diner in the Arcade.
He headed on down to the boiler room in the basement, however, his mind was on the patent and his little dog. He took off his coat, hung it up in his locker, and started checking the myriad of gauges and dials that he was responsible for. Each gauge and each dial had a specific purpose in the smooth operation of the furnace room.
He adjusted the Auger speed from the RPM reading that he saw on the drive shaft near the cam nut bolt adjuster. It was operating too fast. The Boiler Pressure was high, a simple adjustment brought it down, and the recently added Framer Arm, that was produced locally at Burdens, needed a slight adjustment. Everything was working smoothly now, he knew, by the sound. After so many years, the sound was important to him. Every humm, every clang, the roar of the burning coal, the screech of the auger as it slowly carried its "black heat" to its destination, the giant furnace.
All of these noises meant something to Jim. But then, his thoughts drifted to the future ... "When I get that patent," he mumbled to himself, "everything is going to change. We'll have that big red brick house on Hudson, Jessie won't have to work anymore at the Colville Feed Store, and we can travel. There are so many places that Jessie especially wanted to visit, and she wanted to look in to her past, find out if there was any relationship to her love of football, fires, and venison, and her past.
She felt her real father was an Indian, an Olympian and a football player ... she should be able to narrow it down. And, she wanted to bury her mother in a descent cemetery, she was now in a "paupers field" outside of San Francisco, in San Bruno, near a racetrack. She didn't want her mother to spend eternity near the track, she wanted a better resting place for her. Jim too wanted a better life, daily he had seen various industrialists from the Newark area on their way to and from important meetings, heading for the many banks in the Downtown area, laden with heavy briefcases. Always in a hurry, meetings, merger meetings, plant meetings, meetings with attorneys, meetings with buyers and bankers. Always busy.
He longed for this lifestyle, and when he got his patent and started making his "pink wool" it would all come his way ... he and Jessie would start a whole new life. His reverie kept his attention from his gauges, the main tank on the A Burner was running hot, he didn't notice. This caused the Auger gear to run even at a higher rate of speed, and naturally, the cooker to become overheated. His lack of attention failed to let him notice that the coils were overheating, and the main thrust pipe was starting to shake with its bursting steam.
A few minutes more of this, unnoticed by Jim could be disastrous. Jim heard the change in the noise pattern, he instantly knew that disaster was close at hand .... What could he do? He lunged at the Main Rheostat knob and quickly turned it off ... if this would delay the Auger any, perhaps, but the A Burner was out of control ... he started to try to cool the coils down. He thought of his beloved Jessie as he desperately tried to reach for the thermocoupler that could possibly avert the disaster, but it was too late.
The main 12 inch line burst in an instant, spraying the super heated liquid all over Jim. He died almost instantly, but with a soft "Jessie" ... emitted in his dying last breath. The large Hamilton clock that stood on the wall near the main controls was broken by a piece of heavy pipe .. It stopped at one o'clock.
