The Men of Steel Project
Extract from "Fantastic Response: Work Stories from the Great Information Age"© 2010, 2020 William P. Moore
Brief Background
Big Daddy from Cardinal and now Phoenix CEO and William P (known in this account as "Wimpy") met for beers at Providence Road Sundries. Big Daddy somehow knew that Wimpy had left the Baby Picture Company (PCA) and was jobless again. He offered him a contract gig at Phoenix, his small spin-off company formed after the dissolution of Cardinal Associates, Inc. Wimpy considered the job offer an extension of good will and welfare by Big Daddy to an ex-Cardinal writer. He was between trains and, without thinking it through, accepted.
Writing at the Chainsaw Massacre House
Phoenix operations were conducted within a gutted 1930s house that was zoned commercial along the frontage of Highway 74.
There were three workers inside: 1) Big Daddy, who worked in the dark and dank master bedroom, stacked with filing cabinets; 2) another former Cardinal employee, Mad Poet K (known in this account as "Steven Krane") who worked in a less foreboding bedroom office with a bit of actual sunlight; and 3) newcomer Wimpy, who worked from a beat-up desk in the middle of the musty hardwood floor somewhere between the front door and dining room. It was a stretch to call it the office reception area.
Wimpy was sometimes the first to arrive in the mornings. He wondered who might have spent their futile lives there, and how long the dead past owners had been moldering in their graves. He was certain the place was haunted and under a foul spell. He stomped around loudly to shoo away the past night's ghosts. In the kitchen a pestering stench would come and go. The appliances were morbid, their finish faded and scabrous. Wimpy was hesitant to use tap water from the grimy sink to make instant coffee. He suspected the plumbing was rotten with roaches, rat shit and other toxins.
His fears were elevated when Steven Krane told him Big Daddy sometimes went into the attic by himself at night to make audiocassette recordings of books for the blind.
Wimpy began to smoke more and more cigarettes. Someone in New Orleans once told him that ghosts and spirits loved smoke. They will befriend a smoker and never harm him.
Looking for the Lucas Gusher
Wimpy was briefed on his role as Safety First! writer in Big Daddy's new Training Media contract with an international scrap iron recycler.
The gig was called The Men of Steel Project.
He set about researching material on protective gloves, hardhats, earplugs, asbestos suits, etc.
The senior Phoenix writer, Steven Krane, would produce How to Operate an Overhead Crane. The cranes lifted and carried things like giant ladles of molten steel.
Wimpy and Steven Krane wondered what the hell they had gotten themselves into.
Big Daddy decided they should all go on-site, so the three of them jetted off to visit one of the client's scrap iron recycle mills in god-forsaken Beaumont, Texas.
Here are some things that happened:
· Steven Krane told Wimpy after the flight that he had looked okay earlier in his navy blue blazer, but now he looked rumpled and failed.
· Wimpy proclaimed from the backseat of The Men of Steel's rental car that the Texas landscape resembled a 'raped corpse.'
· Big Daddy found a place for them to lodge called the Castle Motel. Wimpy was wondering if they had filmed Psycho there. Steven Krane said the toilet paper in the room was like 'butcher paper.'
· At a Beaumont restaurant, someone paged a 'Rodney Phoenix' over the PA. Steven Krane and Wimpy both heard it. Big Daddy acted oblivious and never commented on it. The source was never discovered.
· Later that night after several beers, Steven Krane and Wimpy drove off in the car to find the Lucas Gusher, an historical oil well and area landmark. They drove east towards Louisiana. Steven Krane came up with an idea that would have made them legendary: he proposed that they keep driving east and completely abandon Big Daddy at the Castle Motel.
· But they didn't. The next morning the Men of Steel were putting on protective gear and entering the super-heated Melt Room at the Beaumont mill. Steven Krane and Wimpy were grumpy and reluctant participants. Big Daddy, meanwhile, was red-faced and boyishly enthused. He wore a powder blue jumpsuit and tasseled loafers.
· After the tour through the inferno, Wimpy concluded that the number one rule for personal safety at a steel mill is to never go to work there. Big Daddy didn't see the humor.
Pathos in Litchfield Beach
Days later, Steven Krane and Wimpy were dispatched to the client's steel mill in coastal South Carolina. As payback for the grim Castle Motel, they booked nice rooms in a resort hotel by the ocean.
The two writers acquired a case of Cutty Sark mini-bottles and charged it to the Men of Steel Project. True to their Cardinal heritage, they stayed up late at the hotel shooting the bull and drinking too much.
That night, Wimpy dreamed of making steel and saw orange coils of rebar coming hot off the assembly line, twisting out of control. He didn't have his steel-toe shoes on, and the rebars chased after his feet.
Steven Krane dreamed of elegant overhead cranes traversing the vast girders above the mill. The ceiling was nested with pigeons, and the cab operators shifted levers to Dvorak's New World Symphony.
The next morning, Wimpy chain-smoked at the mill's entrance gate, then went in for his fact-finding meeting with the Director of Safety. The meeting went something like this:
W: I'm here to design the safety training programs.
DOS: Yep. Safety's sure important.
W: Well, first I'll need to ask you some questions - sort of do a task analysis...
DOS: Safety is number one in this mill.
W: Yes. Safety First! Now...
DOS: And don't you ever say otherwise.
W: Uh, okay.
DOS: No. Don't.
W: I won't.
DOS: That's all you need to know.
Termination in Myers Park
Perhaps subconsciously unnerved himself by ghosts in the old house, Big Daddy moved Phoenix into new digs. They were now in a small complex in a more proper part of town. The modest offices surrounded a courtyard where goldfish lay frozen and dormant in a decorative pond.
Inside the office suite, the three of them resumed work. Steven Krane kept a birdfeeder on his windowsill. His steel programs were mostly written and under control. Big Daddy, chin raised, rolled around authoritatively in his leather and casters chair. Wimpy tried to appear calm but was stressing out badly. He was way behind in producing his Safety First! deliverables. Whatever approach or narratives he came up with, Big Daddy would summarily rip them apart.
Wimpy reached the point of no return. He had about given up trying to write anything for The Men of Steel Project. He was hoping to see a good omen that Steven Krane once mentioned - a ball of gold in the sky. He would have to go somewhere else and find it.
On an early Spring afternoon, with news of the Ayatollah's hostage situation filling the country, Big Daddy decided to force the issue. He and Wimpy fell into a contretemps. It was over. They reached a fast gentleman's agreement with no harsh words. Wimpy gathered his briefcase and departed, never to see Big Daddy again.
He had a pint of scotch in his desk drawer and left it in case Steven Krane wanted it.
(END)