Working in a tannery is exactly what you
think it is. Though, I suppose how you think about converting dead animals to
handbags is a function of where you come from.
Dave
comes from Nebraska. But he's actually a city guy. I don't know why I thought
someone from Nebraska would have a concrete allergy, but that's how things come
to me.
"Diane,
you wouldn't believe my drive to work."
"Dave,
you know what a car is?"
His
face twisted in the same way as someone who fingers an old plastic surgery
botchjob scar. "Yeah, Diane, I even get bucks off for taking driver's ed
in high school."
I
refrained from lunging at him about knowing what high school was.
"Alright, so how are the orders today?"
"Decent,
order came in from Giuseppe about those custom bear claw bags. But we're
running out of bear claws."
"Don't
know what to tell you."
Dave
fidgeted with the zipper on his Adidas jumper. "You could tell me, oh,
maybe that you keep proper inventory so I don't have to tell Giuseppe that I
have to take a lunch break to the Yukon to slaughter him an endangered
species."
"Oh
shit, these things are real?" My curiosity flared.
"No,
of course they're not real. But think about the type of sick fuck that would
dream up a purse that looks like Yogi and Booboo and you'll know these aren't
the type of people who like delays."
"Fashion
Mafia." I sighed.
Dave
was serious. He drew back his breath like a longbowman taking aim at a head
over the barricade. "Damn skippy they are. Except they won't break our
kneecaps. They'll come in here and douse all our products in red paint and call
it a PETA action just for fun."
"Fucked."
"Yeah,
fucked."
Working
in a tannery is exactly what you think it is. Though, I suppose how you think
about being threatened by someone who knows the difference between mauve and lavender is a function of where you come from. Some people wouldn't take it well.
Maybe I didn't take it well, but I didn't want to let it show.
We
worked under a bowling alley in the NYC west village. It was nice to hear the
rhythm of bowling above me. A drop, creak, then cracking of the ball against
the pins. Hopefully a strike--those made me happy. Dave used to make me laugh,
but now that was mostly out of habit. See, Giuseppe was calling on us for
larger and larger orders and Dave didn't want to refuse. Maybe that's where
Dave came from.
I
plucked a fresh Juicy Fruit from the wrapper. "Dave, I need to work on
something normal before the bear claws. Skeeving me out."
"Even
though they aren't real?"
"Especially
because."
"Alright,
start on that Boskov order of riveted clutches."
Music
to my ears, even with the exhaust ducts blaring. The hides for these bags had
been curing for about a month, so I was ready to soak and remove the salt. For
the rest of the day I got into the rhythm. We had machines to help us, but the handsewn touches kept me sane.
All
day, I worked on this, Dave was still working on bear claw bags in various
stages of production. Using the machines, he was like a machine. I admired
Dave's tenacity. Throughout the day, Giuseppe called to check on him. Dave kept
each conversation short. "Yep, on it boss." And "of course,
you'll have it."
It
was 6:30pm and we were still working. I was starting to get dizzy, but Dave
couldn't be bothered by either of our physical discomfort. We were behind in
orders and needed to push out product. Giuseppe walked in with another man
shaped like one of Gumby's rectangular enemies.
Fashion Mafia are exactly what you think they are.
He
was fingering the claw of one our signature bags. "Dave, my boy. What's
the holdup?"
Dave
jolted up. "Almost there, just need to keep working. We have to take the
claw part and attach it to cowhide and add a few more things to assure the
bag's structural integrity. It's our most complex piece yet."
"Right.
Right, well do you know how much I need these bags?" Giuseppe slung the
bag over his shoulder and walked around Dave to start giving him a neck
massage. "This is a floor model. That means this is my last available
unit. That means I'm not making the three grand a pop at a steady clip like I was
making when you were shipping regularly."
Dave
tried to turn to explain. "But we're--"
"Shhhh."
Giuseppe slapped him and forced Dave's head forward and continued the brisk
neck massage. "That means... I'm not happy. And we like being happy,
right? I mean, human beings like being happy. And I'm just a man, David. Just a man who wants to be
happy. You going to make me happy?"
Dave's
voice got soft like a defeated puppy dog. "Yes, I want to make you
happy."
"Of
course you do. I just needed to remind you of that." He stopped massaging
Dave and pointed at his goon and then pointed to me. "Take her shirt
off."
I
tried to say something, but my lungs forgot how to hold air. The goon grabbed
me, stood me up and roughly pulled my knit shirt over my head.
"And
the bra." Giuseppe stared with arms folded.
As
he fumbled for the clasp, I elbowed the goon in the stomach, but he quickly
recovered and bear hugged me down to the ground, pushed my face to the floor.
Giuseppe
pranced over to me, holding the bear claw bag. "See, I can tell Dave likes
looking at you. Makes him happy. And we all want to be happy, right? But I need
to remind him what bliss looks like." Slowly, he lowered the claw to the
skin of my back, paused it there for a second, then I started to feel pressure,
the claw digging into my muscle, dragging downward.
Dave
shrieked, "no!"
"No?
Why no, Dave? You have something to tell her?"
"Listen
man, I'll get you the bags." He was
emphatic with his flailing limbs, like some Italian caricature. "Just leave
her alone."
Giuseppe
didn't budge. "Do you have something to tell her or not?"
"Yeah,
I dig her. I mean, I dig you."
"Poor
choice of words, Dave." I mustered to say under the weight of several
hundred pounds of mafia meat. The walrus without flippers tried to scoop out
half my back. I held in the scream best I could.
"The
lady's right." I could hear Giuseppe grinning. "Maybe you love her?
Want to take her out. See, you get a lot more from your employees when they're
happy. Where are you from, woman?"
Talking
eased the pain. "Here."
"You
were born under a bowling alley? No, where are you from, who were your parents,
what did they do?"
"I
didn't know my parents."
"You
were an orphan?"
"Yeah."
I just wanted it over.
"Oh
sweet girl, I had no idea. See, I walk in here thinking one thing and you go
and surprise me with another. Which orphanage?"
"St.
Michael's."
"Then
you see, we went to the same orphanage." He stood up and tapped on his
goon's shoulder. He pulled me up and drew my face dead close to his. "I
want you to go home now. Get a good meal in you." He pulled out his money
clip, peeled off a hundred and smudged it into a handshake.
I
looked around for my bra and shirt. "O...kay." I backed away towards
the door.
Giuseppe
unboxed a cigarette, but didn't light it. "Life is all a function of where
you come from, don't you think?"