Stone worked at the vast agri-processing plant just outside town.
It wasn’t the most glamorous of jobs, but it paid the bills for now. He didn’t plan to spend his life there, though. If you worked there too long, the constant dust would get into your system. Some of the older foremen walked around sounding as though their lungs were made of brown paper. No, that wasn’t the life Stone wanted for himself.
Stone clocked in, and the secretary on the desk told him that he was assigned to work the Chaff Belt that morning. This involved watching the steady stream of waste- seed husks, leaves, twigs , and indeed, chaff, on the belt, and picking out anything that couldn’t go through the grinders at the other end- metal, plastic, anything inorganic, really.
Stone took up position on the belt opposite his friend Billy, a cheerful middle-aged man with a well-kept beard. They chatted for a couple of minutes before the first sacks of waste began to be poured out and the conveyor belt between them whirred into life.
It hadn’t rained in a couple of days, which meant that there was already a fine layer of loose dust coating the plant even before the various hoppers and mills set about adding to it. They had been working for about an hour when Billy drew back from the belt and scrunched his face into his shoulder.
"Hetishoo! Blamed dust." He glanced up at Stone, on the other side of the conveyor belt. "Bothering you too, buddy?"
Stone nodded, already deprived of speech by the irritation which had claimed his nose as its own. He raised an arm and scrubbed at his face, but only succeeded in intensifying the ticklish feeling to the point of-
"HaHtchoo!"
“Gesundheit.”
Stone nodded thanks to Billy, and rubbed at his nose again. The itch seemed to be dealt with, so he turned back to his work.
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