Book I: Part 10: Sirius

   Sirius moved through cordoors and arkways and tunnels of steal, up rickety irony stareways and down rickety irony stareways, that clattered and clanged and screeched, until he came to his place along the assembilation way.
    This was where Sirius spent all his time, 10 hours a day.  The rollers spun and gears shifted along chains and fifteen minutes after the facttray fired up a black jagged shiny metal sumthing came down the line, and after  the persona ante him and the persona ante them and the person ante them and so on and so on put on a part, Sirius put on his.  He took his part from a large cruddy bin filled to the brim, at least at the begunning of the daze, and cranked it in place using a tool tied to the way.  He used the same tool at alltimes and put on the same part everytime, as did the persona ante him, and the persona ante them, and the persona ante them, and so on and so on and so on.  And so also acted the persona post him, and the persona post them, and the persona post them too, and so on and so on and so on.  Everyone took their part and put it on, and slowly, surely, the black jagged shiny metal sumthing turned into sumthing else, but what that was, Sirius had no idea, for by then it had sojourned down the curving way and out of view, and if Sirius ever bothered to stretch and stare, he had forgotten, and anyways the parting had traveled down a tunnel a little after that anyways.  He had worked in the facttray for three yeers, and for the life of him he couldn't tell you what, in all this time, he had been constructioning, what he was helping to bild. 
    "Redundancies," sed Krist, talismanically.  Krist was the persona on Sirius' right hand.  He was long and gaunt without having height, with yellow suncoloured hair reaching down to his ribs.
    "I hear," repped Sirius.  He put a part in place.
    "I don't cog where they plan to redudunate," sed Krist.  "It's not as if there is extra people on the way."
    "Maybe they plan to place one person on two parts," Sirius pined.  "Maybe all of us on two parts."
   "Nobody can act two parts," whined Krist.  "You can't be at two marks at once."
   "You can," mused Sirius absinthely.  "You just have to run around alot."
   "I can't run round like that," whimpered Krist.  "I get shehn splents."
   "Somebody can," shrugged Sirius.  "End of daze, they will still have a part to place."
   Krist was silent after that, minus mutters from moments to moments.
   Sirius didn't like to converse on the way anyway.  He labored on.
   "Fecunt," sed Mare, nearing noon.  Mare was the woman on Sirius' left.
   "What?" inted Sirius.
    "Mob is coming," repped Mare. 
    "Aye?"  inted Sirius.
    "Yo," Mare shrugged her shoulder towards the right, then placed on a part.  She was a short thin hoarsefaced gurl with midnite hair and ocean skin.  Sirius always cogged she was preddy, but couldn't pop to why.  He always mused how she kept up her act here, being so small and fragile innocentlooking.  The labor should have surely broken her.
    Mob Bentic, was coming down the way, placing an arm over the shoulders, and smiling in their ears, saying sumthing lost in the depths of the facttray noize.  Bentic was eight feet in height and  broad as some passageways.  He had the head and skin of a whale, and was burly and blubbery enough to match.  His mouth parted wide and wider when he spoke, and rows and rows of baleen emerged from vicious smiling blubbery lips, edging a maw like a cavern.  Sirius thought, time to time, that if he wished, Mob Bentic could make someone disappear down that cavern.  Someone like Sirius.  (Luckily, Mob Bentic only chowed really small things.) 
   "I guess they aren't waiting around to redundunate us," sighed Sirius, as he put on a part.  His hands were shaking.  Milkies always got drank first.
   Mob Bentic was soon upon Krist, wrapping him in a thick arm, and smiling his welling cavernous smile.  Sirius kept putting on his parts.  He couldn't hear what was being said—the facttray noise cycle had reached a volume zenith, buzzing like a billion bees—but when Bentic unwrapped Krist, the palegaunt looked like someone had stabbed him in the gut.
   Sirius stared down at the ground, through the grill, trying for disinterest.  People scurried below him, on other labors, labors he couldn't cog or collate.  Sumthing rose within him.
    Maybe it was just the hairs on his neck.
   "Sirius," sed the Mob's deep voice.  "Sirius, ma bookie.  How ya doin?"
   "Fine, sir, fine," sed Sirius.  He stared up, past the smiling cavern that seemed to beckon him, to the large emptycoal eyes above and beyond.  The coal eyes stared down at him, deep down past him, and in with the coal there was something that alighted with joy.  Mob Bentic loved his labor.  
    "Yo know," Bentic sed, warping his arm around Sirius, "I really like you."
    "You do?" asked Sirius.
    "Yeah," repped Bentic, squeezing Sirius in closer.  Sirius could smell the krills on his breath.
    "You don't spend all your time slackin off, or mouthin off, like some peeps."
    "No, sir."
    Extra squeeze.  "You're one of the good ones."
    "Thank you, sir."
    "How you like workin here, Mr. Sirius?"
    "I like it here just fine, sir," sed Sirius.  Then, thinking maybe this called for a little more punch, "this job has been very good to me, sir."
    It was a lie, of course, but sometimes Sirius needed a lie.
    "Good, good.  That's what I like to hear," sed Bentic.  He pulled up his chin, appraising the small whiteface before him.  "You milkies, maybe you is allright."
   Sirius closed his eyes brieflike.  "Thank you, sir."
   A pat on the back almost sent him spawling.  "You'll be here with us a long time, I hope?"
  "I hope so too, Mr. Bentic." 
  "Good, good.  Say, Krist over there, he isn't going to be working with us anymore, ya know?  We've decided to...part ways.  Right?  Do you think...maybe...you could start putting his part on, after the nooner?"
  Sirius was binded against the whale too tightly to look over at Krist like he wanted.  He was denied that act of selfflagellating, of witnessing. 
    "I...sure," repped Sirius.  "Sure, I can place two parts.  They're right in a row.  Easy."
    The cavern deepened.  "Good good," said Bentic is a low rumble.  Bentic sure did say good alot.  He parted Sirius with a final thunderclap on the back.  "Well, back to the millstone, eh?" he sed, and walked on to Mare.
   There were three parts now waiting for Sirius, and he labored fast and faster to get them all additioned.  He had to scoot over some, to make sure he put his part was on Mare's.  Mare was smiling meekly, mouthing latitudes down Bentic's maw, about being proud to labor here, being proud to shoulder a bigger burden, for the greater good of the company.  "Good, good," repped Bentic.
    Mare would stay.
    "So," sed Krist, after Sirius had caught up, "It looks like you made it to the other end of the daze."  There were bitters in his mouth.
   Sirius nodded mechanically, his face masquelike, not gazing to either side.  One was saved and one was condemned.
   "I get to stay behind," he sed.