Alistair huffed. “The irony isn’t lost on me. Did you know they’re one of the top products incarcerated people make every year?”
I scowled. “This sounds likefun.”
“Listen up!” a guard yelled. We were forced to remain quiet as we were led around the factory floor for training. It wasn’t much help, and no one bothered to adapt their lesson for the blind.
After our tour, Alistair and I were led to an area where we were supposed to secure the bindings on the books. We both just stood there, not sure what to do.
“What’s the hold up?” a guard growled.
“I’m not exactly a visual learner,” I said.
“It’s not that hard,” the guard sneered. “You have the easiest job in the room. Now, get to work, or I’ll report you to the Warden.”
“Here, let me show you,” a familiar voice said. Ivy stepped between Alistair and me.
I pulled away immediately. I didn’t want to be around Ivy, not after what they did to Ava… but it wasn’t like I had a choice.
“I’ve been working the binding table for months,” Ivy said. “It’s easy once you get the hang of it. What you’re going to do is take one of the spines off the shelf in front of you.”
I reached out and felt a stack of shelves, piled full of plastic spines. Each spine was made of flexible rings that would slip through holes in the pages of the book and secure them together. It wasn’t high-tech or anything, but it worked.
“That goes right here on the binding table,” Ivy instructed. I felt for the table and found a sloped device with a lever on it. Ivy helped me situate the spine correctly, but as they did so, I noticed their hands shaking. Their voice remained steady, but I could tell Ivy was still suffering withdrawals.
Hell, and they’d still been made to come to work. I’d feel bad for them if I wasn’t still pissed.
Ivy instructed me to pull the lever. “That opens the spine so that you can insert the pages.”
I felt around again, and I found that the plastic rings had opened up.
“Now we take the back cover and slip that through the rings first,” Ivy said, directing us to the stack of covers. “Once that’s on, you take your internal pages, slip them on and finish up with a cover. Voila! You have a finished book.”
“Thanks, Ivy,” I mumbled.
“No problem,” Ivy said, before instructing me to try another one by myself.
Oberi helped by pulling the lever with his teeth, while I straightened the pages and slipped them on the spine.
Oberi hacked.Bleh! That lever tastes awful.
“Looks like you’ve got it,” Ivy said. “If you need any more help, I’m one binding table away.”
It was weird that Ivy was being so nice, after the way I treated them. Ivy went back to their station, and I got to work.
“You were right!” Alistair said brightly. “Thisisbetter than labeling boxes.”
In a way, it was. I was actually helping blind people, which gave me far better purpose than packaging weapons for the Warden. But I was still part of his machine, earning him profit without a choice. It made me sick, really.
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Hey, what’s got you down?” Alistair asked.
“Maybe it’s the cheap labor,” I replied.
“Nah, it’s more than that,” Alistair insisted. “That’s never bothered you.”
I sighed. “Ava and I had a spat.”
“A spat, or a fight?” Alistair asked.
