After A few hours I had only completed 7 boxes they took way longer than I thought. We had run out of grain and I had to stop by the kitchen to get more bags. Luckily there wasn’t that many boxes left to do and looking at the pile that number was two. Finishing them wasn’t to bad I had gotten faster throughout the day. Though nowhere near as fast as Markus I still had to redo the knots sometimes and I still never got the cloth folded good enough on the first try. Once I finished the last two boxes I looked around for Markus. He had dipped out of the courtyard for a few hours earlier in the day and had lost track of him after that. He was helping a few of the boys with something on the wagon. I didn’t really know much about anything else but my job. Although someting told me that would change throughout the year. Making sure I put everything back in the storeroom. I stacked the packed crates against the wall and walked over to him.
“Sir could you come lock up the storeroom. I finished packing all of the crates.”
Looking up from his spot on the wagon he nodded and stood up.
Looking at the boys he was working with “I’ll be back in a moment. I gotta help Dante with his job.”
Even with the harsh start of our jobs Markus had hit it off with the boys after he was done disciplining them. Coupled with the relief of getting to eat breakfast and how he handled everything fairly and was kind when they worked hard and listened he had hit it off with everyone. I was not so lucky, I had not erally had a chance to redeem explain myself and a lot of the boys scapegoated me instead of Markus, in part due to me not being as likable and less known. This was fine I wasn’t here to make friends but it didn’t help very much that a lot of the boys were wary of talking to me and others were oppenly venomous.
“I am pretty happy with how quick you were with finishing your task for today. I will want you to do the rest of the boxes and probably to learn how to do all of the jobs here but that can wait for later. You’ve done quite well for today, You’ve definitely done more than any of the rest of your lot.”
“You saw me step out for a while earlier?”
“Yeah.”
“Well while I was out I grabbed you some of the books you can use to study. Normally you wont be able to take them from the library but I can check them out for you.”
We stop in front of a small pile of books sitting atop a box farther down the lean-to. He hands me a book and start explaining.
“You will want to expand your whole repertoire of knowledge but I’ve picked out ones that will be directly applicable to you right now.”
I look at the book but don’t take it. Looking down at the ground “Sir-” Then catching myself I look up at him straightening my back as I do so. It feels uncomfortable and awkward, if anything I feel more self conscious now, but I keep standing straight.
“Sir-. I .. I cant read sir.”
I can feel my ears going red with shame, It’s embarrassing I’m sure that out of all these students and all of the other boys working, they all can read, I’m probably the only one who can’t read. Looking at him it’s hard to judge his reaction his face remains impassive. Slowly he takes his hand back and puts the book back down.
“First of all, you don’t have to look so ashamed there are lots of boys here who can’t read you are not an anomaly.”I look up in shock, I was sure that I would be the only one.
”Second I think I might have a solution it should be around 5 right now, there are classes for boys like you who can’t read. Often though they won’t have finished their jobs so early. After dinner, the class starts although that would mean that you would miss checking the equipment which would be a problem.”
A flood of relief I can feel the heat leaving my face as I look at him. It’s a relief that I’m not the only one. I’m even happier that there might be a solution to my problem. Honestly, it had been weighing on me how I was supposed to go to school while not being able to read.
“I could check on everything and go to dinner late. I would like it if I could learn to read please let me go, sir!”
“That seems like a good solution to me, I guess I will allow it. Although that still leaves the question of what you will do for the next few hours.”
Hours? I now that I was working early and that I was working hard but, how can I be done with hours to spare?
I don’t know anything off of the top of my head that would have an obvious advantage over anything else, any ideas?”
Looking at him with much more confidence I say“I want to be more athletic I don’t know If I could exercise or something but If that is an option I would like to do it.”
Looking thoughtful Markus takes a moment to think.
“I don’t think that there is a specific class that you could viably take although you could take a trip to the gyms when you find time.” he’s not really talking to me, more like he’s thinking out loud.
”Do you know how to exercise and lift weights?” this time to me
“No sorry sir.”
“No reason to be sorry.“
Back to himself“I don’t think Remi has anything to do right now, there weren’t many injuries from the last expedition she also owes me from that one shipment.”
Looking back to me he says.”follow me I have something in mind”
We stop by the boys at the wagon where he explains he’ll be gone for a bit
“Don’t try doing anything unless you're sure I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
We head back inside and start going down halls this time a new route.
“You’ll also want to remember this route, Dante, if you decide to stick with it, you will be going this way quite often.”
“Yes sir.”
Inwardly however I was confused. What did he mean by if I decide?
Eventually we stopped at a door unlike any door before it this one had marks making it stand out from the rest of the rooms. On the door was a big ampersand meaning doctor or medicine. I wanted to get stronger why was he taking me to a doctor?
Opening the door, I noticed the strong smell of herbs it was sweet, smelling of medicine, but it also burned ever so slightly in the back of my throat. Inside the room was very clean it had a large wooden desk with lots of papers on it none of which I could read. Hanging from the edges of the room were different herbs. bellow the hanging herbs were shelves with different jars and vials of flowers leaves and stems at waist height the shelves changed to drawers.
Taking another look around I couldn’t see anything. Stepping into the room Markus gestured me after him we both stand in the room waiting for this mysterious Remi. After a few minutes a women walkes in. She is tall for a women about middle age with some wrinkles around the edges of her face she is wearing a shirt and trousers which is different from the tunics that I’ve seen everyone else wearing. Looking at her arms I could see that she wasn’t fat but she also wasn’t skinny, I could see some slight deffinition where her muscles were. It felt weird seeing her she was the only girl I had seen the entire time I had been here. I was curious about that I would have to figure out why that was sometime later.
Upon seeing her arrive Markus stepped forward and reached out his hand.
“Hey Remi” he said he seemed friendly with her
Looking up she seems a bit surprised to see him there, but that surprise doesn’t last long as a smile quickly replaces is.
“Hello markus!” she says grabbing his hand.”It’s been a while! you never visit me.”
With a chuckle he responds”I still don’t I’m here to ask a favor.”
“Wow, can’t make time for little old me?”
“Sorry Remi what can I say. Anyway, Im here because of my student Dante” he says while gesturing to me”He is a pretty hard worker and unlike the rest of his group he got up and started his job on time, if not a little early, because of that, he needs something to do, I was going to give him something to study, but he can’t read, and the classes aren’t till 8 so I asked him and he wants to get stronger. The first person that I thought of that will actually help him, was you.”
“Lets see if I got this right. You want me to by his coach and help him exercise?”
“Yep, please?”
That was a surprise. Why was he asking so much let alone asking please? I had never heard him ask for anything until now, when he wanted something he was much closer to ordering than asking. He also seemed to be expecting a no. Who was this woman, to not only make Markus ask please and they even seemed friendly, it might seem insignificant asking please and being friendly, but not once had I seen him do either until now, it was shocking. Now that I thought about it, did I really want to be alone with this woman, she must be very scary.
Looking over at me she sizes me up Instead of shrinking down I take what Markus taught me to heart and I stand straight and look her in the eyes
“I would really appreciate if you would teach me what you know.”
With a nod she looks back to Markus
“He seems polite and could definitely use some exercise. I’ll do you this favor.”
Looking so suprised It was a little unsettling“Really- uh I mean- Thanks Remi”
“Good luck Dante, your really going to need it.”
That wasnt unsettling at all.
“Alright I take it your name is Dante? And you probably already heard that my name was Remi. Nice to meet you, Im the in house doctor, I also have a hobby of exercise, that’s why Makus asked me to help you. ”
“Thank you for your help.”
“Not at all. Now why don’t you follow me we can head over and I can start explaining to you what we’re going to do”
“Do you know what people do to get stronger or how it works?
“Yeah I do. When you do something hard it makes you tired the more tired you are the stronger you get!” I was glad that I actually knew how to answer this, most of the time I had to ask it felt good knowing the answer.
With a laugh, she responds “It’s a lot more complicated than that but I suppose you could kind of put it that way. Your muscles are made of fibers that are weak right now, however, when you do hard work with something heavy or hard enough, your muscles’ fibers will break or tear when they heal they will get even stronger. And you can repeat this to become stronger. However, one exercise will not work all of your muscles so there are lots of exercises for all of your muscles. It also will take a long time to grow your muscles, there is a lot more nuance but for now, this is good enough”
In front of us is a door out to another courtyard this one is also rather unique there are lots of rocks of different sizes out there lined up by size, logs and even large canvas bags. Heading into the courtyard she turned to look at me.
“Today is Monday so well start your split, for now we’ll keep it simple.
”You will be doing pushups, curls, bench, and dips”
I had no idea what any of those workouts were except for push ups, I would have to find out.
“First your going to do push ups. Try to do ten.”
That might not be possible, I was only able to do 7 this morning, but what could I say no? Going down on my hands I started going up and down. The first 4 were easy, after that it started getting harder, at around 6 I was having a terrible time trying to get up each one after this was hell it was hard trying to get up each time. At ten I was giving it my all. Once I got about half way up I dropped to the ground panting.
“Alright now for some pointers. Control your breathing, Breath out while pushing up and breath in while falling, also try to stretch as much as possible at the top of the pushup and try to reach to the floor at the bottom.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Next will be curls.” She went over to one of the logs kicking it she said”you can use this one. Here judging by that look on your face you don’t know how to do this exercise, let me show you.”
Picking up the small log she had kicked earlier, she grips it in both hands and lets her arms fall by her sides while holding the log. Then she starts lifting her arms until the log touches her chin, I can see her biceps bulging while she is doing the exercise. I want muscles like that. I’ll do this exercise every day if I have to just to get muscles like that.
After showing me what to do she hands me the log.
It was much heavier than I thought! She had made it look so light but when the log landed in both of my hands I almost dropped it tightening my grip at the last moment, I stand up
“Try to do another ten of those.
With her go-ahead, I start curling the log. Again the first five aren’t to bad and then they get progressively harder until I’m barely able to complete the last curl. Once I’m done I let the log fall to the ground with a thud. My arms are burning and I’m panting, sweat dripping down my forehead, even though it’s still cool outside.
“alright next,”
she lays on her back on the ground while grabbing the same log, she grips it on both ends and brings it to her chest, pushing it up, kind of like a reverse pushup where the log is the ground. Laying down next to her she hands me the log and I repeat her actions barely able to complete the reps.
“Last but not least.”
She goes over to the wall where two rods are sticking out of the wall at around waist height. She turns looking away from the wall grabs the bars and bends her legs so they are no longer touchnig the ground then she lowers herself while only holding the bars then raises herself again with only her arms. Once she does it one or two more times she gets off and lets me try. This time I am unable to complete all ten dips, I only do about 7 before I have to let my legs hold me up.
“That is okay, I’m not too surprised you couldn’t do all ten reps dips are pretty hard starting out. Now I want you to do all that again twice more.”
What?! I thought we were done after that. I was already feeling incredibly exhausted and I had to do all of the not once but twice more!
“I can tell that you're a little skeptical but you’ll be fine, you’ll be surprised how much you still got to give. Now since I’m here I might as well do some exercise to so I’ll do the same exercises as you. Now begin.”
I get back on the ground and start doing my pushups, looking over I see to my shock and envy that with every push-up I’m doing she is doing at least two, I am a little jealous but I can’t help but think that I could be like that in a while if I keep doing this. I can't wait.
We do the entire routine and for every exercise she either doubles the weight, using logs easily twice the size of mine, or doubles the amount like with the pushups, Again with the dips I can’t do all ten, but this time I can do 8 instead of seven.
Once more I do the workout but this time I am only able to do 9 of everything and 6 dips. Once I am done I feel exhausted I am standing there with sweat soaking through my tunic, and I feel incredibly dehydrated, Remi seems to notice because she walks to a fountain that had previously gone unnoticed, leaning down she takes a drink and immediately once she is done I gulp down cool water leaving me refreshed, it quenches my thirst immediately.
“Another important part of growing muscles is feeding them, you're allowed to get seconds and thirds during breakfast and dinner which means you can start eating more, Don't gorge yourself but try to eat a little more than you usually would so that you can start growing muscles. And also make sure to get sleep so that you can recover. If you really want to grow muscles take this seriously and try to show up around the same time tomorrow. ”
As she finishes I hear the eight bell go off. Its dinner time.
“Oh well, the timing is perfect go off to dinner. And hopefully, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
It was the dinner bell. I had to hurry if I was going to reach The wagon yard in time for Markus to still be there. I jogged back to the route I had memorized and arrived just as the last boys were leaving. Markus was standing at the entrance waiting for me.
“There you are. Have fun” He said with an evil grin he knew just how bad it had been for me.
“It was something, sir, I don’t know if I would call it fun.”
As we started walking over to my section of the yard he turned” Will you be going back?”
“Definitely, it might have been hard but the fruit of labor is the sweetest, as they say.”
“I don’t know if I’ve heard that before, but I like it.”
Bringing me to the door he double-checks it then he goes over to all of the boxes that I packed. Lifting them to check the bottom and inspecting each side as well as the top making sure nothing is loose or awry. Once that is done he slides it to the wall and stacks it. I start imitating him. Once we go through all of the boxes he turns to me.
”Alright if you want to make it to dinner then you’ll have to run.”
“Thank you for the help, sir.”
I say as I turn and start running to the cafeteria. At the cafeteria, there is no one in line so I run up to the window and get handed a plate. I’m about to rush to get my drink but then I remember what Remi said turning back I look at the chef who gave me my food.
“Do you think that you could give me a little more. Please.”
“Yeah sure no problem.” Taking back my bowl he dishes out some more.
“Wan’t another slice of bread to?”
“If you wouldn’t mind I would love that”
“Alright.” He has a big grin on his face since I asked him that. Proud that I want more, even though he has the wrong idea the food is good. I would have asked for more if I had known before this.
Handing me back the tray he gives me a nod as I start walking towards the drink section. With a wave I head over andd grab a drink.
Almost everyone is already finished with their food and dinner is ending soon. I hunch down and start shoveling the food into my mouth. This time it’s some sort of rice dish with a thick cheesy sauce. Incredibly good. I am grateful that I now know that I can ask for more food, even if I didn’t need it to grow my muscles I still would ask for extra’s. Taking a swig of the drink it is some sort of fruit juice. The acidity cuts through the fat of the cheese making an incredible combination like always. Finished off with a bite of warm buttered bread. After finishing I was full, very full. Leaning back I lay there relaxing for a few minutes. After a few minutes, I noticed that I was one of the last people sitting in the cafeteria and some of the chefs were giving me the stink eye. Standing up I returned my tray. I walked back to the wagon yard slowly. Arriving back I see everyone working and making some of the final checks. Finding Markus I ask him for some help.
“Exuse me sir would you mind showing me the way to the reading class?”
“Of course just give me a moment to finish showing Kade how to pack up these tools.”
Taking a step back I wait patiently while they finish straightening up. When their finished Markus turns to me.
“Alright let me round up the rest of the people who need to go to class.” After calling a few people over we headed out. Our group consistend of 6 people including Markus and I. We headed down another route. It was full of boys my age all heading in the opposite direction.
“These are the students of this year. All of their classes have finished and they are leaving now. “ He sees as I start shrinking into myself” Your class will be rather full, Like I said earlier it’s not embarrassing to not be able to read.”
With a wave he leaves us in a room with about 20 students in total, there is a man standing at the front of the room with a giant black painting next to him, it had a sill at the bottom with weird white sticks. How strange. The man in question was very short with a curly moustache that was thickly waxed, it was amazing, He looked to be about 30 with short black hair and again, that amazing moustache, he also wore spectacles, which came as quiet a surprise, I had only seen one person wear spectacles and that was the tax collector that came to my old home every 6 months, I had been under the impression that glasses were quiet expensive, then again maybe they were and the church just paid for it.
There were small desks lined up in a grid taking up the back half of the room, as we walked in the man motioned for us to take seats. I chose one near the front so that I might hear what he was teaching better, I didn’t want to lag when the school year came around so I needed to get a handle on reading fast.
After a few more minutes of waiting, during which there was a small trickle of boys finding their way to class, the man straightened, and walked over closing the door. With a clap he began.
“Welcome students, my name is Mr. Hislop and I am going to be your English teacher, I will teach you all how to read, and write through out the course of this year.”
The whole year! I thought the class would only take a few weeks maybe months, but not the entire year. After all how hard could learning to read and write be?
“First off we will begin by introducing ourselves you will come up to the front and tell the class your name and then we will begin class.”
“I’ll start off with myself. “He Grabbed one of the white sticks and brought it to the black painting.” My name is Mr… Hislop” As he said his name he wrote different symbols for each sound he made. On the painting, honestly, that was almost more interesting than the symbols. They are vaguely familiar but I never spent much time before this trying to read, it had never seemed important.
Next Mr. Hislop pointed to a boy on my left
“Your turn.”
Keeping the white stick Mr. Hislop turned to the painting.
“Please go slow so that I can write your name.”
With a nod the boy began”Hello everyone my name is Jaden”
Again as the boy said his name Hislop wrote different symbols for each sound Jaden made. Although I did recognize one the “A” This processes continued with names getting written on the board as they were being said.
“Malacai…”
“Jonathan…”
“Tito…”
Finally it came me, I walked up to the front and introduced myself.
“Hi, my name is Dante nice to meet you all.”
I turned and watched in interest as Mr. Hislop wrote my name i recognised a few of the symbols be now and their respective sounds. The “A” “E” And “N” and I new what sounds they made. This wasn’t so difficult.
Once everyone had introduced themselves Mr. Hislop went to the corner of the room where small boards where stacked on one of the unused desk. He picked up the pile and started handing everyone a plate, he also gave everyone a small white stick like the ones he had been using to write on the black painting. After everyone got one he explained what we were supposed to do.
“This is slate, he said tapping the black painting, that board I gave you is also slate, that white stick is chalk you can use it to write on the slate what I want you all to do is to copy the sounds I make and the symbols I draw as I do them.”
Wiping away the white marks from earlier he grabs a piece of… chalk… and we began
“A” we all made the sound and I copied the symbol as best as I could it was much harder than I thought, I couldn’t make a straight line and it was completely out of proportion. Then we repeated it.
“B” this one was much harder than A because it curved. Instead of making the smooth curve that I saw Mr. Hislop make I made a squarish curve making the symbol look terrible.
We continued this time and time again making 26 different symbols although some were very similar making it hard for me to differentiate them. For example, the symbols “S” and “Z” and “V” And “U” looked very similar when he wrote them with small changes which were even harder to spot when I wrote them. There were others that I had much harder to draw than others, the symbol “G” was very hard to draw and took me smudging it out and retrying multiple times for me to make something similar. After we wrote all 26 symbols Mr. Hislop turned back to us.
“Good job everyone those were what is called letters. Combining them will make words. For now, we will practice writing the letters while also making the sounds to help memorize everything.”
I smudged out my slate as he did and we began again, this time though he had us write each symbol multiple times, surprisingly I watched as my first letter which had been almost unrecognizable became much smoother the more I wrote it. This happened with each letter I wrote, I thought it would take me much longer with how bad my first letters were but they weren’t so awful anymore, I could also recognize almost every symbol and its sound.
“Good job everyone! Feeling good about recognizing those, well bad news those letters are specifically called Uppercase letters however every letter has two types upper and lower case. Now I’ll show you what the uppercase letter is and then its counterpart, I want you to write both letters ten times each. Alright lets begin.”
We repeated all of the letters and then we repeated all of them again. By the time the bell rang at ten, I was completely confident in the letters that we had learned that day. Before we left he gave us one last farewell.
“I know that your all probably feeling pretty confident about remembering the letters I recommend you try and practice them tomorrow and if you see writing maybe try to sound out what it says now that you know all of the letters. See you all tomorrow.”
With a wave I filed out of the classroom and immediately headed back to the rooms, while walking back most of the boys split up but the other four that I had come here with stuck with us.
“What an interesting class, I can’t wait to learn how to read!” One of the boys from my group spoke up I think that his name was Tito
“Yeah I can’t wait to be able to read actual books, and start studying for school next year,” I respond
“I know right.”
The other three boys don’t seem near as enthused as the rest of us.
“I don’t know… I was able to live on just fine without needing to read I don’t see why I suddenly have to learn now. I don’t think we have to go to classes, I might not.” This ones name was Jake
“Yeah” said another named Percy “I’ve been just fine without needing to read and that won’t change”
I didn’t say anything but I was shaking my head on the inside, so stuborn, even if the job that you got didn’t need you to read, why not learn to that if the oppurtunity arizes you can take it. Being knowledgable opens doors. I new that for sure.
Thinking back I don’t remember it very clearly.
When I was younger I remember having lots of friends that I would play with, we would walk along the road picking people up as we passed each others’s houses as we grew older though I had to help on with the farm and taking care of the animals. Some of my friends I would see more often than others, those ones also had to help their parents with work. Others though I rarely saw went off to school, I remember, there was a big party where all of my friends who had gone to school had decided to pool resources and travel to the city in hopes of striking it rich the party had been small they were saving their money so they could get a foothold when they arrived. It was small with close friends and family, I remember being confused why I was invited to the party we had been friends when we were younger, but whereas I stayed behind with our family’s and helped farm they had left all of us behind. I remember being sad and a little upset that I couldn’t strike it out rich with them but I couldn’t have left my family. I hadn’t been to upset about it. That was until a few months later when they had started sending money back to their families. I remember a year vividly. There had been little rainfall and that coupled with bugs and it being a particularly warm year, had meant that the crops had suffered, my family had taken it hard, and we were all skipping meals and going hungry, we couldn’t afford to buy food, and that year we also couldn’t grow enough. I remember walking to the nearby town and going to the store, I had only been able to buy a small bag of peas and some potatoes. I remember that when I went to pay one of the families of my friends had been buying tons of food. They had not had any trouble this year, to them it had been a bit less profitable but other than that there was no other consequence. For my family and I, it was a calamity where we had to starve to survive. That was when I had regretted not going to school, and getting an education. I hadn’t thought in the long term and wanting to help my parents in the short term had caused us much more grief than if I hadn’t helped at all and had gone to school. I had gone through life regretting it ever since.
While this wasn’t a do-over. I had been given a second chance to do things better. That was the reason that I was so driven I wanted to not have to suffer because of things out of my control again. This time around I would be smart and think ahead.