'One More Batch' by Fu'ad Lawal

“One more batch,” she tells herself for the umpteenth time since she had begun work that day.

At fifteen, she has made more sneakers than her entire family have had proper meals in her one year working there, combined.

The last sneakers are rolling by. Almost done. Then the speakers come on.

Bad omen.

“One more batch, and then you’ll get your daily wage.”

Daily wage means sixty cents. Sixty cents for ten hours’ work. Half hour break. A batch would take about an hour more. Sixty for eleven. She hears many sighs around her, except hers.

This is it.

This is the drop that spills from the full cup. She drops the sneaker she is working on; Serial Number 54/632. She looks at her palms, badly bruised, then at the open window.

So much air. So much freedom.

She walks to it slowly, as if bewitched by its promise of freedom.

She jumps.

Five floors down.

Headlong.

Her story ends here, but 54/632 has just begun its story. It survives Quality Control. It survives the sea journey from China to America. To a New York store. To a customer’s closet. It survives poor maintenance. Survives abandon.

It survives till the day its owner marches in it to a protest. The day men and women, young and old, raise their placards and their voices.

Placards that read things like SAVE THE FUTURE, BRING BACK OUR GIRLS.

And there, 54/632 stands, bearing the weight of its owner. Its owner who screamed his lungs brandishing his placard. His placard which read; EMPOWER THE GIRL CHILD.

Fuad Lawalis a poet and copy writer. He blogs at rebelliousflash300.wordpress.com. Follow him on Instagram/Twitter @rebelliousXIV

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