Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Suspense/Mystery

Chapter 4

The old man did not seem satisfied by the answer Hans had given him, but continued anyway.
"So, Hans, 14 is old enough to have a job, I presume you have one?"
Hans remained silent. The fact he did not have a job always annoyed him. He had never lasted for longer that two weeks. It wad always 'he asks to many questions' or 'he's so stubborn' or...

"You seem to be in deep thought, Hans." The older Hans' voice rattled him from his thoughts. Hans did not even register what the old man had said.
"Sorry, what did you say?"
"I said, Hans, you seem to be thinking."
"Oh, I see.. I do that a lot."
"What job do you have, I also asked."
Hans could not lie, he never could, but he could always refuse to say what he had to.
"I can't say, Hans." That was all Hans could say, all he could spit out. 
"Why not? You don't have one, do you?" Hans was still not going to let this man know, they had only just met and he wanted to know so much. Something about the mans curiosity angered Hans, but it also intrigued him. 
"You know, young Hans, I've been around forever, I can tell when someone spits out lies to me!"
"I'm not lying," Hans was persistent, as he was with almost everything, "l just can't tell you!"
"You know, there is nothing wrong with having a job, even when you are 140."
"No one can live that long!" Hans scoffed. But even as he did, he knew that it was an utter lie. Hans himself, was a good example of that lie.
"Are you sure about that?"
A moment of silence stole its way into the world as Hans paused to think, and in the end all Hans could say was: "Yes, very sure." 

"I see, so do you have a job or not?"
"Yes I do!"
The older Hans raised his eyebrow. Then he chuckled to himself.
"If I offered you a job here, what would you say?"
"No."
"No?" The old man took out his pocket watch again and began to play with it again, "You know, the pay will be good?"
'How much?' Would have been Hans' first response, but he decided to ask something slightly less demanding... "When will I start? And how long for?"
"I thought you were going to ask how much pay,"
"And that too," Hans added thoughtfully.
"Well, the pay will be enough to feed your family..."
"I don't..." but Hans was cut short by the old man raising his finger.
"If you have one... You may also get food here, if you wish..."
This was something Hans could not turn down, after loosing all his friends and family in the first seventy or so years of his life, social interaction seemed a hopeless aspiration. He decided to agree.

The old man seemed happy with his decision to work for him, and offered Hans some food, which turned out to be soup, for that's as much as the old man could cooks, save grilled bread, bread and butter and a small verity of stews. Hans' job was to simply to clean up and decorate the tumble down house the older Hans resided in. The job did not seem too bad, but Hans immediately knew he had thought wrongly of the task.