‘Do you ever, like… wonder how steel is made?’ I asked Samuel as we packed up our gear for the day, heading for the lockers. He stopped in his tracks and let out a lung-emptying sigh.
‘Mike, buddy – we visit companies that make the steel every day.’
‘I know that,’ I rolled my eyes. ‘I’m not an idiot.’
Samuel started walking again, mumbling something to himself that I couldn’t quite catch.
‘No, but like,’ I continued. ‘How does it work?’
‘I don’t care,’ he shook his head. ‘Look, it’s Friday night, I’ve got plans with my wife, could we do this on Monday instead?’
‘Do what?’ I asked, blinking.
‘This,’ he gestured at me.
‘I was just wonder—’
Samuel stopped, dropped his bag of tools and grabbed my arm. He dragged me back onto the shop floor, dutifully putting on a hard hat and throwing one at me too.
‘Look,’ he growled. ‘We get an order on that phone.’
He pointed obligingly at the phone.
‘Our boss tells us to pick up the best quality metal supplies near Melbourne,’ he continued. ‘We tell we’ll get right on it.’
‘Is it?’
‘How should I know?’
‘Right.’
‘Then,’ he grabbed my elbow and steered me around. ‘If our boss wants, say, structural steel, we say “oh, but of course, we’re heading to Melbourne’s most reliable structural steel fabricators now.”
‘It’s that simple?’ I asked, eyes wide.
‘No, you idiot, I dumbed it down for you. It obviously takes a high degree of training and skill.
‘Oh. Right.’
‘Mike…’ Samuel asked me, a thought suddenly crossing his mind. ‘What is it that you actually do here?’
‘Oh, that’s easy,’ I chuckled. ‘I…I, uh… I—’
The smile slowly dropped from my face. I realised that I’ve been letting Samuel take the lead on all our jobs since I’ve been with the company. How did I not notice this until now?