Boss JJ

Too short to bother describing. Just read it

Boss JJ

 

JJ came from another mine. We called him Oom JJ.

 

The men called him Boss JJ. They didn't call anyone else boss.

 

To me he was old. He looked old in the ways a man can. Small, with grey unshaven skin and strong lenses that made his eyes look like those of a cow.

 

It was the fitter who told me why he was called Boss JJ.

 

He had worked the anthracite and when Coronation closed he moved here. On his first day he worked B section day shift.

 

When the team leader asked JJ what his name was he told them he was “Boss JJ”. They all laughed.

 

The team leader told the old man that bosses wear ties and drive Mercedes. Then the fitter laughed.

 

He parked the car right by the lamp room where the buses waited. It was old, but JJ was driving his Mercedes. He had made his bonus call many times before he left Natal.

 

Beneath his overall was the tie. He only wore it once, but they called him Boss JJ for ever.

Author's Note

Them and us. The "men" in the story are balck Africans. JJ, The fitter and the narrator are white and of european origin. Apartheid South Africa