“What Pegman saw” is a weekly challenge based on Google Streetview. Using the location provided, you must write a piece of flash fiction of no more than 150 words. You can read the rules here. You can find today’s location on this page, from where you can also get the Inlinkz code. This week’s prompt is Talnakh, Krasonoyarsk Krai, Russia.
The Big Man
Gregor was a big man, but he was puce and breathless after climbing the badly lit iron stairs of the dusty nickel factory. He sat at his battered metal desk scanning the production log and downed a vodka. Normal.
He coughed. Ten years ago he’d been the first to crack the Arctic ice. He’d swum for ten minutes, the ferocious cold burning him, his workmates applauding. He’d walked tall as he strode back up the beach. Nobody would have challenged him then.
The maintenance log. Another vodka.
Damn! The left reactor was running well over temperature. It would have to close for repair. Management wouldn’t like it, but they’d ignored that warning sign once before. The poor sod caught in the blast had screamed for ten minutes as he died.
This whole damn place was a death trap. He coughed. Nickel cough. He knew within a year he’d be dead.
Autumn Leaves 
Dear Penny,
Chernobyl? Sad tale indeed. No matter how large, man is a fragile creature.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle
Thank you for reading and commenting. No, not Chernobyl. Talnakh is in a major nickel mining and processing region. Nickel powder is somewhat carcinogenic. It’s refined by a process that uses nickel carbonyl, which is extremely carcinogenic. I’m not sure whether there’s actually a nickel refining factory in Talnakh but I’ve set the story in one.
Sorry to be all techie!
Slalom
Penny
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So I’m learning. 😉
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Bother autocorrect. I meant shalom of course!
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The place is indeed a death trap to fell such a giant. Nicely told.
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Dear Josh
Thank you for reading and for your nice comment.
Happy New Year to you and Karen!
Penny
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Talnakh and nearby Norilsk are ecological disaster areas due to mining. From Wikipedia: “Nickel ore is smelted on site at Norilsk. The smelting is directly responsible for severe pollution, generally acid rain and smog. By some estimates, one percent of global emissions of sulfur dioxide comes from Norilsk’s nickel mines. Heavy metal pollution near Norilsk is so severe that mining the surface soil is now economically feasible due to the soil acquiring such high concentrations of platinum and palladium.”
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Yes, I’m afraid they are. And with Soviet era technology I would imagine a considerable number of premature deaths from lung cancer.
Happy New Year,
Penny
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Happy New Year to you and yours, Penny.
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Excellent descriptive writing (again :-)). I like the way you emphasize the repetitive nature of his work (checking the production log, downing vodka, and repeat). Gregor seems to be resigned to his fate. Sadly, it’s all too common for “management” to put profit before the welfare of workers.
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Dear Magarisa
Thank you for reading and for your nice comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the descriptive writing. It was necessary because although I’ve been in factories like that, most of my readers haven’t.
I hope you have a very Happy New Year, Magarisa!
Penny
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I’ve never been in a factory like that either.
Happy New Year to you too, Penny!
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The forlornness the desperation the acceptance speak volumes of this giant of a man. Nice one, Penny. Happy New Year to you and yours, too.
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Dear Kelvin
Thank you for reading and commenting. It’s a very helpful comment, because you don’t mention his pride. I need a way of emphasising that more.
With best wishes
Penny
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Hmm, tacky. Tricky to show rather than tell. I dwelt on this while I wrote another story, but all that came out in my second story, was stubbornness. Good luck. And Happy New Year, just once more. 😎
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I liked the way you narrated an entire life (and how callous indifference wasted it) in so few words. Very well done Penny. Wish you and yours a Happy New Year 🙂
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Dear Dahlia
It’s lovely to hear from you again – I’ve missed you the last couple of weeks.
Thank you for your lovely comment. Trying to somehow convey the essence of a person in so few words is tremendously useful practice for my novel writing, where I’m very concerned to have real, rounded characters.
Happy New Year!
Penny
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Thanks Penny I missed blogging and interacting too. Been underweather and not quite blog-fit just yet. But good to read and get some inspiration😊
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Dear Dahlia
I’m sorry you’ve been poorly. I hope you’re soon back to full strength and blogging once again.
With very best wishes
Penny
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Thanks so much Penny! 🙂
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Plausible and grim, you’ve created a tough, gritty character that wins my sympathy–and yet also the sense he would want no part of my sympathy.
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Dear Karen
You make a very astute comment. He wouldn’t want sympathy from anyone. His self-image is of a man who would bow to nothing and no-one. Unrealistic, of course, but a delusion that seems to appeal to the masculine mind.
Thank you for reading and commenting – much appreciated as always.
Happy New Year!
Penny
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Money is a neutral tool, useful for good or for ill. Man’s greed, though, can never do good.
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Dear Righteousbruin9
Thank you for reading and commenting. Although money should be a neutral tool, the way trade works is heavily biased against the poor, at all scales of economic activity. It’s one of the ways in which original sin manifests itself.
Happy New Year!
Penny
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Happy New Year, Penny.
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There’s a lot of mining death traps like this in the world. Many in Eastern Europe. This great story is an excellent portrayal of this. I feel sorry for the life Gregor has lost.
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Dear EagleAye
Thank you for reading and commenting. At the start of my working career (over forty years ago now) I used to visit steel processing plants in South Wales. They weren’t as bad as the factory in my story, but they weren’t good – I still remember vividly what it was like having a two ton metal object accidentally dropped from a crane within feet of me…brrrrr! And they still had fatalities and near misses.
With tighter regulation, things are much better now in Europe, and I should imagine in the USA too. But I can see a trend towards deregulation, and what that means is not lower costs but deaths, poor health and pollution.
With best wishes and Happy New Year!
Penny
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I have enjoyed the history in this post. I have sympathy for the workers who became ill in the mines.
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Dear Cara
Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m glad you enjoyed the history in the story.
With best wishes
Penny
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Love your little character study, Penny. You can feel his thick fingers on the glass, his resignation at the state of the world, at his fate within it. You’re written this so beautifully, so sparsely, the style perfectly matching the theme. Wonderful
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Dear Lynn
Thank you for reading, and for your lovely comment. Wow! I’m bowled over that you like it so much.
With special best wishes for a Happy New Year for you and yours
Penny
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Wonderfully written, Penny – truly. Happy New Year to you too 🙂
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