The Death Knell

The family of three gathered around the stove and had a meal of hamburgers and boiled water in the middle of the night, but this was the best thing they had eaten in more than a month.

There are fewer and fewer people jumping off buildings outside, and now the owner of the family has found a job. From the perspective of their family, life is gradually getting better.

Steve stuffed his stomach with beef burgers and almost burst his belly, but lying on his back on the old wooden bed and listening to the cold wind howling outside, he slept very soundly that night.

Although the burgers were not the cream cakes in his dreams, the days now were almost the same as the good days in the dreams. Although he did not know when this Wilson Enterprise appeared, his heart was full of gratitude.

The next morning, his parents went out early, and he also got up early to help with work, such as lighting the fire and preparing food.

His mother was malnourished and weak, but she still insisted on going out to work. She would go to a wealthy area a few blocks away to clean people's houses to make money.

After eating, he went back to his small room to read a textbook that he thought he would no longer need.

But before he could read for a while, he heard someone knocking on his glass secretly.

When he looked up, it turned out to be his little friend Bucky. He was looking around furtively, with a trademark smile on his face.

"Steve, let's go out and play~"

Steve opened the window angrily. The structure of their apartment building was like this. There was a small storm window in the corridor. If it could be opened to allow a thin child to get through, Bucky must have been locked at home. Then he slipped out of this window.

"Didn't your dad let you study at home?"

Bucky waved his hand nonchalantly, climbed in from the window, and sat down on Steve's little bed.

"What's so good about books? I'll go back to school in a while and have plenty of time to read." The black-haired boy picked his ears. He had no interest in this.

Steve knew this would happen. Bucky's character was the same as his father's. It would be more uncomfortable to let him study at home honestly than to kill him.

"If he comes back from get off work and finds you running away, you're dead."

Bucky scratched his head: "He won't know. As long as we come back before he gets off work, can't we?"

"No, if you want to play, go ahead and don't drag me along. My father told me that to be a useful person to the country, I must study hard."

Steve quickly refused. Once Bucky started playing, he never had a sense of time. The key was that he was thick-skinned and no matter how hard Uncle Tom hit him, it would be useless.

Bucky rolled his eyes and changed the subject.

"Did you eat that burger yesterday?" Bucky lay on Steve's bed.

"Well, I had a sandwich this morning." Steve said absently.

"That's beef, right?" Bucky turned over again. He felt that the pillow was a little wet.

"Well, I guess so." Steve said expressionlessly.

"Where did this cow come from, Tennessee?" Bucky smelled the pillow. These wet traces had a fishy smell. It should be saliva, not tears.

"Who knows, I haven't seen any cows in the city." Steve sighed.

"Do you think they will bring other food back today?" Bucky avoided the traces of saliva and turned over the pillow.

"No way, right? It's impossible for the boss to give things to the workers every day." Steve replied in a helpless tone.

"That's right. I still remember those rich people on the street in the past. They were quite stingy." Bucky squirmed like a bug on the bed, rolling around.

............

Steve focused on the textbook, but Bucky kept talking next to him like Grandma Mary downstairs, making it impossible for him to concentrate.

But every time Steve turned around and looked at him seriously, he would pretend to be innocent and whistle.

"Okay, where do you want to go today?"

Steve finally couldn't stand it anymore. His little friend was driving him crazy. In this case, even holding a book was just a waste of time.

"Did you see the wrapper of yesterday's burger?" Bucky took out a piece of crumpled brown paper from his pocket.

"Look, there is a w letter on it, and the small letters below say Wilson Enterprises." Steve put down the textbook and turned around to look at his friend.

"I have never heard of such a big company in the city before. My dad said that they recruited more than 10,000 people last night, and the docks were packed."

Bucky said cryptically and winked at Steve.

Steve already knew what he wanted to do. To be honest, he was indeed curious about this company, but he was not as curious as Bucky and wanted to find out immediately.

"Listen to me, Bucky, you can ask your dad tonight about the situation of this company. Even if we find it now, what should we do next?"

Bucky jumped up from the bed, and he moved closer to Steve, his dark eyes filled with eagerness.

"Aren't you curious? They distributed at least hundreds of thousands of burgers and sandwiches last night. I mean if...if there are any extra, can we ask for a few more? We are hungry. For many months, I don’t want to go hungry anymore, more food is always better, right?”

I have to say that what Bucky said was also what Steve felt. He was moved, but whether it was begging or 'picking up', it was not what he should do.

"No, Bucky, we can go see where our father works, but we can't do things like asking others for food."

Bucky nodded, indicating that Steve was right, but he had never thought about becoming a beggar.

"I didn't say begging. Although we are not very strong, we can read and calculate. You think, they recruited so many people yesterday, there must be a lot of follow-up work today, such as registering phone numbers, writing job numbers and For something as small as a work permit, we can do temporary work in exchange for food. This is the result of hard work, so there is nothing to be ashamed of."

Many people live without telephones, but there is always something to record, right?

The suggestion of using labor in exchange for food is really smart, Bucky has always been smarter than himself.

There is only one such opportunity. The two of them only need to work for a day or two at most to get a lot of food, which can reduce the burden on the family and learn about this mysterious company.

Steve was moved by his words. He stood up, changed his clothes, and put his peaked cap on his head.

"Okay, I'll leave a note for my mom and then we'll go out."

"Haha, this is my Steve, I'm waiting for you."

Bucky stood up cheerfully and moved around the room, urging Steve to move faster.

There is never a shortage of smart people in the city. If he can think of things as a child, there must be others who can think of them. Even though they just want to pick some boring jobs that adults look down on, the sooner they go, the better.