Yellow Hardhats

By: Brianna Lee Hubler

Copyright © 2022 Brianna Lee Hubler. All rights reserved.

__________A withered man sat in a folding chair along the city sidewalk. He stared through the empty spaces of a chain-link fence to the construction site contained within. He wore tattered clothing, and his hair was never straight nor tidy. His ruggedness aged him. His misty eyes observed the workers’ yellow hardhats. The yellow hardhats bobbed up and down, while the workers tended to the build.

__________The withered man watched the workers scurry from place to place and from job to job. He listened to their conversations. They swore at the heat of the day and the weight of the beams and boards they carried. They whispered their resentments towards their supervisors to one another and snickered secret mockery. Some spoke of their families, their rumbling stomachs, and the hour of the day. Others wondered at the stranger in the folding chair.

__________He’s a loafer, a vagrant, he’s mentally ill, don’t mind him—they murmured. None could tell whether the man in the folding chair heard their near silent judgments. But, at times when they spoke of him, the watcher’s lips would curl at the corners ever so slightly, as if he laughed at a private jest. The watcher kept watching.

__________Dawn passed to midday. A mother and her small daughter strolled along the sidewalk. When the mother saw the watcher, she shuffled her daughter to the other side of her and rushed past. The curious daughter tried to look back, but her mother tugged on her wrist. The little girl whined but obeyed her mother’s urging. The watcher glanced at them as they turned a corner, and then returned his attention to the construction site.

__________A policeman parked his cruiser along the curb of the sidewalk. He kept the engine running and rolled down a window. “Are you all right, Sir?” he asked the watcher.

__________“Have you ever noticed that people are a lot like ants?” the watcher said. “The round, yellow hardhats make it easier to see here.”

__________The policeman eyed the watcher with suspicion. “I think you better come over here and let me check you over,” he said.

__________“No,” the watcher answered.

__________“What do you mean no? I’m the law. Do you want trouble with the law?” the policeman asked. “Are you seeking to be an obstruction to justice?”

__________“No.”

__________“Then you best comply.”

__________“Is this a public sidewalk?”

__________“Yes, Sir.”

__________“Is there a law against sitting in a chair on a public sidewalk?”

__________“No, Sir.”

__________“Then I think I’ll sit right here.”

__________The officer shook his head, rolled up his window, and drove off muttering to himself about drug activity in the city.

__________Some of the workers cheered. “That’s the way to get rid of the feds,” they said. “Beat ‘em at their own game!”

__________The watcher’s face was placid. He returned to watching. The round, yellow hardhats of the workers reminded him of the round heads of ants. The watcher thought of his childhood, of the days he spent watching backyard ants build their nest and tend it. Piece by piece the ants piled dirt into a mound and packed it down. They left a single hole at the top of the mound, a shared entry and exit. Through the hole they dragged crumbs, shredded leaves, and other insects down into the deep, dark recesses of their underground home. The same ants emerged soon after, they would leave their nest and return with another load.

__________The ants scurried busily about with their loads. The construction workers did the same. They were purposeful like the ants. The watcher thought of the crumbs, of the insects, of the leaves, and of the nature of the construction workers’ build. The sign that hung on the chain-link fence—to the right of the watcher’s view—read: LUXURY APARTMENTS.

__________The watcher thought of the little girl with her mother, and how many like them would soon be moving into the apartments that the workers labored to build. Mothers, fathers, children, and others would go in and out of single doors carrying groceries, décor, pets, and children. Like the ants, they would move like clockwork in and out, always busy gathering, building, and storing.

__________As the watcher pondered, the sun slowly arced downward, until it rested behind a row of trees. The construction workers put away their supplies and pocketed their gloves. Neon shop signs became visible in the darkening sky of the city. The workers exited the site and locked the chain-link gate behind them. They drove off in their cars, each to his own destination. Silence befell the construction site.

__________The sun dropped the rest of the way beneath the earth, and the watcher stood up. He folded his chair, slung it over his shoulder, and vanished into the night.