Day 66: 5 Minute Freewrite - Prompt: flash

A large Industrial Plant had just undergone a major retrofitting overhaul and the mass of contractors, mostly Ironworkers, and Pipefitters, were packing up their tools and leaving the site. A crew of eight men from the plant was chosen to help load the departing contractor's trucks utilizing an in-house overhead crane and several large pallets and skid pans. One man climbed the stairs two stories up to operate the crane from an airconditioned cabin while the rest of the crew would do the rigging and guide the load onto the truck. The most experienced rigger was selected as the lead man for the job and the men surveyed the first load and began selecting the proper rigging.

This first job was going to be the hardest and trickiest to perform safely because it was a very large open steel pallet that was loaded with large roll-around tool boxes, gang boxes, barrels, welding machines and other objects of differing weights. This would mean that the weight distribution would be uneven and the load would have to be carefully balanced to prevent it from tipping and dumping out the contents several floors down, which would certainly destroy both the equipment and the truck and would kill or maim any poor soul that happened to be underneath at the time. It was decided that two wide straps rated for at least three times more weight capacity each than the load would be used in basket fashion, and then chain falls would be attached by smaller straps from the crane's hook to be used for leveling the load as it was lifted off of the floor. This would assure that most of the weight was resting on the large straps forming the basket and the chain falls would only have a small part of the load for leveling purposes and would act as a safety mechanism just in case a strap were to fail.

Everything had been attached and the job started off just as it had been planned. As the crane lifted the load inch by inch off of the floor the chain falls were used to level everything up. At about six inches off of the floor the lead man had allowed the load to sit for a moment and settle into the straps, he went round and round twice to make sure that everything was secure and the load was as level and secure as possible. Then he warned the crew that they would be in a tight area under the load as it was lowered and at the first sign of any trouble they would have to do the best they could to move to safety out from under the danger zone. Six guidelines had been attached to the pallet at strategic locations to help the men steady the load and keep it from twisting or swinging out of alignment as it was lowered the three stories down onto the truck bed. Once the crane had maneuvered over the rails and was correctly lined up with the open shaft down to ground level, the seven men hurried down to the truck and got into position to receive the load. Pete, known by his nickname of "Slow-Mo" because of his slow and deliberate mannerisms, was positioned on the back of the truck to help guide the crane operator and keep the pallet in line with the truck, the rest of the men grabbed a guideline when they came within reach and gently turned the pallet so that it would come to rest parallel with the truck.

When the pallet had been lowered to within about fifteen feet of the truck one of the large basket straps suddenly moved out of position with a loud pop and twanging sound as weight shifting onto new load-bearing points. As the men holding the guidelines looked up they could see the pallet beginning to tilt and realization began to sink in that the contents of the pallet were close to spilling off onto the floor and all around them. But even before they had time to react they heard chains being furiously and deftly pulled and they could already see the load leveling once again. As they turned to see who had jumped in to operate the chain falls Pete was already going unseen in the opposite direction behind them and getting back into position on the truck. Being the only person with free hands, and being the first to see what was happening, Pete had moved instantly on instinct and saved both the loss of the load and potentially the lives of the rest of the crew.

Nothing was said until the pallet was safely secure on the bed of the truck, and then wiping sweat from their faces six men turned and looked at Pete and said: "What just happened?" But before Pete could answer the crane operator had secured the crane and raced down to the ground floor and was now vigorously shaking Pete's hand. That was unbelievable he said, impossible even, I have never seen anyone move that fast in my whole life! Pete did that, exclaimed the lead man looking at Pete with new found respect? How could he possibly have gotten off of the bed of that big truck, made it to the correct chain fall, and cause it to move fast enough to level an out of balance load and then get back on the truck without any of us even witnessing it? I can't exactly tell you said the operator, one second he was there, the next he was gone and then he was right there again just like he had never moved. I couldn't see what he was doing, all that I saw was the load leveling back up said the operator, and then he was back up on the truck, it was a miracle!

From that day forward no one ever called Pete by such a derogatory name as Slow-Mo ever again, from then on he was simply called The Flash, or just Flash.

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{This story was loosely based on real events that I witnessed while on a job site. Most workers on such jobs have similar stories of things that happened to save lives or property that could not be completely explained as worker skill or prowess.}
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Disclaimer: I often use the freewrite prompt to tell a story instead of doing a pure freewrite, so they sometimes take longer than 5 minutes and usually have some editing. But I try to do my story straight through at one sitting without any unnecessary breaks.
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Graphic by: Giphy.com
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Prompt: flash
Set your timer for 5 minutes.
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Thank you @mariannewest