Franz

The clock ticked persistently, an echo in Franz’s ears. He watched the hands move, his mind drifted behind the gears, tick tick tick.

“I often wonder if one can even have too much money.”

He focused his gaze back to reality. Just beyond his desk, a pudgy man in a fancy suit adjusted his whiskers. Franz realized he had left the man speaking to himself. He would surely get a tongue lashing from Mr. Williams. He attempted to remember what the man was there for. A loan? No he looked too wealthy to be asking for money. A deposit?

Franz’s leg began to tap away at the stool, barely grazing the ground.

“So about that...deposit?” He guessed.

The gentleman laughed and placed a hand on his hat, removing it in between breaths.

“Of course, it slipped my mind.”

Franz sighed in relief. His mind was running wildly, he couldn’t mess up like that again.

Franz continued the process of assisting the wealthy sir in his deposit, his ears listening in to every detail to keep him from drifting off.

Franz Schwarz was a hard worker, as to be expected from someone with history in coal mining.

In the break room, his coworker David lit a cigarette. Franz noticed it was slightly bent and wondered why David would have kept such an expensive brand in a measly pocket.

“Hello, old man.” David joked, and puffed a cloud of smoke in Franz’s direction.

Franz let out a cough and waved away at him, “Please stop calling me that. We’re the same age.”

David chuckled and stuck the cigarette back to his mouth.

Franz grew tired of hearing that same joke over and over.

“Hello, old man.”

“How do you do, grand-papa.”

“You alright there, sir?”

Franz, despite being only 27, looked ages older than he appeared. He wasn’t sure if it was the ever darkening circles beneath his eyes, the wrinkles that rested upon his always furrowing brow, or the cane he required to use due to his limp, but everyone he met never believed his young age.

Franz removed his bowler hat and placed it on the shelf nearest to him and examined the room.

Near the smoking David, he noticed a missing stool. Perhaps another worker moved it upstairs. Mr. William’s secretary? No...why would she? She had a bad back. But, Franz had noticed a bit of scratches on the door frame of the stairs that led to her office. She must have struggled to take it upstairs. Franz was a quiet man, but an adamant thinker. His mother would always say that he would grow up to be a policeman or part of the Yard, but to her and his father’s surprise he was physically weak compared to his mind. Franz made peace with his frail constitution long ago, but a wistful memory of his childhood dream still resurfaced now and then.

David watched Franz peer at the walls for a moment, amused at his strange focus toward the wallpaper.

“Schwarz?” He asked, interrupting Franz’s thoughts.

“Oh, sorry. It seems I must have…” He coughed once more.

David closed his eyes and hopped onto a stool near the window, “You are a peculiar person, Franz Schwarz. A peculiar person indeed.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Franz scoffed.

“Terribly ill fitting for a banker, I think. Who ever heard of a pensive banker? Mr. Williams must’ve been mad when he hired you.”

Franz leaned against the wall. He thought that sometimes as well. Although he believed Mr. Williams mad for different reasons. One of them being the fact that he couldn’t seem to remember many important details about Franz, things a guardian should know. One of them being his own ward’s name. It was common for Mr. William to constantly refer to him as Schwarz and Schwarz only. He thought it might've be a way for him to remember Franz's lost father, Otto Schwarz.

David sighed deeply and Franz noticed a glint of worry in his face. He tilted his head towards him.

“And you, David? How are you?” He asked.

The man stayed silent, his eyes glued to the floor beneath him. David had recently lost his youngest son due to complications with a fever. Franz couldn’t quite comprehend his loss, but he tried his best to sympathize. He never imagined a family in his own future, he wasn’t exactly fit for marriage with him being sickly and socially unskilled.

A small knock broke the tension in the room. David and Franz turned to the doorway, a ginger man stood in the doorway, his hands folded behind his back. He motioned towards Franz with a polite nod.

“Mr. Schwarz, Mr. Williams would like to see you in his office. Immediately.”

Franz gulped. He dreaded meetings with him, especially if it required such haste. He picked up his hat and lightly tossed it onto his combed, raven hair. He picked up his red walking cane and followed the ginger man up the wooden staircase, a stipple of scratches across it’s steps.