Episode 3: "About to Fix It"

Once again, I woke up at the same time as always.

"Habits are strange things."

Mornings always came early when I was heading to the factory.

After forty years, I had grown so used to it that I would wake up before the alarm clock ever rang.

(...Has it really been six months since I retired?)

I smiled to myself and got out of bed.

As I walked into the living room, my eyes fell on a small building my grandson had left behind after his last visit.

"Grandpa, look!"

I remembered the proud smile on his face when he showed it to me that day.

It leaned ever so slightly.

The roof wasn't quite straight.

Perhaps it was simply because of my profession,

but I couldn't help noticing.

And yet...

I had spent my life making countless precision metal parts.

Now I found myself quietly staring at something my grandson had made.

(Maybe retirement has changed me.)

Back then,

precision was everything.

A tenth of a millimeter.

Five hundredths of a millimeter.

Those tiny measurements mattered.

I devoted myself to getting every detail exactly right.

I suppose that's where I found pride in my work.

But now, I sometimes catch myself wondering...

Was I really making only products?

I remember the days my coworkers and I struggled together.

The day I encouraged a young employee after he was discouraged by a mistake.

The nights we all worked endless overtime just to meet a deadline.

The day a customer simply said,

"Thank you."

I never imagined those two words could bring me such happiness.

Looking back,

what I remember isn't the drawings.

It's the faces.

...

I drifted off in thought.

Then my eyes returned to my grandson's little building.

"This part isn't quite straight."

I almost reached out to straighten the crooked roof...

but stopped.

Only he could have made it this way.

It wasn't perfect.

But there was only one like it

in the whole world.

Gently,

I placed it back on the shelf.

...

"Grandpa!"

That evening,

my grandson called.

"Next time, I'm going to build a castle!"

I could hear the excitement in his voice through the phone.

Looking out the window,

I answered softly.

"I can't wait to see it."

After we hung up,

I looked once more

at the little building on the shelf.

Somehow,

its crooked roof

looked just a little

proud.