A couple years back, I worked at peanut packing factory, staking boxes on pallets to get prepared for delivery. I worked with a older co-worker named Darius who was in charged of operating the packaging machine. The machine was old and corporate was too cheap to upgrade to a better model so it consistently broke down seemingly at random. If Darius took too long fixing the problem he would hear from it from the boss. Darius was always in a bad mood, ranting under his breath, snapping at people for the slightest comment. It didn’t help that Darius was a big intimidating man which made aggressive attitude all the more frightful. There were times I thought he would walk out during work but I guess he was too stubborn to let himself quit. I could relate, at the time I was itching to give my two week notice and never set foot in that factory again, but the job market was rough so I had to deal with cards I had.
One day, the boss held a meeting saying that the company supervisor was coming to inspect the workplace for proper quality control. We were encourage to be presentable and be on our best behavior like we were a bunch of school children. The day the supervisor came things were running smoothly at first, the machine was operating as normal and the boxes was coming at a regular rate. But, as the supervisor was looking over the shoulder of a employee a couple rows away from me the machine started to malfunction and, as usual, Darius was swearing like a sailor trying to fix it. The lane was temporally shut down leaving me with nothing to do but watch as the boss hurriedly came over and started at it with Darius. It seemed Darius finally reached his boiling point because he shouted back so loud you could hear him from the moon. His face was skewered in such an angry expression that boss coward like a mouse in his presence. The supervisor came over and had asked what was the problem but the boss only mumbled.
The supervisor then turned to Darius and said, “You know, we are trying to facilitate a positive work environment and your attitude isn’t helping. Maybe if you did your job right you wouldn’t feel the need to have these childish outburst.”
What happened next still disturbs me to relocate. Darius turned to look directly into the supervisor’s eye. His face was like a gargoyle, his mouth was in a hideous frown, his eyes were wide and bloodshot while his brow was creased with bugling veins crisscrossing along his forehead. For a moment, nothing happen, no one said anything. Then the left side of the supervisor’s face started to droop like it was melting off. He then dropped to dropped to the floor twitching for a moment before laying limp. Darius’ eyes never left him. The boss finally gained his bearings and called for ambulance. The supervisor was declared dead on the scene. Since Darius didn’t touch the supervisor he wasn’t blamed for the his death, but I felt otherwise. I always thought that Darius might kill someone one day, the man was a ticking time bomb. But the way how he did it is what really disturb me. Could someone contain so much hate and anger that they can inflict death on someone through a look? I don’t know but I was glad I didn’t get on his bad side before left that job two months later.