63

Little by little, over the next hour, the eight colleagues from that section arrived in the room. At first they were surprised to see a boy working around one of the tables. He could see the suspicion and hostility of many of them, but when they began to see that the boy worked at the pace of the experienced workers in the section, their disdain turned into curiosity and even a certain admiration, although logically not everyone was convinced. It was too early to see if that boy was really a rival, a genius, or a swindler who couldn't keep up with that frenetic pace.

They had all introduced themselves politely. It was a formality, but in a room where you would spend at least ten hours a day, it was normal for people to know each other. Many of the workers who were there were already quite old; only with a lot of effort had they managed to slowly rise within their class.