Alicia and the Watchmaker’s Secret
Lily watched the walking machine’s row of legs below them move in a wave-like pattern, raking across the forest floor sweeping debris, leaves, and anything else that might be in the way through its wooden legs. She flattened herself against the monster’s fur afraid that if the machine hit a rock it might send her over and she would become mangled in its unstoppable legs. Alicia held the reigns she had lashed across the top of the beast. As they traveled through the Watchmaker’s Forest, Lily asked Alicia to explain how she managed to get the monster to work again.
Each time Alicia began to explain, Lily found her eyes glazing over and her mind wandering. Partially, she didn’t understand. The other reason was her rumbling stomach. She had eaten just fine, but half of her was still starving. Caw! Caw! She clung onto the matted fur and closed her eyes. The Black Bird was always looming in the back of her mind. Sometimes it slept but not always. It needed to feed right now. Her parents had tried to help assuage the hunger by allowing her some of the old pigs and goats. They kept her confined to the farm as much as possible hoping that the stimulus was enough to tire her out and not excite her, but Alicia’s arrival changed all that. A blessing and a curse.
The up-and-down swaying of the beast slowed as they approached a tall stone wall. Lily was afraid that the machine was going to walk straight into the wall but it stopped about an arms length away. Even standing on the back of the machine monster, Lily estimated that the wall was still at least four times higher than they were. Alicia jumped down from the top of the beast. Lily had to lower the mechanical boy to the ground first and then climb down the side.
She carried the mechanical boy to Alicia and found her crouching to the side of a giant, metal door. “What’re you looking at?” Lily asked as she peered over Alicia’s shoulder. She was holding a metal plate in one hand and inserting and pulling pegs out of it with the other.
“I think it’s the key to the gate,” Alicia said. “It fits this slot.” She tapped her finger against a long rectangular slot with grooves lining the top edge.
As Alicia began to slide the plate into the slot, Lily snatched her arm. “What if it’s a trap?”
“I’ll take my chances,” Alicia said as she slid the plate in. The wall churned to life. Lily backed away. A whirling sound came from inside of the stone wall and when her fear subsided Lily pressed her ear against the wall and listened to the ticks and clicks of the gears sandwiched between the bricks. A spring snapped and the large metal doors responded with a thunk. But the gates did not open. The slot spat the metal plate out. Alicia took it and wandered away studying it.
Lily knocked on the gates and hollered for someone to open the door. She kicked around the nearby rocks and torched tufts of grass in her hand as she waited for Alicia to find the right combination. She sat against a tree stump trying not to think of the raven’s hunger pangs. Try after try, Alicia failed, but she kept trying. Lily smiled. “I would have given up a long time ago,” she said to herself. Klong! The gates started to swing open. “You did it!” Lily said jumping to her feet.
Alicia scooped her rifle up and Lily did the same with the broken boy and they walked through the gates. Together they entered the courtyard of the mansion, and in front of them machines bobbled, wobbled, and hobbled all around. The courtyard’s lawn was being trimmed by a machine that looked like a metal sheep. It rolled along the grass stopping to chew every so often. After it traversed a distance the metal animal deposited a small bale of trimmings from its rear and resumed chomping away.
“This place is amazing!” Alicia said with a laugh.
“I’m glad you think so.” Lily glanced around but didn’t see anybody. The sound of the voice seemed to come from a black cone mounted at the corner of the wall. “I see that you have carried my son back.”
“I found him wandering through a town miles away from this forest,” Alicia said. “An accident befell him and I’ve brought him back to you. Please, I wish to meet you. I have much I’d like to ask.”
“You seem worthy. Very well, please accompany my daughter!”
The doors to the main house opened and a white faced girl wearing a baby blue, lacy dress appeared and marched towards them like a toy soldier. Instead of a rifle in hand she held a matching baby blue parasol. Lily and Alicia followed behind the girl into the main foyer and down a long and wide hallway.
The interior of the house was even more bizarre. A railing ran against the upper and lower halves of the walls. Little wheeld carts raced along those tracks dusting as they went. A machine walked across the floor dragging spinning arms made out of mops to clean the marble tiling. As they closed on a large set of double doors the sound of a piano grew louder. To Lily’s astonishment the piano player was a giant wooden spider dangling from the ceiling using its eight legs to tickle the ivories. A small pipe filtered a gust of air over a pinwheel powering the piano player.
The mechanical girl stopped and pushed open a set of giant doors. The room she revealed was the largest Lily had seen yet. The walls were packed with full bookshelves. There were rows of long tables cluttered with half finished gadgets, loose papers with doodles, and a myriad of tools. A cacophony of gongs and chimes went off to Lily’s right. That wall was covered in clocks all announcing the arrival of a new hour each in their melodic and artistic way.
“Bring him here young lady.” Finally, there he was, the Watchmaker. He was an elderly yet fit man. He was clean-shaven and his gray hair was combed back. She laid the boy on the empty table. The Watchmaker walked around the boy examining him through his bifocals. “His entire head must be replaced,” the Watchmaker said rubbing his chin.
“How can I help you?” Alicia asked. “I wish to know how he works.”
“Do you?” the Watchmaker said. “Then, follow me.”
Lily followed behind them to a table covered in a white cloth. The Watchmaker pulled the sheet off to reveal legs, arms, and a child’s disembodied head. All the parts looked real to her, but he began to explain how he built them. The eyes in the head seemed to follow Lily where ever she stood and finally she backed away from the table altogether and bumped into the mechanical girl. The machine, in a jerky fashion, raised its hand over its mouth, snapped its jaw down and giggled. Its soul-less eyes stared at nothing in particular. Lily left the scientists and the girl and explored some of the other nearby tables. On one workbench sat a wooden skull filled with gyros, gears, and wheels spinning and ticking like a watch. Eyes of all colors sat in a row staring at her. A jawbone with fresh teeth lay on the table. By it was a stand with a hook holding a disembodied arm wrapped in spongy stuff and next to it was a drawing of human muscles wrapping the arm bones. Lily smelt the dots of fresh blood staining the drawing.
A stronger, foul scent permeated the air where she stood. Lily followed the scent to a closed door behind a bookcase in the corner of the room. She peered behind her to make sure no one was following and pushed the door open and threw her hand over her nose to block the pungent scent of decay. Her eyes grew wide at the sights inside. Human bodies lay on surgical tables. A man with his skin sliced off — it was stretched out next to him — and his arms neatly removed and hanging from a hook just like the mechanical one on the workbench. Other parts: eyes, brains, and organs sat in putrid smelling vats lining a nearby shelf. The stone floor and walls were clean of any blood.
Caw! Caw! The black bird begged for a meal. She had starved him for so long. Her mouth watered. The raven within wanted to be free of her body and to feed on the decay and dead in the room. Lily slammed her eyes shut and hurried to leave but bumped into the Watchmaker. He put his hands on her shoulder. She shrugged him off. “My dear, don’t fret. The bodies come from a nearby village, they all died of natural causes or accident.”
The cawing of the raven inside of her mind was growing fiercer still. Lily’s stomach, which she shared with the raven, grumbled and gurgled.
“Lily,” Alicia began. “I know its disturbing. I also studied anatomy at the University of Aeterall. We learn how to heal people by dissecting the dead.”
Lily shook her head. “You don’t understand. I can’t stay here anymore.” She broke into a run. In her mind, she could hear the giant raven’s invisible wings flapping and see its shadow looming in every dark corner of the house as she ran. Alicia’s calls for her to stop were drowned by the noise of the bird’s cawing. Lily ran as hard and fast as she could to the house’s doors but stumbled over the machine mopping the marble floor and crashed against the floor smacking her head. Caw! Caw! The sound drowned everything else out. Alicia running toward her was the last things she saw.
