Clockworkers

by Ramsey Isler

  “Everything?” he asked.

  “No...not everything.”

  “Then why stop?”

  “Because,” I said. “There are other things I need to do with my life.”

  “You said finding us was your life.”

  “Exactly!” I said. “It was my life. I sacrificed everything for it. My job, my career, my friends. I gave everything for a dream. And you, you wonderful little fellow, you made that dream come true. And I am exceedingly grateful to have had so much time with you. But you fulfilled the dream. You gave me what I wanted from my search. Now I need to go back and fulfill other needs. I want to have a chance at some kind of normal life.”

  “Humans don’t have normal lives,” Piv said. “Everything you do is very abnormal. You work in big ugly buildings and hardly ever see the sun. You spend all your days trading time for monies. You kill things you don’t eat. You eat things that kill you. Nothing about you is normal.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that.

  Piv noticed my lack of rebuttal and seemed to sense an opportunity to press his point home. “Your life out here was normal,” he said. “Don’t throw it away. At least, not all of it.”

  I was floored. Piv caught me completely off-guard. I’d never in a million years think he could be so eloquent, and so...philosophical. I must admit I’d been guilty of what so many humans of the past have done—thinking of the elves as childish. They may have a puerile air about them, but maybe they’re more adult than we’ll ever be. Perhaps that’s why humans and Kith have never been able to live together. Maybe we’re the upstart adolescents trying too hard to prove something, and they’re the experienced adults who have been there, done that, and are waiting for us to learn better.

  “What do you want?” I asked him.

  “I want to go with you,” he said.

  “No, that’s not what I meant. What do you want out of life? What...what drives you? What makes you do what you do? Do you know what it is to want to accomplish something so badly that it colors every aspect of your life?”

  “Do flowers bloom to be prettier than weeds?” he said. “Does a tree want to grow taller than its neighbor? Does the grass strive to be anything but grass?”

  And there, right there, was the crux of the issue. “Maybe you’ll never understand this,” I said, “but that’s the difference between your kind and mine. We always want something. You never do.”

  “I want to go with you,” Piv said again.

  So I figured there was no point in arguing. We were both right, in our own way. We can only be what we are.

  It’s the Fourth of July. Independence Day.

  July 6th,

  When you’ve been away from the city for a while, you realize how strange it is when you come back. The skyscrapers once seemed like such an obvious declaration of conceit and ambition—each one a symbol of how humans like to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. But now I wonder how much additional land we’d have to take up if we didn’t build up instead of out. I wonder how much more inefficient it would all be. I see these buildings and I’m reminded of the tall termite towers I saw in the forest. They’re just a different kind of skyscraper when you think about it. Now I see the nature in the artificial.

  I missed this place. I missed the ever-present light and sound and activity. I missed the smells. I missed the people. They’re not really all that interesting compared to the Kith, but they’re my folk, and they always will be.

  I got here by taking a train. I walked ten miles out to the same little town I’d visited months ago when I started this journey. It was the end of winter then. Now it was glorious summer, and the sleepy town had come alive.

  The train didn’t have many patrons; few people found this particular mode of transportation all that useful around the Motor City. But Piv was fascinated by it. He whispered a constant stream of questions to me during the whole trip. Somehow he still managed to completely avoid detection.

  Once off the train, I caught a trolley, and this was where I feared I might lose Piv. He’d never been in the city before, and the trolley was not nearly as vacant as the train had been. But he kept track of me rather well.

  A brisk one mile walk brought me to my house. It was dusty and showed every possible sign of neglect, but it was still there and whole.

  I returned home expecting to find stacks of mail waiting for me. But there was nothing. That’s a good thing, because my new neighbor seems to be a bit suspicious of me. I will spend some time with her to ease her worries. Her name is Linda, and she’s actually quite a pleasant young lady. Piv seems to like her, which is a good sign. She’s a bit nosy, but I would be a hypocrite if I judged her for curiosity.

  Chapter 13

  Sam laid in her bed for hours after reading that last entry in her father’s journal. She had read everything now. The journal had no more text to offer her, but it concluded with one hell of a surprise.

  She went downstairs and found her industrious little friend in her living room, sitting cross-legged in front of the TV. But he wasn’t watching it. He was using the remote control to turn it off, on, and off again. Repeatedly. All while giggling like a manic child.

  “What are you doing?” Sam asked him.

  “Oh I was playing with this magic wand that controls the picture box,” he said. “This is delightful.”

  “You’ve never seen a remote control for a TV before?” Sam asked.

  “Your father never had a...teevee.”

  That was true. Most of Sam’s childhood years were spent with comic books, novels, and technical manuals. She didn’t really start watching TV until her teenage years, and even then it had been an old Magnavox with huge manual channel dials. Sam and her father had repaired the relic just for fun during a two week stretch when snowstorms left them with nothing else to do. She had kept it in her room because her father showed no interest in watching it.

  “Will you tell me how it works?” Piv asked.

  “Yes, we’ll cover that later.” Sam said. “Right now I need to know something. How fast can you make more timepieces?”

  Piv raised a slender eyebrow and said, “You need more already? Did you lose the others?”

  “No. We sold them all very quickly.”

  “What wonderful news! Did you make a lot of monies?”

  “Yes, we did. People are very happy with your work.”

  The elf laughed and did a little turn with the grace of a ballet dancer.

  “So, back to my original question. How fast can you make more? I need a lot more than you made last time. Preferably in about a couple weeks.”

  Piv frowned. “We can’t make that many that fast. We would need help.”

  “I can try to hire some people to do some assembly work,” Sam said. “We have the money now.”

  “No no no. Big people wouldn’t be able to build these watches. They’d make a terrible mess of things. Terrible.”

  “So what kind of help are you talking about?”

  “More Kith, of course!”

  “Are there more...around here?” Sam asked.

  “No, they are not near. But I can bring them here. They will be ever so much fun to have around, and you’ll have all the watches you could ever want.”

  “For some reason I’m a little skeptical about how much more ’fun’ more elves would be. One of you is more than enough to make me want to pull my hair out.”

  “Is that something big people like to do?” Piv said. He tugged a bit at his own hair and grimaced. “That doesn’t seem pleasant at all.”

  Sam slapped a hand to her forehead and let out an uncontrollable burst of laughter. When she opened her eyes again, she found Piv giving a puzzled stare. “Okay,” she said. “How much time do you need to bring them here?”

  Piv smiled and said, “Give me three days to figure that out with Noc Noc and Melkidoodum and I will give you the answers you need.”

  “And how many Kith could you bring here?” Sam asked.

>   “Enough to do the job,” Piv said. “But they’re all spread out. We shall have to move them.”

  “Move them from where?”

  Piv made a twirling motion with his hand and said, “Sundry places around the country.”

  “So,” Sam said, “I’ll have to move them from all kinds of places, and I’ll have to hide them once they get here. That won’t be easy.”

  “But you’re so clever,” Piv said. “You’ll find a way.”

  “Yeah,” Sam said. “I guess I have no choice. I assume these new friends of yours will require the same kind of accommodations as the others?”

  “Yes indeed,” Piv said.

  Sam leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling, contemplating ways to escape this situation. The quiet, trouble-free life of a watch fixer didn’t seem so bad right now. She could always go back to that—just call the whole thing off and let the elves go back to wherever they came from.

  But that would be quitting, and Sam had never been a quitter.

  “Okay,” she said. “Let’s move forward. Are you absolutely sure you can handle all this?”

  “Sure as sure can be,” Piv said. “Do you require anything else?”

  “There is...one thing,” Sam said. She paused before she continued. “Did you know my mother?”

  Piv stared at her for a moment. His expression didn’t change, and he didn’t move at all. Sam was just about to ask the question again when he nodded.

  “So you did know her,” Sam said.

  Piv nodded again.

  “Did she know about you?”

  Piv shook his head.

  Sam took a deep breath and exhaled before she asked her next question. “What was she like?”

  “You don’t remember?” Piv asked.

  “I was very young,” Sam said. “I remember some things about her. I remember her laugh. I remember her telling me bedtime stories. But...I don’t remember her. All I have are pieces.”

  “I understand,” Piv said. “Human memory is not very good. Not very good at all. But I don’t think anything I say could bring you what you want. I did not know Linda well. I just observed her from afar, when Samuel would allow it.”

  “I see,” Sam said. She exhaled another deep breath and slumped in her chair.

  Piv stood and walked over to her. Then he placed his delicate hands on her cheeks. His touch was soft, and soothing warmth flowed from his palms. Sam found herself lost in his beautiful eyes as he said, “I do not know how humans feel love. I am not sure it even means the same thing to you as it does to us. But if all humans are capable of the sort of adoration your parents had for each other, and for you, then your kind are the most fortunate of all nature’s children.”

  * * *

  Piv went on a little adventure a few days later.

  Sam’s life was much quieter with Piv gone. As the date of his departure approached he wavered a little. He wasn’t a big fan of long-distance trips. But once Sam showed him pictures of the plane he was going to fly on he suddenly became an eager traveler.

  The private jet was a costly necessity. Piv had a lot of ground to cover, and Sam’s schedule was tight. Flying was the best option, but there was no way Piv was going to make it through the various levels of airport security. He had no form of identification, and his appearance would surely attract far too much attention. Airports had cameras and police dogs and a million other obstacles. But passengers on executive jets get to avoid all that hassle and circumvent most security, and the discreet staff were used to dealing with odd and secretive customers. All of this made the exorbitant rental cost acceptable.

  Piv’s mission was to surreptitiously travel the country and round up all the willing Kith he could find. Before he left, he consulted with Noc Noc and Melkidoodum in secret meetings that Sam was only told about after they were already over. When the tiny triumvirate had devised a recruiting plan they felt comfortable with, Piv was elected to be the one to bring everyone together.

  If everything worked as planned, many more Kith would soon be producing watches. The thought of having a lot more of those unpredictable little troublemakers running around in the factory unsettled Sam, but there was no turning back now. Besides, her gambles were already paying off. Yusef showed her the new revenue numbers that morning. They had made two million in profit already.

  At their current production rate, they were keeping up with demand while at the same time avoiding the costs that go with storing large inventories of unsold product. The reviews were flattering, the customers were happy, and the money was rolling in. Now all Sam had to do was keep it that way.

  Everything hinged upon the elves. She had full faith in Piv, despite his eccentricities. He was a known entity; her father’s notes and her own interactions with him gave her confidence. The other two, however, were still a complete mystery. Part of that was Piv’s doing, as he often went out of his way to act as a liaison between Sam and the other elves. Sam understood his rationale, but one of the reasons she had sent Piv far and wide was to get some time alone with Noc Noc and Melkidoodum. They were her partners, and yet still strangers to her. They were unwelcome variables in her formula for success. She decided to try to fix that.

  She found them at the workshop, as usual. At the moment they were just taking a break and playing a game that Piv had recently shown them on television—poker. Sam approached carefully and watched them play for a while. For betting, they used an assortment of materials from around the shop: springs, bearing jewels, tweezers, and flakes of metal. Sam had no idea what value they represented, but the elves seemed to have it sorted out. They were playing Texas Hold ’Em, and the community cards showed two kings and two nines. Noc Noc said, “All in.” Melkidoodum said the same. Both Kith flipped their cards over.

  They both had a king and a nine—a tie. They laughed and clapped their hands ecstatically, and then they turned to Sam.

  “Hallo,” Melkidoodum said. “Do you require something of us?”

  “I just wanted to stop by and spend some time with you guys. We don’t get to see each other that often.”

  “That’s the way we wanted it,” Noc Noc said, smiling.

  “Well,” Sam said, “while I do think we all deserve a certain degree of space, we can still be conversational every now and then, right?”

  The Kith looked at each other, and shrugged.

  Sam pressed on. “So when will we see Piv again?”

  “Most likely in about two weeks,” Melkidoodum said. “He works fast, but there is much to be done. Yes, much to be done.”

  “And how will our new guests be arriving?” Sam asked.

  “We did have some trouble devising a fix for that,” Melkidoodum said. “But you gave us a good idea to solve the problem.”

  “I did? What is it?”

  “We’ll let you know when Piv returns,” Melkidoodum said.

  “Okay then,” Sam said. “So how have you two been? What’s up?”

  Both elves looked upwards. They found nothing up there, and turned their attention back to Sam with confused expressions.

  Sam laughed, nervously. “That’s not what I meant. How have things been going?”

  “You should know,” Noc Noc said. “We give you regular reports.”

  “Yes,” Sam said. “But I meant outside of work. Are you guys having fun in the city? Doing anything interesting?”

  “We always have fun,” Melkidoodum said.

  “Doing what?”

  “Exploring,” Melkidoodum said. “And watching.”

  “Watching what?” Sam asked.

  “So many questions!” Noc Noc said. “Why are you so nosy today?”

  “I’m just showing interest in you guys.”

  “Why?” Melkidoodum asked.

  “Because I want you to know I’m genuinely interested in what’s going on with you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re all part of a team, and we should care about each other to some degree at least.”
>
  “Why?”

  “Because...” Sam stopped, and sighed. “You know, maybe it’s better if I go do something else.”

  “That would be best,” Noc Noc said. Melkidoodum nodded. They both smiled.

  Sam went home.

  Chapter 14

  The following morning was normal, by Sam’s standards. She awoke, fed Rupert, and went to the office. The sun was out and the sky was clear so she was in a pretty good mood. She was ready to face whatever challenges her email inbox could throw at her. She settled into her office and fired off replies to several important emails in rapid succession, then stumbled upon an email from Jess. As she read it, her eyebrows gradually rose higher and higher. She reached for her phone to call Jess, and found her standing at the door with a self-satisfied expression on her face.

  “A television interview?” Sam said. “Jess, have you lost your damn mind?”

  “It’s called PR, honey,” Jess said. “You’re going to have to get used to it now.”

  “I thought that’s why I hired you,” Sam said.

  “Wrong,” Jess said. “You hired me to handle the marketing, not be the face of the company. As the CEO that’s still your job. I can field a few information requests and put out press releases, but the big media wants the classic American business tale straight from the founder. If you want the company to get more exposure, you’ve got to put yourself out there.”

  “I wouldn’t even know what to say,” Sam said.

  “Just be yourself,” Jess said. “This is really quite simple. They ask a question, you answer it. Repeat steps one and two for a while, then everybody packs up and goes home.”

  “Why do we even need to do this? We’re doing great without me in front of the press.”

  “We could be doing better,” Jess said. “And an interview with the creative force behind the runaway success of Better Timepieces is a big win for this network. And it’s a great way to get us more exposure which leads to more sales...which leads to a raise for me.”

  Sam smiled.