Clockwork Chaos

by C. J. Henderson

  “An inventor? Is that how you bought this lovely home? Have you had anything patented?” she asked, stepping closer.

  Cecil nodded proudly. “Yes, indeed. And I’ve had two inventions patented, and three pending. And one showing at the upcoming Expo.”

  The Expo! Elizabeth’s heart soared, and she ran forward, stopping a bit too close to Cecil.

  “You could sponsor me! I have an invention that I’ve been working on for ages. It still has some kinks, but I can surely have it done in time for the Expo!”

  Cecil grinned. “I would love to... but I can’t sponsor something, sight unseen.”

  “Of course not. If you could come by my house for tea tomorrow, I could show you some of my work.”

  With a polite, small bow, he said, “I would be delighted.”

  Elizabeth had spent the rest of that day talking with Cecil about his many complete inventions and a few that were not so complete. He seemed delighted to have someone with whom he could converse about such things, and she, likewise, was just as thrilled.

  So as soon as tea at her home was finished the following day, she had lost no time in ushering Cecil up toward her room, Gerald following of course. Once inside, he complimented the décor, which she immediately let him know her utter hatred of it.

  “Oh, lovely,” he said with a laugh. “Because it really is quite horrid.”

  Standing with her back to the bed and trying her best not to bounce, girlishly, on the balls of her feet, she grinned.

  “I’m about to show you something I’ve not shown anyone, save for Gerald here, of course. He was my very first invention!” she whispered almost feverishly.

  “He?”

  “Chipper! Come out and meet Cecil!” she called.

  A little uncertain chitter followed. Elizabeth turned toward its source and began to try and coax her clockwork friend out. Eventually, Cecil stepped forward and said, “Please. I would very much like to meet you, Chipper.”

  Scampering forward and scaling her gown, Chipper the Clockwork Chipmunk came to a rest on Elizabeth’s shoulder. Cecil gasped in surprise.

  “Amazing!” he said, stepping forward to examine Chipper’s every gear and casing.

  “I’m sewing his covering using fur from deceased chipmunks that I’ve found. Ghastly, I know, but poor Chipper deserves proper coverings.”

  “I quite agree,” Cecil said, straightening. “And you say this is your first invention? It’s head and shoulders above my silly little walking-stick-that-walks, which was my first invention.”

  Elizabeth laughed and Chipper chittered merrily in her ear.

  “What is your second invention?”

  “Well, I build machines for clients on the side, which I started shortly after I built Chipper. But I don’t count them. Instead, I count this.”

  Reaching behind her bed, she snatched CAT from its hiding spot. A meow from somewhere around her pillow sounded, and Elizabeth absently reached over to scratch Bella behind the ear.

  “This is Bella,” she said, gesturing to the calico. “And this is CAT. It means Chapeau of Animal Translation.”

  “Clever. Talk me through it.”

  And she did just that, explaining everything from its inception to the kinks she kept encountering. Finally, she ended with explaining her parents’ feelings on her “tinkering.”

  “They don’t believe it’s proper, that I ought to stop. They don’t know about Chipper or CAT, only the failures I’ve had before. They don’t know about my extra coin either. If they knew that I wished to participate in the Expo they would be furious.”

  “Nonsense,” Cecil said, still eyeing CAT. “This is a sound device that only needs a bit more rethinking. And Chipper is simply delightful. And luckily for you, you don’t need parental permission, only a paying sponsor. And I, personally, would be honored to sponsor you. And, should you like, I would love to help you work out the kinks in CAT.”

  The next few weeks were something of a happy blur. Every day, Cecil would come to have tea with the Nigels and would then go straight from that to working on CAT with Elizabeth. This, of course, the Nigels knew nothing about. The Chapeau’s workings changed almost constantly during the weeks, and a few times ended up with Elizabeth taking Cecil to Russell’s shop at the Dockside Markets—which had fascinated him.

  And in the backdrop of all of this were the preparations for the wedding, which was slated to take place the day right after the Expo—again, something that the Nigels knew nothing about. But Cecil and Elizabeth choose not to discuss their impending marriage, instead diverting all talk to that of the Expo and CAT. Eventually, this led to Cecil sharing the whole reason why the Expo was even coming to this city.

  “I don’t mean to sound too self-proud, but it is because of me. Some wealthy investors have taken some interest in my works and wished to see more. Thus, they chose to fund the Expo if only I were to show something new.”

  Elizabeth had said that she was quite all right with this explanation. She did not care what brought the Expo to her city, only that it came. She had never been more motivated to work on CAT in her life.

  Finally, the afternoon before the day of the Expo, after many gear switches and tube replacements and power source checks on the Chapeau, they decided that this was the final straw. If all their work over the past weeks had not succeeded on making CAT operational, then nothing ever would. The early morning birds chirped brightly on a limb outside Elizabeth’s window as Bella sat, attentive, at the foot of her bed. Chipper was sitting upon Cecil’s shoulder, his little gears practically quivering with excitement.

  “Here it goes,” Elizabeth said, placing the Chapeau upon her loose curls.

  She pulled the goggles of the strange headdress down over her eyes and crossed her arms over her work-suit-covered chest. Cecil’s breath was slow and deliberate as he stood forward and pushed the small, red button at the back of CAT to activate its power source.

  The gears whirred, the tube made an odd sucking noise, and the whole hat seemed to hum. Elizabeth waited, staring hard at Bella, waiting to hear her “voice.”

  But nothing came. Sighing, she reached up to remove the hat... and paused. Voices, two of them, were coming from outside her bedroom window.

  “Oy, get your own branch!” one voice yelled.

  “I was ’ere first, mate!” the other cried back.

  Her eyes widened as she ran toward the window, glancing about the street below. None stood below her window. Her heart swelled.

  “Liza? Is it working?” Cecil asked.

  She ignored him for the moment, trying to make her eyes focus in on the source of the words.

  “Watch it!” the first voice cried.

  The two birds that had been chirping so merrily were now bouncing off each other in the air, fighting. And it was clear. The voices she was hearing... were theirs!

  “It’s working!” she cried joyfully, and Cecil and Chipper both made their own celebratory sounds.

  She turned her attention back on her cat. Now was the time to test and see if animals could understand her now.

  “Bella, can you understand me?” she asked aloud.

  Bella’s little head cocked to the right.

  “Yes. What’s that weird thing on your head, Liza? And how come I can understand all your words instead of just some?” the cat replied.

  Now Elizabeth was bouncing and clapping for joy, repeating over and over, “It works! It works!”

  Finally, after a few moments of not having her question answered, Bella the cat sighed. “Fine. Don’t explain it to me. I’m just happy that you will now call me by my name instead of that dreadful ‘here, kitty, kitty.’”

  She explained, rather hurriedly, CAT to Bella before removing the invention from her head.

  “Congratulations,” Cecil said.

  “Thank you,” she blushed, smiling.

  “You should tell your parents.”

  Elizabeth’s smile vanished. Hugging the Chapeau close, she shook h
er head.

  “They would be furious,” she muttered.

  “Perhaps, at first. My parents weren’t all that thrilled when I decided to become an inventor, myself. But success helps, and this is most certainly a success. Perhaps, once they see it...?”

  Elizabeth sighed. “They wouldn’t care for my success. All they care about is what is proper for a Lady.”

  “But will you try? For me?”

  Smiling softly at him, she nodded. “Only once... for you.”

  The next morning, the morning of the Expo, Elizabeth descended the stairs with CAT tucked under her arm and Chipper on her shoulder. Needless to say, this was quite a shock to Mary and William.

  “What in the name of our Lord and Savior is all that?” her father exclaimed, his eyes looking too big for his head.

  With a deep breath, she explained everything. She began, diplomatically, with her deep love of inventing. From there, she moved on to the creation of Chipper, and from there, the creation of the Chapeau—she assumed that they still need not know about her workings for extra coin. Finally, she ended with the Expo. By the end of it all, Mary and William looked like they had both sucked the juice of a lemon.

  “Absolutely not,” William breathed, letting out as little air as possible.

  Elizabeth’s eyes widened. But why was she so shocked? Had she really believed her parents to be as accepting of their daughter as Cecil’s had been of their son?

  “You will not show at this... Expo,” William forbade.

  Elizabeth shook her head. “This isn’t fair. CAT works, and you’re looking at Chipper. I’m good at this. I should be allowed—”

  But Mary cut her off. “‘Should be allowed?’ The only things that you should be allowed to do is what your father and I tell you! Now, your father says you will not show at this silly Expo, and you will not show. To your room! This instant!”

  Elizabeth felt the sting of tears in her eyes, but held them back. Whirling, she fled back up the stairs where she slammed her door behind her. With a growl, she fought the urge to throw CAT from her. Chipper slowly slid down her sleeve, jumping the rest of the way to the floor.

  “How dare they treat me like some sort of insolent child! Like some insignificant being! Well, I’m going, despite what they say,” she muttered to no one in particular.

  Chipper chittered nervously, while Bella stared on in confusion.

  Elizabeth allowed the hours to pass, as the Expo was being held in the early afternoon. She had placed the Chapeau upon her head and worked out a plan with Bella as to how to escape the house. She had ordered that Chipper stay put. Bella had assured Elizabeth that she could sneak out, at which point she could meet her two houses down the street. Thus, the plan was made.

  As the clocks in the house were chiming three, Elizabeth—with Bella already having snuck out—climbed down the trellis just below her window. Her boots hit the ground with barely any noise and she lost no time in running down the street, careful to keep out of sight as went. Once she had found Bella, she instructed her cat that she would carry her the rest of the way to the Expo. Of course, the pampered animal did not argue.

  She arrived to meet Cecil just outside of the Expo, only a few minutes later than planned. He did not seem to mind, and only ushered her gently into line. He explained that since his was the prize attraction, that he should do the talking to gain her a place within the large stone building. Elizabeth was too out of breath to argue.

  Finally, they arrived at the table that had been set up outside the building’s main entrance; the hosts of the Expo—two men of obviously high status that Elizabeth simply did not know—gave her a strange look. Of course, she was still wearing her own invention atop her head and held a very grumpy-looking calico cat in her arms. But Cecil coughed, dragging the men’s attention to him.

  “Gentlemen, I am Lord Cecil Waltham, and I would like to sponsor this young woman’s entrance into the Expo,” he declared.

  There was a brief pause as both hosts exchanged glances. Both men wore similar suits of gray and had similar haircuts and bushy mustaches. The only instantly recognizable difference between the two was that the one on the right had bright red hair and the one of the left had ebony locks. Finally, clearing his throat, the red-haired one spoke.

  “I’m so sorry, milord, but she’s missed the entrance deadline. I’m afraid she won’t be able to show,” he boomed so loudly that Elizabeth was sure that the whole line behind her must have heard.

  “What?” Cecil asked incredulously. “That’s preposterous!”

  The ebony haired one shook his head. “Those are the rules, I’m afraid.”

  Elizabeth sighed and went to move out of the line when Cecil stopped her. His eyes were set furiously upon the two hosts.

  “And I’m afraid that those aren’t the rules at all. There’s not even an application! All you must do is give the name of yourself and your invention. There is no deadline, excepting of course the close of the Expo.”

  Both men looked stunned, as did Elizabeth. The two hosts began to mutter incoherently, looking back and forth between themselves and Cecil. Finally, the red-headed one spoke again.

  “Very well. If we must be quite frank, sir, we do not want a woman to show here,” he explained.

  “What?” Elizabeth hissed.

  “What’s going on?” Bella asked, turning her furry head up at her mistress.

  “Nothing,” Elizabeth whispered, petting her. “I’ll explain later.”

  This garnered strange looks from the hosts, but both Elizabeth and Cecil ignored them.

  “That is positively ludicrous! I, myself, have seen her invention at work, and you just witnessed it yourselves! To not let her show on account of her gender is... is...”

  “Be that as it may, we believe that a woman inventor would simply be a waste of space, if you do so pardon my wording. I mean, who would want to buy any sort of machinery from a woman?” the ebony-haired host said, something of a laugh forming deep within his throat.

  Cecil’s mouth moved like a fish who had been pulled out of water. Finally, he closed his lips tightly together and smiled a smug smile.

  “Very well. Then I will not show. I herby withdraw my name.”

  “What?” the two hosts and Elizabeth said in unison.

  “That’s right. And what will your dear sponsors think of that? The one person they came here to see, and he’s pulled his name. Tell me, just how much would you be expected to refund to them?”

  The two hosts looked as if their heads might explode. Finally, inevitably, they allowed Elizabeth to give her name to show at the Expo.

  They placed her in a small booth close to Cecil’s, who wished her the best of luck as he went to show his own invention. She was a bit nervous at first as people—a little more than what she had truly expected—stopped by to hear of CAT and give it a little go themselves. After the first hour, however, Elizabeth had never felt more at home. She had even managed a couple of buyers interested in investing in her Chapeau—which was a couple more than what she had expected. She had been by no means the hit of the Expo—that title clearly went to Cecil, whose booth was barely ever empty—but she had gained a proper amount of attention. And she could not have asked for more.

  So that night, when Cecil dropped Bella and she back at her house, she felt as if she could dance on air. She entered her home, forgetting entirely the means by which she had left. This lapse in memory was indeed momentary. She had gone no further than six paces when she came face to face with the angry forms of her father and mother.

  “Deliberately disobeyed us,” William Nigel hissed.

  “Absolutely disgraceful,” Mary put in, spitting the word from her lips.

  But Elizabeth would not let her night be ruined.

  “I don’t care,” she said firmly. “The Expo was wonderful, and I’m finally getting what I want for myself. If I had the chance, I would do it all again.”

  This seemed to anger them more than her sneaky esca
pe had. Mary strode forth.

  “How dare you! After we’ve spent all day, slaving away, decorating to give you the most fashionable outdoor wedding!”

  “I don’t want to get married.”

  Both parents paused.

  “Pardon?” William asked.

  “I do not wish to marry tomorrow. I barely know Cecil. We are just now comfortable around each other. I do not want to marry him.”

  Elizabeth had never seen her father so livid. Rushing forward, he shoved a thick finger into his daughter’s face.

  “Now listen here, young lady. You will do what we tell you, when we tell you. You are our child, and until such time that you are taken in by your husband, you will obey our rules. Now, to your room! You will marry Young Lord Waltham tomorrow, if I have no choice but to force you down that aisle myself!”

  Her chin quivered, but she would not cry again. Turning slowly, she ascended into her bedroom. She allowed Bella to jump from her arms to the floor, and gently placed CAT upon her dressing table. And she paused.

  Sitting there, in the center of the room upon a body form, was her wedding dress. It was beautiful gown of white, its corset body lightly embroidered. Its long train was arranged carefully about the bottom of the dress, some lace playfully showing behind. Walking toward it, she paused.

  “Everything they say I must do, I must do. But who says that I must do it in the same way?” she muttered. Turning, she called for Chipper.

  Once the chipmunk had appeared, she had him retrieve all the sewing materials and loose gears she had in her room. Removing her dress from her form, she sat upon her chair, needle poised and ready.

  “If I must marry tomorrow, then I will do so in my own way for once in my life,” she said to Chipper as he looked on curiously.

  And that night, Elizabeth would get no sleep at all. Finishing her newest project was far more important.

  The next day, all the guests were ready and seated in the Nigels’ beautiful rear garden. The bridal procession was ready, with tradition dictating that Elizabeth walk first. However, she decided that, for the big reveal of her little project, it would be best if Cecil went first. He did so with no complaint and only mild confusion. Arm-in-arm with Lady Mary Nigel, he approached the altar where he gently allowed the woman to go to her seat. He turned, staring back up the aisle as a little furry creature emerged and ran toward him. Upon closer inspection it was a tiny chipmunk, its fur gleaming and silky in the afternoon sun. It scaled Cecil’s trousers and sleeve to come to rest on his shoulder. Then, a small whirring noise was heard as a tiny compartment open on its back and produced two wedding bands. Cecil’s eyes widened, as did those of the guests.