Conroy returned to his breakfast quite intrigued and absently ate his toast without really tasting it. At 7:30 that evening he got his topcoat, hat, and cane. His stable boy had his buggy and horse waiting for him in the front of the house. He lit a lantern and hung it from the side since the night fog was beginning to swirl thru the streets. The clip clop of the pony’s hoofs rattled on the cobblestones with a muffled lonesome sound as he rode thru the deepening fog. Occasionally another horse and buggy would materialize out of the fog as if it was a spectre rising from the ground. He finally reached the James manor house and pulled up out front. James ran out the door dressed only in his breeches and a ruffled shirt. “You are going to catch your death from cold”, the Dr. chided. But James just laughed and asked his butler to lead the Dr’s horse and buggy around back.
“Come in come in”, exclaimed James in a high excited voice! Conroy alighted from the buggy and the butler led the horse away. James and Conroy entered the house and James asked “would you like a spot of brandy?” Conroy chilled from the drive said, “that would suit me right down to the ground.” James took Conroy’s topcoat, hat, and cane and tossed them carelessly on a divan in an antechamber; they have been friends a long time. Both men strode into a parlour with a roaring fire in a fireplace. James dribbled brandy into two glasses and both men sat savouring their drink as they stared silently into the fire.
Suddenly James said, “I bet you are wondering why I asked you over?” Conroy didn’t answer right away as he finished the last drop a very fine brandy. Finally he said “It seemed important and anyway it is good to share a brandy with an old friend.” James said, “Come on lets go! I have something to show you”. Reluctantly the good doctor arose reluctantly from the warmth of the fireplace, it had been a cold ride over, and followed James.
James pause by a set of double French doors with the glass blacked out. This was rather unusual and made the doors look tacky thought Conroy. James threw the doors wide and a marvel of wires, glowing glass tubes, sparks gaps, and other unknown apparatus met his eyes. “This must have cost you a fortune”, gasped Conroy as he took it all in. “No matter”, said James. “I plan on presenting my finding to the Royal Observatory in the spring”. Conroy looked puzzled and exclaimed, “I didn’t know you were a member of the Observatory”, with a slight frown on his face. “No matter”, said James “money can buy me an audience.” Conroy thought to himself, getting that audience may be much harder that James was so blithely purporting. The Staff at the Royal Observatory were all wealthy in their own right and would not be easily coerced by money. However, he said nothing as his fascination grew with all of the apparatus filling the room.
“What is that”, he almost shouted as he saw an eerily green glowing gas inside a tube as if a vaporous spirit had been trapped in there. That is a “Crookes tube”, laughed James. “But this is what I wanted you to see!” James blurted out. He picked up a small cherry wood box a little larger than a cigar box. It was open on one end and inside it reflected the flickering light. James handed the box to Conroy who then saw that the inside walls were covered with copper plate. James was sorely puzzled; had he come all this way on a cold foggy night to see a box of cherry and copper?
James said. “This is the key!” Key, thought Conroy? It’s only a box. How can this be a key? James said, “This is the prototype the other one is outside”. “Let’s go and see”. He led Conroy out back and Conroy’s jaw dropped in amazement! James had strung the copper cable into a pattern like a giant spider had been busy weaving her web between the trees. It sagged in the middle making it look like a giant porous bowel. “What in the world?” is all he said as his voice trailed off into silence. James said. “I patterned this on a spider web I saw in the garden but that is not what I wanted you to see. Look up!” Conroy looked up and saw another box like the one he had just been holding hanging over this metal web. There was a wire leading from it into the house.
James said, “Let’s get back inside. I want to show you more.” By this time the good doctor’s brain was whirling like the electric pinwheel in the equipment room. James led him back thru the apparatus room to a side door Conroy had not noticed. James opened the room and he saw brass clocks of all shapes, sizes, and kinds with their pendulums whirling and swaying making his head whirl even more. On a desk in the middle of the room he saw an intricate brass, silver, and gold orrey that would chart the position of the sun, moon, and planets. Behind it was a Tellurian that showed the phases of the moon, seasons, and eclipses. On the other side of the desk stood an armillary sphere. Between all these instruments was a pile of open notebooks showing lists and lists of numbers in columns along with many a mathematical formula.
The doctor was sorely puzzled. What was James up too? James said, “over here. I converted a Barograph to work with electrical impulses.” James saw yards and yards of chart paper with a little squiggle line on it. What could all this mean he thought? James said, “Remember that cherry box? I found that by altering the dimensions to a specific size I was able to get a maximum reflection from the copper. That is the dimension I used for the box hanging over the web of copper. I wanted to see if I could detect the aether that is supposed to surround us. But to my surprise I could only see the aether at specific intervals! It seems every three days the chart barely picked up something every 94 minutes that was only 2 minutes in length and increased in intensity and strength to about 14 minutes and then tapered back to 2 minutes as it grew faint again. I was sorely puzzled because every three days, the signal started about 12 minutes earlier.”
“I spent weeks beating my head against the wall trying to figure out a pattern from all the clocks and instruments. At first I though it was tied to eclipses, or phases of the Moon, but I could not find any pattern. “it struck me like a lightning bolt as I was fiddling with the armillary sphere. This signal follows the stars!” Conroy was confused and he said, “Follows the stars?” James said, “Remember that the stars rise about four minutes earlier every day? This is why the signal moves 12 minutes every three days, it follows the star rise!”
Conroy became rather afraid. “Are you sure you are picking up the aether?” he said “What if you are picking up the spirit world?” James laughed out loud, “Oh come on doctor, this is a science experiment not a séance.” Conroy was not convinced. He said, “As a physician I have been present at many a death and I have seen things that would curl your hair. People screaming like demons as their faces froze in abject horror for all time as they died. Others would sigh and whisper how beautiful. Laugh all you want but I have seen first had evidence of a spirit world.”
Conroy then went on to ask James, “Why would this signal only appear every three days?” James replied, “I cannot fathom what is going on. There seems to be no correlation between any planet, sun, or moon to suggest a three day interval. All I have been able to work out is that it is tied somehow with the star rise.”
“Well it’s late” exclaimed Conroy “and I must me getting home. Emma Tyler is expecting her morning constitution and I cannot be late.” “Of course let me show you out.” James rang a little silver bell to summon the butler. “Conroy is leaving would you be so kind as to bring around his horse and buggy.” As Conroy gathered his hat, cane, and coat, he said. “I urge you to stop. You are meddling with the unseen world and I have a terrible premonition that you could bring down horrors that have not been seen since the beginning of the world.” James again laughed and said,”It is only a signal from a cherry and copper box!”
The doctor shivered to the bone all the way home even though the night was not that cold.
Conroy though little of James’s experiment for the rest of the week as he was kept busy buy the various ailments of the local noblemen and their families. Thru the week he was looking forward to seeing James at the opera that coming Saturday. Thursday evening he heard a knock on the door. It was James. “Come in Come in” Conroy said excitedly. “Let me take your coat.” James declined saying, �
�I have no time but wish to convey my apologies in advance for not being able to make the opera”. Conroy cried out, “why not?” James smiled “Remember the signals get stronger every three days. Well this Saturday evening the signal will be at its maximum and I intend to send a signal in return from my spark gap using the box over the copper web to see what happens. This coming Saturday I have given the servants a three day holiday leaving me alone to accomplish my experiment in peace.” Conroy cried out in dismay, “James I beg of you not to do that. What if you bring a spirit down upon your house?” James smiled again, “my mind is made up so don’t try to talk me out of it.” As he headed towards the door James looked back. “Do not worry I will be careful” and with a wry smile he left.
On Saturday Conroy enjoyed the opera most thoroughly with the only blemish being his friend was not alongside of him. He heard nothing from James the next morning or even the following evening. Becoming concerned he was determined to cancel his Monday morning appointments and go to visit James.
When he walked up the walk the front door was shut and locked. He pounded on the door calling out James’s name. But there was no answer. With a trembling fear he circled the house to the back garden where to his amazement the copper web was gone along with the little cherry box. He started and began to tremble as he suddenly noticed that each tree that the copper had been tied to was gone. He walked over to where one of the trees used to stand and found a small pile of gray ash. His heart was pounding like a hammer as he realized this ash used to be that huge tree. Not one blade of grass next to where the tree stood was harmed. What could vaporize a tree without scorching the ground around it he wondered?
As he turned around he saw a perfect circle cut into the back of the house. He approached with rubbery legs and as he got closer he noticed that this circle cleaved thru a rear window leaving the remaining glass cut in a perfect curve matching the hole. With great fear he stepped thru the hole and found all of the electrical apparatus gone. The side door was open and the orrey, notebooks and other instruments were gone as well. The room was in complete disarray like there had been a violent a struggle. He screamed “James” over and over as he ran thru the house, but there was no sign of James anywhere. Finally exhausted he returned the side room and saw a small piece of paper ripped out of a notebook trapped under an overturned chair. He picked up the paper and put it in his pocket. Then he ran down the street to find a constable.
For many years people would still whisper about the disappearance of James. The house was never sold and finally burned to the ground. A small park was built on the grounds since there was not a brave enough soul to live on that cursed ground.
Years later late at night when all was quiet Conroy would sometimes hold that piece of paper in the lamplight. His hands would tremble so badly he would unheedingly spill more of his drink on the floor than would reach his lips. The writing on the paper has faded over the years but was still readable. In James’s handwriting two hastily scribbled words that said:
They’re Here
A witch’s familiar is a powerful creature but even they have their limits.
The Best of Creatures
(Epilogue to The Life and Adventures of Thaddeus R. Turnbuckle Attorney at Law)
© 2011, Jonathan David Baird
I am going to kill that Dwarf. I am going to rip out his intestines and eat his spleen. The Pig that everyone called Prig thought to himself. If a look could kill that was the look he was giving the Dwarf at that moment. Not only was he a pig he was bond by some kind of magical force to that two bit tramp of a secretary. Ouch, that hurt, thought Prig. He could barely think an evil thought towards that girl without his brain exploding in pain so he focused his anger back at the Dwarf. The insufferable, stingy, prissy waste of skin that was a Dwarven lawyer. Prig had fallen on hard times, hard times indeed. He had once been a Senator and had aspirations towards the White house. But that Dwarf and …..that oh so wonderful girl… had stopped him. Prig knew he could deceive the magic bond just a bit by thinking kind thoughts about her. How had they turned him into a Pig? He didn’t know. He doubted the Dwarf did it, that bumbler could barely summon a dust devil but the girl she had some kind of wild talent for magic something that came to her when she was in danger or was excited. She must have done this to him, curse that bitc…..that Dwarf, yes I hate that Dwarf and when I get the chance I’ll eat his eyes right out of his sockets.
Kate Turner had found the pig in a pit full of mud after she and Thaddeus had escaped a group of crazed cultists. She had been amused greatly to see a pig surrounded by mud trying it’s best to walk on its tiptoes so not to get dirty. Prig was the name she had given the prissy porcine and it fit him to a tee. She wondered if he had wandered away from a farm and she thought if he did he had been a pet pig because he was a very picky eater as well as being prissy to the extreme. She looked down at Prig; he had gained a lot of weight since she found him going from a piglet to almost two feet tall in the last couple months. If he kept growing she was going to have to keep him outside and she knew that was going to be a chore.
Prig saw the snake. It was hidden under the desk right by Kate’s feet.
The snake coiled itself and made ready to strike at Kate. Every ounce of Prig was awash with emotion something deep inside wanted him to leap between her and the poisonous viper but his rational mind wanted the girl hurt and dead if the snake could accomplish the task. The pig literally writhed with pain his head almost bursting with the effort to control his own limbs. The snake hissed before it began its strike and Kate turned her head for the first time seeing the deadly menace under the desk. As the snake lunged toward her exposed leg Prig leaped to her defense grasping the snake in his jaw behind the base of the head. Prig’s razor sharp teeth neatly detached the snakes head and it rolled away under the desk its deadly smile now a permanent grimace. Almost instinctually prig gobbled up the body of the creature and Kate now recovered from the sight stroked Prigs back and neck thanking him for saving her. Prig was awash in a feeling of adulation. He had hated the girl for what she had done to him but he basked in this new warmth that washed over him as she cooed “Good Prig, you’re such a good boy saving me from that awful snake.”
It was almost like the body prig inhabited had two minds. One the lawless Senator who had sought to sacrifice this girl to a rapacious demon in order to secure his place in the White House, the other a loyal companion whose mind while not as articulate as the Senator nevertheless could override the body when she was in danger or even cause the senator pain when he thought ill of her.
He wanted to howl with rage and exasperation. The Girl was a menace and had destroyed his plans, his life, and had killed his one last chance to make a real mark on the world. As president he had wanted to bring the country into the 20th century he wanted school reform with every student exposed to thurmaturgical studies at a young age. Magic was the future and to realize that future young minds need to have that exposure. He also wanted nothing short of total social and economic parity, too many children starved or were forced to work long hours in appalling factory conditions while the rich got richer off the labor of their backs. Wasn’t all that worth the sacrifice of one small girl who wasn’t even from this world? Wasn’t that worth the loss of his eternal soul to damnation if he left this world knowing he had used evil against itself to build a greater society? The greater good would have prevailed if only he was in office. Prig the pig once the senior Senator from the state of Tennessee sighed in Kate’s arms and she hugged him tight.
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Monsters, Magic, and Machines (The SteamGoth Anthology Book 1) Page 12