Clockwork Dreams

I couldn’t come up with a book review for today, so I decided to run a rough editing job over an excerpt of my current manuscript project and let you all read it.

But first, a few disclaimers.

1. This is a rough edit of the first draft. As a result, the final result may end up very different, so if you end up reading the book (whenever it’s done) don’t expect it to be exactly the same. There may be more, or less, or something entirely different. I just wanted to post something today.
2. I like dramatic cliffhanger cuts for excerpts. If you don’t, I apologize.
3. There will be typographical and grammatical errors. Expect them and don’t bother to tell me that they’re there.
4. If you like it, please post a comment!

I was startled out of my preoccupation by the door opening and a torrent of excited voices flooding into the room. Stretching with a yawn, I glanced at the time and realized with surprise that it was almost 11 o’clock. I’d been sitting there for five hours. I looked back down and realized with even greater surprise that the pile of loose parts had shrunk by at least two thirds. Apparently I was better at this than I’d thought.
“Chaaarlotte, have you really just been sitting in here? What’s that?”
Anne, the social butterfly, was distracted from her self-appointed role of Dragger of Unwilling People to Bars by the watch lying in front of me. I was only too happy to run with the tangent.
“It’s an old broken watch. I’ve been playing around with it to learn how it works.”
“Do you think you can fix it?” Vera was leaning over curiously now, too.
I hesitated. Before, I would’ve laughed and said no, of course not, I’ve never done this before. But now… I looked down at the watch, the seemingly incomprehensible clockwork, and the amount that I’d already done. I shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe if I’m lucky. I seem to be so far.”
“Ooh, Charlotte is going to run off and live her dream of being a London watchmaker!” Anne giggled and gave me an enthusiastic hug, ignoring my weak protests. “Okay, I’ll let you stay home and play with your new toy just this once. Tomorrow,” she glared at me with mock sternness, “you will come out and have fun with us.”
“Fun? What fun?” She continued her glare, crossing her arms for added emphasis. “Okay, okay. Tomorrow. I promise.”
“Yay!” Anne did her victory dance, then grabbed Vera by the hand. “Come on, let’s go back and find Kathy before she runs off with another handsome Brit. Good luck, Char!”
“I really hate that nickname, you know…” The door slammed behind her as she dragged the resigned Vera back out the door. She never did listen to things like that, I thought with a wry grin.
I turned back to the watch and carefully found where I had left off, picking through the interlocking teeth and layers. Time passed unheeded as I traced the paths of motion and sifted through the shrinking pile of gears. I was picking up a gear and carefully fitting it in when I abruptly realized I hadn’t actually followed it through to that point yet. A quick backtracking through the gear connections revealed that yes, it was the right place. It also made me realize that somehow, I seemed to have subconsciously figured out where everything whent. I sat blinking at the clockwork for at least a minute, wondering to myself how the hell I had figured it out?
“Maybe I’m some sort of mechanical genius?”
The idea sounded just as ridiculous out loud as it had in my head, and I laughed at myself. Well, it can’t possibly hurt to follow my crazy mind’s suggestions, right? After all, it was already broken.

It only took another ten minutes to fit the rest of the parts in, and it was with a keen sense of anticipation that I finally re-attached the back of the case. “Okay, Charlotte. If this doesn’t work, you have no right to be disappointed.” I would probably be disappointed anyway, despite my well-meaning self-caution. Oh well. I wound it up carefully, four times, and paused to listen carefully. To my surprise and delight, I heard a steady ticking from inside the case. It wasn’t a regular tick-tock like a normal watch, though. Instead, it was some sort of complex rhythm which seemed oddly familiar, like a melody you know you’ve heard before but can’t remember when or where.
I flipped open the case and looked inside. The hands on all five pivots were spinning, all at different paces, tracing an intricate dance beneath the glass.
Then it pulled me through the floor.

Tags: reading, writing

This entry was posted by Inventrix on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 11:37 and is filed under Creativity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.