A/N I think I’m going to slide this chapter between the last
two? I’m not sure, but it takes place while Ivy’s at Nikki’s house.
~1040 words
Grey
Grey tinkered with his own invention, turning gears first
this way, then that, watching as parts moved up and down. It had spindly legs,
almost like Gidgit, if Gidgit had the precision of a ballerina and not a
somewhat clumsy, autonomous spider. Grey watched as no matter how he manipulated
the machine, the spindles never got caught and tangled together. It was almost
complete.
“What do you have there?” came Alder’s voice from behind
him.
“N-nothing,” said Grey, stuffing the machine in the pocket
where Gidgit was currently hiding. “Just fixing up Gidgit a bit.”
“Alright,” said Alder, considering Grey out of the corner of
his eye. “But aren’t you supposed to be working on our big project?”
“Well, you see, I ran out of 14 mm bolts, and I figured I’d
just pick some more up after I get home from lamp lighting.”
Alder grunted. “I don’t like to see you slacking Grey. I get
the feeling you aren’t taking this danger seriously. The dark mountain is
rumbling, my boy. The skies will fill with fire. The crops will fail and we
will starve. No one will dare open the door for fear of the monster that lurks
without. Children will suffocate in their beds, women will—”
“Okay! Okay! I get it. You’ve only told me a million times!
I gotta get to work. Be back later with those bolts.” Grey practically ran out
of the room, pausing only to grab his lamplighter’s pole and hat.
--
Grey drifted through the streets, lighting lamp after lamp
as the sun set. Sometimes, he met another lamplighter at a crossroads. When
this happened, he gave them a friendly wave, and they would both continue their
separate ways, but mostly, he was left to himself. He thought about many things
each night. Mostly machines. Well, machines… and Ivy. He knew it was silly to
daydream, but he couldn’t help it. It was pleasant to think of her smile, and
he felt butterflies in his stomach when he thought of spending all day tomorrow
with her. And work went quickly as he daydreamed. Soon, he was at his final
assigned lamppost. Tommy was already waiting for him, leaning against the lamp.
Tommy was one of Grey’s only friends. Grey’s final lamppost
was right next to Tommy’s final lamppost, and one night, they’d happened to finish
at the same time and started talking. Tommy was around Grey’s age, seventeen or
eighteen, though he could have been older.
“What kept you?” Tommy asked, running a hand through his
messy, mousy hair. The bridge of his small, pointed nose was heavily freckled.
“Just thinking,” Grey said evasively.
“About that Gypsy again?” Tommy’s perpetual smirk seemed to
amplify, showing his sharp, crooked teeth.
“Don’t call her that,” Grey snapped.
“That’s what she is though, eh?”
“It’s not a very nice term. But yeah, I guess I have been
thinking about Ivy.”
“You need to ask her out already, man! Stop being so bleedin’
dreamy and just do it.” Tommy pulled out a roll of something—Grey never asked
what—and held it to his still-lit lamp-lighting pole. He stuck the roll between
his teeth, foul-smelling smoke already wafting toward Grey, and extinguished the
wick at the end of the pole.
“I need to pick up some bolts. You can come along or stay
and smoke. I don’t really care,” Grey said, trying to change the subject. Of
course, he knew Tommy would walk with him.
“You think I can’t smoke and walk at the same time?” They
headed off toward the metal shop. “But seriously, when are you gonna ask her?”
“I dunno. I think I blew it last time. She seemed… I dunno,
all uncomfortable just to be near me. I don’t have a chance.”
“That was just your self-doubt, don’t worry. You’re a catch.
You have the ladies swooning over you everywhere you go!” Tommy gestured widely across the street, his
cigar leaving a trail of smoke in the air.
Grey glanced down at Tommy, who was a full foot shorter than
him, and took in his grimy, smirking face; pale, bulging eyes; and dirty,
claw-like fingernails. He thought, a
catch compared to you, maybe, but instead he said, “maybe you’re right.”
“Of course I am, Lennox Grey! I’m right about everything.
Have I been wrong yet?”
Yes, thought Grey,
but said nothing.
“Here’s what you gotta do,” Tommy said. “You had her help
you build that little machine you’re making, right?”
“Yeah? So what?” Grey said suspiciously.
“Well you’re planning on using it yeah?”
“What’s it to you if I am? You’re not invited, and you’re
not getting any of the goods that comes from it.”
Tommy made a placating gesture. “I’m not in on this for the
swag. I’m simply suggesting maybe you could ask her to help you test it?”
“She wouldn’t like that.”
“Who’s to say if she won’t? I bet you didn’t think you’d like stealing until you tried it.”
Tommy cocked an eyebrow.
“I suppose you have a point.”
“So it’s simple! Wait until she’s over helping you with that
machine, and finish it with her. Then you can go out and try it and boom! It’s
a date! Problem solved!” Tommy accentuated this end with a flick of his cigar.
“I guess I’ll try that. I’ll have to wait until Thursday,
though. That’s the day she’s got to come alone. Nikki stays up at her farm that
day. Seems so long to wait, though,” Grey moaned.
“Didn’t you just meet these girls last week? Settle down
there, Cassanova. You’ll break all the ladies’ hearts in this town if you’re
not more careful with who you fall in love with. I’ve never met such a lovesick
boy.” Tommy regarded Grey with disgust.
“I’m not usually like this!” Grey protested.
“Sure, sure,” said Tommy. “And I’m not the only man of
substance in this town.” He raised his lamplighting pole like a king’s scepter.
“Huzzah to being young, beautiful and free from care!” he shouted at the night.
A shuttered window above them crashed open. “Shut yer face,
yeh hooligans!” an old lady yelled at the two of them.
Yes the ladies sure
are swooning over us, Grey thought.
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