The Time Mechanic

by Victoria Bastedo

  Long minutes passed as he fiddled, and a drop of sweat fell on the tile in front of him.

  “Blast it!” he said, imitating Mars. He let loose a heavy sigh at last. He wiped his forehead and then sat on the rooftop, leaning against the short ledge on the next wall. Ffip slid down to sit beside him. Her eyebrows were raised in his direction but she kept any negative opinion to herself. Outside in Tonturin life was continuing on. The noon bell rang out from the bell tower near the center fountain. Finally he admitted to himself what had to be done.

  “Can you get a hold of Kannikey?” he asked. Ffip tilted her head again.

  “I know where she lives.”

  “Can you get down that ladder without being noticed, and down the stairs and out of this building?”

  The high dimple appeared.

  “Not many people notice me,” she replied.

  That wasn’t true, he thought. He could barely take his eyes off her.

  “It might be harder to remain invisible with Kannikey by your side when you return, but I’d like you to try. I need her to unlock this puzzle.”

  “What will you do while I’m gone getting her?”

  “I’ll wait. This roof top seems like it will remain deserted.”

  “Do you want me to bring Mars?”

  “No way could you hide his huge presence,” he growled. “If he wanted to be here, he’d be here,” he finished.

  She shook her head but got up.

  “Be careful,” he added.

  The smile she gave out stuck with him as he watched her slim form slip through the door and disappear from the roof. This time she was gone for far longer. Hours seemed to go by. Back and forth he paced across the rooftop, while below in the marketplace of Tonturin the city dwellers shopped, haggled, worked and chatted. The hum of the city could barely be heard. He thought of his uncle Tov suddenly. He wondered what he would think of Jeremy’s appointment as Time Mechanic. He bit his lip and pondered what to do. His uncle; he realized how much he cared about the man. He was like his own father for kindness and his strong work ethic. But Jeremy’s father had been always laughing- teasing, pranking and reacting to ordinary situations as if they were jokes being told to him. Only when his mother had died first had he lost that attitude.

  Jeremy pushed the old pain away. Tov had been just what he’d needed when he’d lost them, someone quiet and restful and patient. But he’d become far more since then; whether he was a new father-figure, a stalwart guardian or just a friend. Jeremy knew that to Tov, he was the son the man’s wife had refused to give him. He’d seen the love shining in the fellow’s eyes. He’d have to send a message at least before he left Tonturin. After all, it was possible he might never return.

  The thought of Tov’s feelings of loss if that happened caused his stomach to turn right over. He couldn’t bear the mental image of the man’s patience being paid out until he had no one left to be appreciative of it. For the first time he wondered if he had the right to go on this journey. Closer he walked along the rooftop, until he stood a few feet from the edge of the tall building and looked way down into the street below.

  There were some lads playing down there. They were kicking a ball down the street, up and down the curbstones, and high up into each other’s chests. They slipped behind wagons and weaved between shoppers like it was all a dance and they owned the movement and the city. A toddler saw them and Jeremy jumped a bit when the child tottered into the street after their ball, right into the path of an oncoming wagon. His heart beat fast when the larger boy jumped into place, grabbing up the child and pushing him out of the way.

  Jeremy realized he was seeing something familiar. It was a vision he was having and he’d lived through that experience. The lads he’d seen were himself and Mars and the time period was fifteen years ago when they’d been twelve. That toddler in the vision was now a teenaged boy because Mars had saved him back then. Jeremy thought it was odd to see a vision of himself. He didn’t look the way he pictured himself looking for he was thin, and his head was a mess of curls he didn’t remember having to comb through. Young Jeremy’s frantic eyes were seen up close when Mars disappeared falling behind the wagon; and the small child was crying in the background and being snatched up by the mother. But it was alright. Young Mars got up and waved, having received nothing more for his trouble than a large bleeding scrape across his elbow.

  Jeremy frowned as the vision cleared and he found himself on the ground. That scar was still on Mars’ arm today. In fact Mars had always been formulated that way— guarding people and protecting them from harm was an instinct for him instead of just an intention. Jeremy got up and stepped back from the ledge for he realized his vision had taken him when he was too close to falling over. He remembered the vision he’d had about the rules. Rule one was to keep secrets; Rule number two of being a Time Mechanic was that he had to allow whatever companions arose to help him. He admitted to himself that all morning he’d fully intended to leave Tonturin on his mission as Time Mechanic, and that he’d planned on slipping away before Mars and the others could find him. This afternoon he must act differently.

  The door to the roof opened and he turned around to see Ffip, Kannikey and even the large shoulders of Mars squeezing through the doorway. He narrowed his eyes but acquiesced. He waved them over. Soon they stood with him and stared down at the three tiles he pointed out.

  “It’s there,” he repeated to Kannikey a moment later.

  “I don’t see anything,” she said.

  “Along that line there, you slip your hand under the edge of those tiles until you click something. I’m not sure what but then the three tiles should lift up like a cupboard door. There’s a metal box underneath and something inside we need to see!”

  She was blinking at him in obvious skepticism but he pointed firmly at the tiles.

  “Well, you’re good at this sort of thing, aren’t you?” he demanded. “I tried but I couldn’t get the tiles to open!”

  She sighed but at last leaned over to fiddle with the tiles.

  “No need to send her off the roof, Jeremy!” protested Mars, grabbing hold of Kannikey’s forearm as Ffip had taken hold of his.

  “Just a moment,” muttered Kannikey, allowing the contact and fiddling beneath the line of tiles with her brow crinkled. It took her a few short seconds and then Jeremy heard it— that same click he’d heard in his vision. She looked back at him in surprise as the tiles lifted just like he’d said. They all moved to see. Kannikey opened the metal box.

  “Give me my bag,” she said to Ffip, and the girl handed over a large cloth bag that Kannikey had set down when they’d come over to the roof. “I’ll put the contents inside and then we can sneak out of here!” she said. She opened her bag and stuffed it until the metal box was empty. She shut the box, replaced the tile doorway with its hidden click, and then stood up in triumph.

  Chapter Seventeen (In Which Jeremy Pushes Too Far)

  “Wait a minute!” said Mars, once they’d turned and started for the door. “Jeremy, stop!”

  “Yes?”

  “What in the world are you doing?”

  “Getting out of here so we can see what was in that box.”

  Mars reached out in fury and grabbed his arm.

  “I mean, have you gone insane?” he demanded. “What you’re doing right now is stealing, or hadn’t you noticed?”

  Jeremy just stared at him.

  “I’m sure it’s all a very simple job for this girl to pull off,” Mars growled, glaring at Kannikey. “But I don’t intend to stand here and turn to burglary myself! What, have you decided to quit your job because you knew this big pay day awaited you up here? Perhaps your only problem was that you needed a skilled thief to help you carry it off! Have these last few days of insanity been nothing but a plan you put into motion, so you could recruit us as you turn to a life of crime?”

  “Now who’s sounding insane? If I wanted to recruit you, would I go about it in such an odd fashion?”
<
br />   “Oh, but you’re so smart aren’t you, Jeremy? Always the smartest man in the room! I wonder when it went to your head. Maybe you’ve been plotting and concocting these strange things for months. Maybe you’ve been angry with me for my supposed slight against you or something. You’ve mixed and measured and you drugged us and made us think we’d had a vision! Maybe those two fields of poison have something to do with you as well!”

  “Mars!”

  Jeremy felt the pain of the man’s accusation as if he’d hit him over the head with it like a beam. And he wasn’t the only person enraged by the man’s words.

  “I’m no professional thief!” Kannikey cried. “I’m not stupid enough to be carried off by a madman’s machinations either! And I’m getting tired of you thinking I’m worthless! You big wretch!”

  “Oh, and you were so proud of being a thief five minutes ago!” Mars bellowed right back.

  “I only steal from my stepfather— the stores he owns!” she shrieked in reply, her voice high. “Perhaps it’s wrong of me, but don’t you dare judge me when you don’t know what I’ve been through!”

  “You’ve only stolen from your stepfather, I see— until today! What are you doing right now?”

  “But Jeremy called us up here,” she stuttered. “He told me to get the items out of that box!”

  Mars grabbed his head and roared.

  “Jeremy!” he said. “I’m beginning to wish I’d never met this man!”

  “Mars, take that back!” Jeremy inserted. “You know I’m not some mastermind building concoctions against you! I wouldn’t drug you or manipulate you or try to ruin you. You know me better than anyone!”

  “All right, so I said those things to get under your skin. I admit it, but, you make me so mad sometimes! Those secrets you keep! If I feel the need to invent untrue accusations to force you to reveal your motivations, well, that’s your fault too!”

  “Keeping secrets doesn’t make me evil. I’m holding back not lying!”

  “Don’t you see the wrong in this situation though? You’re turning this girl to real thievery, destroying yourself, who knows what you plan to do to Ffip over this, and worse, you’ve shredded my respect for you!” Mars replied. “Why wouldn’t I mean every word?”

  Jeremy swallowed. He stared at the three people on the rooftop, and they seemed to waver in front of him. One by one their gazes shifted. Somehow inside their souls the compulsion released as they changed their minds about his mission and he saw it happen. He knew that now they could walk away without feeling the need to stay by his side.

  “Put that bag down, Kannikey,” he whispered. “I claim it and the contents. As for you three,” he forced himself to say; “you’re free to leave.”

  He picked up the bag and stood tall, although inside he was trembling.

  “You won’t let go of this crazy idea to steal this…” rumbled Mars, his voice thick.

  “It’s not stealing if the man who put it here intends to hurt other people with it,” said Jeremy.

  “And how do you know that?” Mars roared again. “For everything that matters, Jeremy, how in the world can you actually know that?”

  “I just do. Nothing has changed for me, you know, Mars. I can see that all of you are done being my assistants but I’m still the Time Mechanic. I intend to go my way and do what must be done, alone if need be. If new helpers arise so be it.”

  “Jeremy, you can’t ask us to go this far,” the man protested.

  “I’m not asking,” he said. “I’m telling you to follow and to go away if you won’t. If you can’t trust me, after all we’ve been through…”

  He’d just said the wrong thing. He saw the shutter go down behind the man’s eyes.

  “And did you trust me?” Mars flared, “A year and a half ago when Fiasca forced her unwelcome attentions on me. Did you trust me when I said I didn’t ask for them?”

  “I already admitted I was wrong about that, and I…”

  “No, let me go on! How about eleven years ago, then? After you’d lost your parents and gone to live with your Uncle Tov? You wouldn’t tell me what happened that night, would you? I know someone tried to kill you but you never said who, even though I begged! Did you trust me then?”

  Jeremy closed his eyes. He didn’t need a vision to happen in order to relive that memory. It was all as clear as a bell to him. How awful it had been, when he’d been given something to make him sleep and then he’d been smothered and cajoled. When he’d seen a side of greed and rage so twisted he thought he might be forever soiled with it if he said the words out loud. He found he couldn’t say them to this day. He shook his head.

  “You don’t want to know that,” he managed. “No one should have to know that, and I wouldn’t be helping you if I told you. A year and a half ago I was wrong and I regret it. But eleven years ago…, no. I haven’t told you that secret and good for me that I didn’t. Do you understand? I haven’t always been the best friend and I’m sorry. But I’m not lying to you now. Trust me, Mars. Please.”

  Jeremy held out his hand, and he looked from side to side. Two feminine faces completely caught up in the intensity of their confrontation. Two innocent young women, yes, he could see that Kannikey was innocent too despite her tough exterior. If Mars turned away it was best if they left, too, because the team would’ve lost its guardian. If Mars left… his attention was caught as Mars’ face convulsed with a small shiver. The man’s fists clenched until the skin around his knuckles went red and then white. But at last the fellow looked up and Jeremy saw that he’d lost.

  “I can’t,” Mars said. “I can’t let you destroy these girls’ lives, even if I allowed you to trample mine! You’ve gotten hurt or lost yourself for some other reason, I don’t know. I would’ve tagged along even so, Jeremy, except for this. Who knows what’s in the bag? Is it some poor fellow’s life savings? Or is it the benefit of life-wrecking vice? Don’t you see that breaking the law always has consequences even if you get away with it? Stolen wealth is jaded forever. It’s a line that can’t be crossed and you’re no friend if you’re demanding it of me!”

  “Unless I’m the Time Mechanic and I’m trying to stop deadly enemies,” Jeremy said, one last time.

  But they’d already begun to turn and leave him, and when Ffip faltered and looked behind her Mars took her hand and tugged her to the safety of the door. They opened it and left him alone on the roof with his bag of contraband.

  Jeremy tried to comprehend what had happened for several long moments. He’d lost everything so fast. His stomach bolted, wanting to reject the last contents of his long-ago breakfast. He felt pale down to his knees and looked longingly to the edge of the rooftop. For one alarming moment he wished he could fall off by accident so that a new Time Mechanic would arise. It wouldn’t be because he’d taken the coward’s way out.

  Instead he stumbled for the door, shut the sight of that dreadful roof behind it, slid down the ladder and, seeing there was no one about, hurried down the stairwell. It was lucky that the bank was nearby.

  Out in the street he rushed to the venerable bank building without pause. The bank didn’t like removing such a large withdrawal and the manager was called to verify his identity. Eventually he had his way. Every bit of money left from his parent’s estate, the money he’d made on the sale of the house he’d lived in growing up, and most of his salary from the past year and a half. It was a sizeable purse he left that building with. His pack was now full of his belongings, the money and the bag of contraband he’d stolen. He went to a messenger station and sent off the agreed upon amount to his previous landlords. He sent a goodbye note to his Uncle Tov, explaining that he was going on a journey to see the corners of the world he’d missed. He added that he was grateful to him for all he’d done and he loved him. Last he went to the livery and bought himself a horse. Leading the animal out of town he stopped at a tavern near the end of the largest main street and took a room for the night at the Inn attached. He still had to figure out how
to burn down the two fields of poison before he could truly leave town. He gave the Innkeeper a false name and had his new horse stabled. He ordered a dinner he didn’t think he could force down. When he drank down one pint of beer and then another it was almost enough to take away the cold shivering he’d been feeling for the last hour. Once he’d completed his final task here he’d be ready to go and leave Tonturin behind at last. He’d welcomed that thought earlier this morning for he’d been mad and had wanted to be alone. But now the opposite feeling came over him like an echo of lost opportunity. He’d never felt so alone in his life.

  His stew came and he took three bites and then wanted to spew them. He left the waitress a good tip but not one so large it might intrigue any nearby pickpockets. He stumbled out of the tavern and up the stairs of the next-door Inn to his new room. It was small, with a little dark window. The bed was rickety and lumpy and would squeak a lot when he tried to turn over. He hung his coat in the closet and didn’t bother digging in his pack. He hung the reprehensible bag in the closet too. He removed his shirt, washed himself down in the water closet, and wrapped the bulk of his money in four even packets using a sheet that he found in the closet and ripped. He folded them into his clothes so they appeared to be more undershirts. In the mirror he looked thinner than his usual sturdy, but, slim appearance. His face had the bruises and cuts he’d forgotten about. He stared at his green eyes and his overlarge hawk nose. He’d been told he had an engaging grin in the past, which had always pleased him because it had come from his father. But his face was serious now and plain, he thought. There was nothing there to draw any female or keep an old friend by his side. He brushed his teeth, ran his hands through his knotted and too curly hair, and then lay down in the bed. He wondered if he could sleep although peace had deserted him. His heart ached more than his body did. Suppressed emotion choked him but he was done being maudlin and begging people. Forcing himself to breathe in and out worked in the end. At last he fell asleep just as dawn was beginning to lighten the sky outside the small window.