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In a small shop, in the middle of no where, a lone man sits, hunched over a work bench. He fiddles with a nondescript object, turning it over in his hands. He wears a pair of magnifying glasses low on his nose so he can get a better look at his gizmo. He pries open a hinge on the gadget in his hand with one of his tools and smiles softly. "There it is" he whispers to himself. He removes a component from the object and sets it aside.
Bells begin to chime as the door to his shop opens, a shadow stands in his doorway. He doesn't react, but he acknowledges the presence as he closes the trinket back up and begins to wipe it clean with a cloth. "You're just in time, I found the problem" he called to the shadow as it stepped into his shop, revealing that it was a young woman.
His eyes remained focused on the object as he stood and approached the counter where the woman stood, looking hopeful. "Is it broken?" She spoke sadly, as if she already knew the answer. The man stepped under a light that hung from the ceiling and held the object up to look it over once more. His lips curled into a gentle smile as he spoke, "It is. And it will be, but given enough time..." He stepped away from the light and approached her, placing the the object in her waiting hands, "...It'll be okay."
The woman cupped the object in both her hands, a smile slowly forming on her lips. She held it up to her ear and let out a gentle laugh. "I can hear it!" she exclaimed. "Thank you, thank you, I'll never forget this!" She hurried out of the shop with a chiming of bells.
The smile on his face slowly faded. "She would," he thought to himself. Everyone else had forgotten him once he was done with his work. He stood there, motionless for a time, lost in thought. A passing car blared its horn and caused him to snap back to reality. He glanced around, trying to remember where he was and then caught sight of his workbench.
His work...His work was to fix things for people. Or...at least, he hoped he could. He liked to see the smiles on people's faces when they got their trinkets returned. It made him feel happy, too. Like he mattered, just a little bit. He returned to his workbench and sat down, picking up the component he had removed from the woman's trinket.
With his free hand, he opened a drawer; several small components inside rattling as they were jostled into one another. He dropped the part in his hand into the drawer and shut it without a second thought then leaned back in his chair. He reached into his pocket and, with a soft jangling, removed his keys. He thumbed through each of them. Car key, house key, shop key...He picked the fourth key on the ring and singled it out into his hand. He slid it into a locked drawer, turning the tumblers inside and slowly eased the drawer out.
He reached inside and gingerly picked out an object that would look no different than the woman's. Except, this one looked a bit more rough and dirty, like no one had taken care of it for some time, even just to clean it. He ran his thumb over the etches and gouges in it. He stared blankly past at nothing as he was lost in thought once more. Hesitantly, he lifted the object to his ear and blinked as he snapped back into reality.
The sound it made was deafening. Silence. He made a fist with his free hand and pounded it on his work surface. He felt like the only person in his town willing to try and fix other people's trinkets. But who would be willing to try and fix his?
He dropped his object back into the drawer and kicked it close violently, the entire bench and the residents inside the drawers rattled for a moment, but soon quieted. All except one, the lone object in the locked drawer continued to roll around, tormenting him. He was about to strike the bench again, when the sound of ringing bells caught his ears followed by a faint sniffling, freezing him.
He lowered his fist to the keys hanging from the drawer, locking it once more and returning them to his pocket. He stood once more and forced a smile as he headed to the counter where another woman was there, waiting for him. She held the fragments and pieces of a broken trinket in both her hands as she sobbed. Tears streamed down her face as she stared at her hands.
He adjusted his glasses and began to place the broken pieces onto the counter, still smiling, "Why don't you tell me what happened?"
Other people's problems came before his own, clearly. But he seemed content in knowing it would be able to distract him from his own. In the back of his head, he knew that when he was done, he'd still be alone in his shop, and his trinket would still be locked away and broken. And he would still be there, waiting for someone else to come along with something for him to fix.
DragonSageX · Fri May 08, 2009 @ 02:30am · 0 Comments |
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