The Boy With the Clockwork Heart, Page 2

  "You little thief!" shrieked the old lady brusquely. "Take your thieving hands off my property!"

  The frightened boy drew back immediately.

  "I caught you red-handed stealing my things!" yelled the old woman with a piercing voice. "Did you think you could outsmart me?"

  "Oh no," Edward began defensively, "I was just trying to help. You had dropped the spool on the ground."

  "So, you're a liar as well as a thief!" the woman replied with a snarl, standing from her stool. "I'll have the Law onto you!"

  The angry lady stepped forward but Edward did not wish to stay any longer, to protest. It was clear that she would not believe his words of innocence. He turned and ran deep into the maze of alleyways and back streets that made up the town. He decided that there must be somewhere safe where he could rest and that there must be other people in this town who were friendlier.

  Edward ran through the network of streets and lanes of the town. He spied a narrow alleyway that led to a dark enclosure and he decided that it might be a safe place in which to hide and rest. Against the far wall, he noticed a large bunker of coal and so he slipped to the side of the structure, to gain a brief respite from the trauma of his earlier two encounters. He crouched in the shadows and he thought about the antics of the day. Was everyone in this town as nasty as the first two people that he had met? Perhaps it was just a cruel twist of fate that had led him to meet two awful inhabitants before any others.

  As he squatted by the coal bunker to think, Edward heard the soft sound of approaching footsteps and a muffled sound of sobbing. He peered up from behind his hiding place, to see a small tearful girl approaching. The child looked lost and confused.

  "Not everyone in this town can be as cruel as the first two encounters," Edward thought to himself, "and I can't sit here while someone is in distress and might need my help."

  Edward stood up and gave a weak smile to the approaching tearful figure.

  "Don't be afraid," he muttered to the girl. "What's the matter?"

  The girl stopped her sobbing and looked up to the source of the voice.

  "Perhaps I can help," suggested Edward, with genuine sense of charity. "There's no need to cry."

  The girl continued to look at the boy who now stood before her. She was unsure of what to expect or what might happen next. Edward noticed that her tears had halted and that she didn't look quite as lost as she once did, just a few seconds before.

  "I'm Edward," he said with a smile. "What's your name?"

  The young girl wiped her eyes with the back of the hand and gave a small smile. However, before she could answer, a loud voice boomed from behind.

  "Call the police!" a woman screamed aloud, "Someone's trying to kidnap my daughter!"

  The woman darted forward quickly and reached a stiff hand out, in an attempt to grab Edward's arm. However, she stumbled slightly upon the cobbles of the courtyard and this slight distraction was all that Edward needed to make good his escape. He raced beyond the small girl and brushed past the large woman, dashing to the exit of the courtyard. It was clear that he wouldn't be safe in this town: every encounter that he had made had resulted in anger or resentment from the very people to whom he had shown kindness and respect.

  Part 6

  The boy with the clockwork heart ran away from the courtyard. He sprinted down the cobbled streets of the town. He hurried beyond the boundary and back into the sanctuary of the countryside on the far side. However, he did not stop. He continued to race until the town could be no longer seen. Only then did he pause for a break, in the shadows of a ditch. Deep in the gloom of the trench, he curled into a tight ball and thought about the mishaps of the day. Multiple beads of sweat fell from his forehead and his shirt clung to the dampness of sweat from his back. Deep within his chest his heart pounded the inside of his body, from both exertion and anger.

  Why had people responded so poorly from his attempts at kindness? The small boy curled up tight and he thought.

  "Everyone is so nasty," muttered the small boy in frustration, "but, even still, I won't ever stop trying to be kind. Even if I never meet another kind soul in my life, I'll never stop trying to be the best that I can!"

  He bit his lip in frustration and felt his heart pound inside his chest. It was then that he realised something very peculiar, something that he had not noticed before: his heart was pounding!

  "Surely, that can't be right," he thought to himself. "My heart doesn't pound. My heart clicks and whirs."

  He lowered his head to his chest and tentatively he drew his fingers up to the buttons of his shirt. With trepidation, he fumbled with the upper buttons of his shirt and unfastened the upper portion so that he could ease the fabric back and inspect his torso. Slowly and carefully, with nervous anticipation, he looked down at the upper part of his chest, where the clockwork key was embedded in the bone of his sternum. What he saw filled his racing mind with confusion and bewilderment. The clockwork key no longer turned. How could this be? What was happening to his heart? He was sure that he could feel the rhythmic pulse of his beating heart within him but the key that controlled his clockwork heart was no longer rotating.

  Edward was confused. He was tired and confused. He was exhausted, tired and confused. Although his heart was beating in his chest, the clockwork key that controlled its motion was no longer turning.

  With nervous trembling fingers of fear and trepidation, Edward fumbled his hands to his chest and curled his quivering fingers around the clockwork key. Then, with one sharp jerk, he tugged the key from his chest and threw it onto the bottom of the ditch. His heart still remained beating.

  How could this be so? Why was his heart beating without a clockwork key? What was happening to him?

  So many questions filled his weary mind and Edward was unable to make sense of it all. He curled his exhausted body into a tight mesh of skin and bones, falling into a deep and dream-filled sleep.

  As he slept, the day passed into night and the slender crescent of the moon rose into the darkened sky. A myriad of stars twinkled in the inky night sky and the body of a small and frightened boy remained curled as a tight ball, in the sanctuary of the ditch.

  That night, as Edward dreamt, he met the Shadow once again.

  "Have you come to take me home?" Edward asked tentatively.

  The Shadow smiled and pointed a hazy finger back into the town.

  "It's not your time yet," the Shadow explained. "You won't see me again for many years to come. That is your home now and I'll not take you from this world yet."

  "But," stammered the frightened boy, "I can't. The people there are so cruel and unkind."

  "Keep on trying and keep on showing kindness to those that you meet," continued the Shadow, "for you have nothing but goodness and love within your beating heart."

  "I don't understand," explained the small child, "What has happened to my clockwork heart?"

  "You once had a clockwork heart," explained the Shadow, "but it grew into a real heart when you showed love and kindness to all those around you. You are a kind boy, Edward, and so you must continue to show love to everyone. If you do this, your heart will continue to grow and it will become stronger too."

  The Shadow pointed to the nighttime sky.

  "That is why your time to come with me is not now," said the Shadow. "I shall return to my home and leave you be. You'll not see me again for many years and, when I call again, it will be my last visit to you. Be strong and be good. You will have a rich life ahead of you."

  With that the Shadow bowed a hazy head towards the small boy and then He gently rose into the heavens, leaving the boy with a real heart alone in the ditch.

  Part 7

  True to his word, Edward did indeed have a rich and fulfilled life. The boy (with a real heart) returned to the town and continued to shine his goodness to everyone that he met. Likewise, the Shadow remained true to His promise and it was not until another seventy years passed that He made his last call upon Edward. When the Sh
adow finally called upon Edward, He found him laying upon a soft cottoned bed surrounded by an elderly wife and four grieving children. Edward was holding the hand of his wife when the Shadow made His last call, whilst the four children huddled around his bedstead.

  "It's time now for you to come home, Edward," smiled the Shadow.

  Edward nodded gently and closed his eyes for a final time.

  Then the old man (with a real heart) gently slipped his fingers out from the hand of his beloved wife and eased them into the firm grip of the Shadow. Together the two of them, Edward and the Shadow, left the bounds of earth and flew skyward home, towards the heavens.

  "You've had a very good life," said the Shadow.

  "Indeed," Edward replied.

  Below them, life in the town went on.

  (Thank you to the help and assistance of many different creators and residents within Second Life. Without their input, this publication would not exist.)

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