Heart's tale

Chapter 8 part 1

"Well, come on, wake up, how long are you going to sleep, get up, there is so much work to be done," someone's extremely familiar voice rumbled over Goody's ear.

But the one who had not recently had a name only turned on his side and reached for that enchanting dream that was already slipping irretrievably from his memory, no matter how hard he clung to it. To top it all off, someone jumped on him and started pounding on his shell so loudly that a thousand springs rang in his head. Goody opened his eyes. There was a little wooden monkey with a painted face and a sailor's cap sitting on him.

"Stupid doll..." he said the only familiar words that came to mind.

"Stupid doll yourself," the monkey scowled and jumped away, disappearing from his sight.

Goody turned his head and saw that she had run up and hugged the leg of an old man in work overalls.

"Don't be sad, my dear, he didn't mean it, did he?" the old man turned to Goody and winked.

"Pyah," exclaimed the animated one unhappily, and raised himself from the thin mattress on the desk.

"Sleep is good," said the old man, turning to the other table and continuing to whittle a wooden block, "But too much sleep is bad. Everything is good in moderation, otherwise it is bad."

He smiled into his big, oil-stained white beard, picked up the chiseled piece of wood, twirled it in his hands, and carried it into the next room.

The room where Goody woke up was an enormous workshop. All the walls were covered with machinery: engines, pistons, clocks, pendulums, shafts, turbines, wheels, engines again. It seemed impossible to imagine anything that wasn't there. It all seemed very familiar to the animated one. He vaguely recalled that he had once lived in such a room. There were desks all around the room, with lights ranging from oil to electric, and in the center was a large construction where the carcass of a metal horse and a knight in black armor were suspended. He noticed the monkey again, sitting on a small stool under the table, staring intently at him. And then he saw others crawling out of various corners and pipes and looking at him with all their painted eyes, studying the intruder.

The old man returned from the small room, looked at the awakened doll, and smiling, rubbed his big lumpy nose, on which the little glasses were completely lost – they were only now noticed by Goody.

"I think you should read something while I'm working here. I like hearing things read aloud to me."

The man reached for a shelf above one of the tables, from where he pulled out a thick book in a beautiful binding decorated with gold thread and jewels. He flipped through it, found the right page, walked over to Goody, and put the book in his hands.

"Come on, come on," the old man nodded, "Let's see how fast the words settle in your head."

The animated one looked at the old man with surprise, but there was so much confidence in his sly squint that Goody began to read.

"Stupid doll about two-o b-brothe-ers," he began, stammering.

"Read away, and I'll finish my business," the old man encouraged him, returned to his desk, and continued chipping.

The monkeys circled him, peering at the animated one. Goody sighed and continued:

— There lived Evilgood, a Stupid Doll man, whose speech was crude, his temper hardly ran. Yet burning love lit up his Pya breast. While gentle Goodevil knocked against unrest. In kind Goodevil's deeds, so Monkey and pure, some darkness crept to make the shores impure. Those tender acts, innocent and sweet, were oft' misshapen by an unseen hand's beat. These brother Doll (two Stupid acrobats) set out to snag a roach on Fortune's strings.