Ageless

Mr. Copper

It was long ago that the young inventor had found his soon-to-be-lover chasing a cat against the heat of an April sun. Her long locks of gold followed behind her while her skirt tucked between her thighs from the wind in her pursuit of the small orange beast.

The boy was working in Time Fix, the name of his fathers shop where he spent his time helping his father repair and create clocks. The shop had always been a wonder to the eyes of those who sought adventure.

The walls were always coated in white faces and brass circles, tables would often be cluttered with spare gears and tools which had no time to be picked up and organized properly.

The boy had been sitting at his work desk when the splash of orange had set off an empty bottle in the alleyway ahead. The mangy ball of fuzz was chased after the girl in the red dress. She huffed as she ran, breathing deeply in her pursuit; the sweat dropped from her chin while her hair darkened where it was damp and sticking to her face.

The cat jumped through the open window of Time Fix. The girl followed.

"I'm gonna get you cat if it's the last thing I do!" She grunted as she heaved herself over the windowsill. A long rip could be heard as her fine red dress was caught on a loose nail.

The boy watched as the uptown girl fixated herself and dropped to the floor to look for the cat. He cleared his throat and she popped up, banging her head on the table on the way.

A few spare tools and screws dropped to the floor with the sudden jump of the table. He immediately rushed to help her pick them up.

"I'm awful sorry miss. I did not mean to spook you." His accent was thick and sharp, words being said with correct and precise diction. Although he was young and unschooled, he sounded as well as any good Englishman. It was in this moment she had chosen to forget the cat.

"No, I should not have been snooping around in your shop." She gave a glance at the boy and smiled. From the first glimpse of him she rather enjoyed his dusty black hair and colorless eyes. He had the face of a madman, but his eyes pleaded otherwise.

"I haven't seen you around these parts before." The boy ignored her attempt at redemption for her actions and went straight into befriending her.

There were never really any children on this street anyways.

"That's because I haven't been here before." She smiled. Her face was young and innocent like young lady would be, her sky blue eyes seemed to echo her smile in a silent chorus.

Her pale lips pursed against each other before speaking once more, "Say, what's your name?"

"Copper, um, Wesley Copper." He said watching her fingers fiddle with an old broken watch that she had conjured up from the counter space.

Her eyes glanced upwards to the walls of faces and dead hands.

"Are all of them broken?" She asked obliviously, unable to hear the ticks and tocks past the sound of her thoughts and the vision of a brass adventure.

"No, but the one you're holding is," He took it from her hand and opened it up, "it's a shell, see."

He offered her the gutless shell of a pocket watch and her eyes gazed into it disappointingly.

She soon looked away attempting to find some other magical trinket to focus her attention on.

"You know, we could fix it." He said in an attempt to snag her attention.

This worked.

She reached for it and took it back into her hands, rubbing her thumb on the dusty crystal-coated face.

"How long will it take?"

"I'm not sure, I'll have to completely recreate the inside of it." He huffed and began to look around the shops for parts.

"Hm. Can I help? I'm no good with screws..or mechanics...or really anything productive. But I could keep you company while you work on it."

The dream chasers hopeful smile made the room seem a thousand times more magical than it had been before.