ENAMEL EYES || A COPPELIA RETELLING

O V E R T U R E

DONG! DONG!

The moon shone brightly in the night sky over the city of London, and the sound of the midnight chime from the newly-erected clock tower filled the air with a throbbing lullaby. In the streets, the townhouses and shops lay still, with only a few men roaming the streets. The sky was filled with puffy clouds that swirled and broke with the lifting off of the mail-carrying dirigibles, their shiny propellers blending the mist of the night. The people in the city slumbered, their mechanicals shut down for the night, and all was quiet.

Well... almost quiet.

On the corner of Blumenberg Street, a couple blocks away from the entrance to Hyde Park, there stood a large townhouse facing the street. To those passing by in their carriages, the house appeared to be a dusty old clockmaker's shop. The rusted bronze placard on the front of the house was inscribed with the name STERLING MECHANICALS & AUTOMATA, and through the gilt-edged display windows, a passerby could see rows and rows of mechanical creations. However, the building seemed oddly alive in the dead of night, as one second-floor window glowed faintly with light, while the others stood with the curtains closed firmly.

Inside the house, a wizened old man bustled in his laboratory, assembling his master creation. His beady black eyes were hidden behind a pair of clockmaker's glasses, and his scarred hands were moving rapidly, inserting the final cogs and screws into the automaton's torso. Then, closing the panel in its back, he placed his tools down and hurried over to a wooden bench, picking up a set of metal casings that were molded into the shape of a corset and bust of a young woman. Picking up a screwdriver, the man set to work on placing the casings around the bare clockwork, until finally, the object strapped to his lab bench looked less like the insides of a clock and more like the torso of a young woman.

The old clockmaker then moved to the corner of his workshop, where a set of human limbs, made of composition and containing more mechanics inside them, stood against the wall. Very carefully, he picked up the appendages and inserted them into the doll. He then picked up a porcelain head, that he had purchased from a dollmaker's studio, and placed it on the top of the doll. Finally, he covered the metal torso of the doll with a colorful fraulein dress, added a brown wig to its head, and placed a pair of silken dancing shoes on its feet.

Stepping back, Dr. Hugo Sterling admired his creation. There, strapped to the table before him, was a life-sized mechanical girl, with a smiling face, gossamer ringlets, and a fair complexion. She appeared to be more of a mannequin, or life-sized doll, than a robot, and when one looked at her, they could be tricked into imagining her robotic chest breathing and pulsing with a low heartbeat. Her metal body was so lifelike that it looked as if she was a second away from standing and moving about. Picking up a paintbrush, Dr. Sterling began to add the finishing touches to the metal "doll", mumbling as he went.

"My beautiful little maiden, you shall be my fairest creation. I will see to that, don't you worry. You shall have the rosiest of cheeks, the fairest of noses, and, finally...", the creator paused, placing his paintbrush to pick up two small enamel eyes, "...the most beautiful green eyes that money can buy". Inserting the eyes into their sockets, the creator mused over his creation. "You will dance for them all, astound them with your beauty, make them wish you were theirs... but no, they cannot have you, my pretty thing. You are my creation, and together, we will show them, show them all. I promise you, we will have revenge on those imperfect beings. We will bring you back again, I swear, for something as precious as you deserves life more than those barbarians...yes, yes! You will be my overarching triumph, my Galatea, my Muse...

...my Coppelia".