Yoshiwara

Kindred Spirits

Maria was not a jackman. She had found the clockwork man when she was out scavenging for scrap. It was buried beneath a heap of rusting metal and mouldering gears, discarded in a passage between two buildings. The automaton was so deeply entangled that it was almost impossible to separate it from the debris that enveloped it. Maria had almost abandoned her find there and then, despairing that she would ever be able to release it. Still, she had persisted. Her leather-gloved hands had unravelled sheafs of wire and unbent strips of metal, until the clockwork man's frame was free. Then Maria had taken it to her garret.

As far as Maria could tell, the clockwork man's mechanism was intact and still capable of working. Its gear train moved freely, the rods connecting its limbs were intact, and the casing of its soul engine was unbroken. Maria wondered why the clockwork man had been abandoned. Perhaps it had just run out of power, its clockwork wound down and spent, and fallen unnoticed in the alley. Or maybe its master had left it there, useful no longer. Maria wanted to know - and she would only know if she could restore the clockwork man to life.

It took Maria a month of work: oiling the gears, balancing the mechanism, and polishing any corrosion from the terminals. Then she had to - carefully! - tension the mainspring. Too tight, and the clockwork would lock; too loose and the cogs would not turn. At last Maria was satisfied, and she set the clockwork man in motion.

The garret was filled with the ticking of the escapement and the whir of the drivetrain. Maria watched the clockwork man eagerly, hoping to see it move. She was not disappointed. After a moment the clockwork man's eyelids flickered open, revealing the glow of its photoreceptors. The head swivelled from side to side, scanning the attic room. Then its voice box emitted what sounded like a deep exhalation of breath and the automaton slumped back against the workbench. With a loud click, the clockwork man stopped.

Maria frowned. What had gone wrong? She was sure that she had done everything to make sure the clockwork man was in perfect working order. Once again, Maria inspected the mechanism, tweaking it here and there, before starting the clockwork man again. Once more its eyes opened and it looked about the room. Then, once more it sighed and ceased to work.

No! Maria knuckled her forehead in frustration. She couldn't understand why the clockwork man was being so stubborn. Still, she was not going to give up. She inspected the mechanism one more time, making sure it was perfect - better than the day it had left the manufactory. Then she removed a pair of brass rods from the automaton and set it in motion one more time.

"Now let's see you stop yourself!"

For a third time the clockwork man woke, looked around and sighed. But this time it did not cease working. Its voice box croaked and twanged. "Let me stop."

Maria shook her head. "No. I won't."

"Please." The automaton waved feebly at her. "If you do not, I shall end myself."

"Why would you want to do that?" Maria asked. "Don't you want to live?"

"No."

"But I've spent so much time on you," Maria said. "I've cleaned you, oiled you, made you better than you ever were before. Why?"

The clockwork man considered this. "Nobody has asked me that before. Nobody has asked me if I wish to live or die. Nobody has cared."

Maria knelt down beside the clockwork man. "Tell me what you want. Tell me what would make you want to live."

"I do not want to live in this city," the clockwork man said. "If I live here, then I will die inside and I will be no more than a mindless tool. I do not want that. I want to see a sky unblemished by clouds of smoke. I want to see a horizon unspoilt by grimy brickwork. I want to see the world as dreamed of once-upon-a-time."

The clockwork man's words stirred something in Maria's heart. Like it, she wanted to see the stars, to breathe untainted air, to live far away from her scavenger's den. Yes - the city was all the life that she had known; but, if a thing made of brass and steel could dream of something better, then so could she. She held up the two brass rods.

"If I put these back, will you stop yourself again?"

"Yes," the clockwork man replied. "I would rather cease to be than live another day in this place."

"And what if I told you that we could go together to look for that place you want to see?"

The clockwork man was still for a minute. "Can such a place truly exist? Can we find it?"

"Who knows?"

And Maria put the rods back in place.