Story #68 - The Inventor

The Inventor

Frandel’s parlor room looked much the same as it always had; shabby, and matching the man himself. The threadbare chair I occupied I knew to have been in the same spot for well over a decade, a cleaning brush or polish never touching its dark surface.

It remained the best-kept piece of furniture in the room, owing mostly to the quality of the wood than to any efforts on the part of my host. I’d known Frandel for the better part of two decades and in that time he’d paid as much attention to his home as he had to those around him; virtually none.

He was kind enough, if one caught him away from his projects and out in the world. Kind, but shy and with a nervous bearing that made women chuckle and strong men smirk. I was neither; just a friend of the family that had taken a liking to the old man over the years and had borne witness to a number of his failed attempts to revolutionize the world.

I’d spoken to his parents; both agreed he’d always been this way, a dreamer with too many strange thoughts and not enough sense. Charred wood, broken windows and a number of missing pets were the result of Frandel’s passion – something that was never meant to harm but always seemed to veer from its intended course.

His passion was the reason I’d been called tonight. The messenger had arrived just afternoon, a perplexed look on his face and a small invitation card in hand. His confusion was enough – I knew it was from Frandel and needed the card only to tell me the time. I’d didn’t bother reading the tightly handwritten script; my strange friend would tell me all about it when I arrived at his home no whether I’d read it or not – and I’d rather only suffer through it once.

It wasn’t that the man didn’t have energy or vigor during his delivery – he spoke well when he was engaged – it was that he was leaps and bounds above the minds of mere mortals, something he bore without arrogance but that quickly created a rift between Frandel and whoever else might be in the room.

I could hear him bustling around in the adjacent room, swearing as he crashed into things. He’d never been particularly light on his feet and he often forget to keep his lamps lit, making his home a trap for someone with his intellect, propensity for clutter and sheer clumsiness. I didn’t bother to get up; if the swearing stopped, I’d know Frandel was in real trouble.

Ten minutes more passed before my host tottered into the room, loose green coat undone and hair a shaggy mess. Much like the furniture, Frandel had seen little care in the last decade, and it showed. Unlike the polished wood I sat on, however, he appeared to have grown far less sturdy as time wore on.

“Dandro!” Frandel spread his arms expansively. “Thank you for coming, my friend! I apologize about the lateness of my invitation.”

I started to reply, but Frandel didn’t stop. A typical evening, so far.

“Sadly, invention doesn’t keep a schedule, doesn’t let me know when it will arrive. Inconvenient, I grant you, but the implications are staggering. Staggering!” He was yelling now, carried away in his own excitement, but wound down as it became apparent I wasn’t going to respond. He’d go on no matter what I said – I was curious but wanted to avoid as much unneeded eloquence as possible.

“I’ve done it, Dandro,” he said quietly, moving toward me, “really done it, this time. This is going to be the one that changes it all!”

I fought back the impulse to roll my eyes. I’d heard the same sentiment from him a dozen times and each one was followed by a lengthy explanation, odd demonstration and apology along the lines of “it wasn’t supposed to do this!”

Frandel was close now; close enough that I expected the “secretive whispering” phase of the big reveal to start. He was showman when it came to his own work; he found interacting with other humans boring, but get him started on one of his projects and he was all smoke and mirrors, all flourish and mystery.

Instead of pouring out the technical details of his latest creation, the inventor reached behind me and pulled a small object from a chest behind the chair. Bulbous and bronze, the thing had a rounded metal bottom capped by a glass sphere containing small bits of dangling metal. Like all of his Frandel’s inventions, it looked dangerous.

“Here,” he said, smiling, “hold this.”

Frandel strode away and I noticed that there was a thin black wire running from the back of the device down to the floor and along the wall. I quickly set it down on the dusty table next to me; experience with the man’s attempts at scientific revolution had taught me to be cautious.

“Frandel,” I began, “I’m not sure this –“ he was already moving to the doorway, where I noticed the same black wire lying on the floor next to a curious-looking hole in the wall.

“Dandro, be quiet,” he said, “and just watch.” A nervous shudder ran up my spine; without his customary explanation I found this more frightening that usual, and the look in Frandel’s eyes was one I’d never seen before, a calm self-assurance that fit more snugly than I would have imagined.

Reaching down, Frandel grabbed the end of the wire – a rounded end with two metal spikes - and jammed it into the opening in the wall. Beside me, the glass globe on top of the device flickered and brightened into incandescence.

“Demons!” I hissed “You’ve harnessed their power, haven’t you? I warned you, Frandel!”

The fool! This kind of energy could only come from those things of the Other World; things we were forbidden to touch.

“Dandro, no,” he began, “you don’t understand -“ I cut him off.

“No! This time, you’re the one who doesn’t – I can’t be a party to this madness!” I stood up. Perhaps if I left now, I could claim innocence when the Questioners came looking for me. They would, once they were done with the inventor. “I won’t speak of this to anyone, Frandel, and I’d advise you to do the same, though I know you won’t listen to me. What you’ve done here is phenomenal – and forbidden.”

Frandel shook his head. “Isn’t what you think, Dandro. This is science!”

“Don’t!” I screamed, my voice louder than I intended. “Don’t even speak that word. You damn yourself with each syllable that crosses your lips. I’ve been a good friend to you, over the years. Please be the same to me, and never contact me again. I will not be brought down with you.”

Avoiding the thing glowing next to me I strode for the door, Frandel making no move to stop me. He’d finally done it, the old fool. Changed the world.

And doomed himself.