Mr. TLC and the Book Stealer [Part 2]
(Books by Authors Who Never Existed: A Steampunk Hybrid story)
By the author of BARD: Owner of the Gemstone
Tobey scurries over to his adopted mother. All four feet of him leaps onto her lap so that he’s staring eye-to-eye with her. He swats her sewing needle towards the inanimate, brass man.
“Oh, Mr. TLC,” she chastises him with a mixture of her Mexicoterra and Irishterra accent. Then she goes completely still.
Tobey sees her mouth open in shock as she notices the man with the clamp hand. For a moment nothing happens. Then his mom shoos him off her lap and fists her sewing needle. He follows her as she cautiously walks towards the strange man.
With her free hand she pokes the shoulder of the brass man. Nothing happens.
Tobey swipes the man’s left calve. Still, there’s no reaction. He jumps on the Silas desk in front of the man and sits there staring. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees mom grab her ear horn, and head towards the brass and lacquer candlestick phone.
He whacks the brass man again and waits. Nothing happens. He can hear mom talking to Chief Dimoso Shabani. The Chief’s tiny voice says he will be over shortly.
Tobey leaps off the desk and rushes up the stairs to the attic window to watch for the Chief. His ears twitch constantly, so he can hear what mom is doing on the main floor; and if the brass man starts to move.
Caedar Writing & Artwork 