Where's the Clutch?
"I just can't understand why this is always a problem?" Jeff complained again.
"Will you quit it," Bogg said with irritation. "So I forgot where the clutch was, so what?"
"Again, that's the problem Bogg, it happened again. How many times do I have to tell you?"
"You don't understand anything about it!" Bogg said sternly.
"Just how low were you in your voyager class anyway? I know you weren't at the top, but were you at rock bottom?" Jeff asked. Jeff's expression changed when he saw Bogg's face after this last remark, "I didn't mean that," he said quickly, but he could see the damage had been done.
Bogg turned away from him. "It doesn't matter what place I had in the class, you have no right to judge me," he said as he walked out onto the porch.
The door slammed shut and Jeff's anger dissipated. Bogg was right, he had no right at all to judge Bogg. He'd just been frustrated. He wished he could take back his hurtful words. After all Bogg had done for him, there was no way he should ever find fault with anything Bogg said or did. He was sure that Bogg was one of the bravest and kindest people he would ever know. So what if he wasn't perfect, no one could be. Jeff paused, gathering his courage, then followed him onto the porch, to apologize.
He looked around and saw Bogg on the beach nearby, pulling the rigging through the small sailboat he'd been using to teach Jeffrey how to sail.
"I'm sorry," Jeff said as he approached. "You're right, I have no right to judge you. No one could be perfect and you're the best voyager there is." Jeff waited in silence while Bogg continued to work.
Finally Bogg stood up and turned to him. "Let's sit down," he said, and Jeff was glad there wasn't any hurt or anger in his voice. "This isn't an excuse, but it is a reason I have trouble with clutches, and other things like them."
Jeff sat listening as Bogg began.
"Do you know when I was born?" he asked.
Jeff shrugged in surprise and shook his head.
"I was born in 1610. Do you know how many machines were in use in 1610?"
Jeff shook his head, "no."
"Virtually none. Course it may as well have been none, because I was raised on a farm in rural England, and we didn't have anything except fire, one iron pot and a few tin plates. We plowed the fields with an oxen and basic plow with no moving parts." Bogg paused as though he was remembering something.
"I was shanghaied when I was in a port town getting some supplies for spring planting. I never saw my family again. I was 15." Bogg paused and cleared his throat. Jeffrey saw a strange expression on his face, but it only lasted a second.
"On the ship there was only raw muscle to accomplish work, no machines. The ship sailed all over the world, but never back to England during my 3 years on board." Bogg sighed, "when I was about 18, we hit a bad squall, the worst I'd ever seen. Some of the rigging snapped and I fell into the water. I thought I was dead when I woke up in Voyager Medical," Bogg shook his head.
Jeff's eyes were wide and his jaw open. Bogg had never told him anything about his life before being a Voyager, except that some of his best friends had been pirates.
"It was a big shock, to say the least," Bogg continued. "I didn't believe it at first, but of course I finally had to come to terms with it all."
They sat in silence and finally Bogg spoke, "I'm surprised you don't have anything to say?"
"I want to hear what else you've got to say."
Bogg smiled, "well, that's something." Silence again, then Bogg continued. "So I started attending Voyager Academy. Everything was all so new. We took classes in everything you could imagine, from dancing, to mapmaking, to sculpting, math, etiquette, science & technology & transportation, not to mention history. We studied sports & games, psychology, public speaking, anything and everything you could think of. And since I didn't know how to read, I had to learn that too."
He paused and looked at Jeff, who was staring open mouthed at him.
"You didn't learn to read until you were 18?" Jeff whispered in disbelief.
"Fraid not," Phineas answered, then smiled and continued. "My head was spinning half the time. Just the names of the classes were confusing because I hadn't even heard some of those words before. There were only 2 of us in my class from a time before the modern machines and it was a big disadvantage for us. Inventions the others took for granted, I'd never even heard of. I tried as hard as I could," here he smiled, "except for the history classes, Susan was in those, but with so many cultures and time periods to remember, I just couldn't seem to keep it all strait. Eventually I figured out a way to remember things well enough to get by and pass the courses. I'm actually better with Chinese, Indian and Arabian technology than I ever was with some machines originating in the Western Hemisphere." He paused again, "Thank goodness for the practicals."
"What're practicals?" Jeff asked.
"Practicals are the part of the final exams where you had to take apart and put together certain devices. We had to use all sorts of tools too, from different time periods and cultures. That always seemed to make more sense to me and I could usually figure out how to use the tools, even the advanced ones. I understood what most of the machines did and how they worked in principal, but I couldn't keep strait where some of the parts were located."
He paused again, "and don't think I haven't realized that some day my life, or yours, could depend on how fast I can find and use a clutch, because I have, but that's only one of a million things that could happen, so I don't dwell on it." He paused again, "anyway, like I said, it's not an excuse, just a reason." He started to stand up.
Jeff grabbed his arm to hold him back, he felt terrible. "I'm sorry Bogg, I just never thought about it like that."
Bogg shrugged, "you're a kid, you aren't supposed to."
"I'm a big mouthed kid who should know better. Now that you've explained it all to me, I don't know how you can know half of what you do. I don't think I could ever learn it all."
"You'll do fine," Bogg reassured him.
"Yeah, I can just see myself doing well in Chinese and Indian Technology of the 1990s," he paused, "or 2020s" Jeff answered sarcastically.
"If I could do it, you can too," Bogg said.
"I really am sorry," Jeff said and then put his arms around Bogg and gave him a hug, which was returned.
"It's forgotten," Bogg whispered as he hugged Jeff back.
The End