Chapter Four: Speculations and Cleaning Frenzies
AN: Yet another chap! I'm sorry about the LONG delay! It's been a rather emotionally draining time for me right now, and it's made it really hard to write. But I do try to write a little bit every day, even if it's just adding a couple words or a single sentence. Things are finally straightening out though, so we'll see what happens! In response to those wot reviewed:
Darlene: you know, right after you mentioned the magical cleaning of the machines, I remembered that in the original of that chap, Edward was carefully managing to handle a random feather duster when Mandy came down the stairs. I'd completely forgotten all about that. Lol!
Phantom of the Rock Era: Ehehe. You never fail to make me laugh. Thanks ever so for the review!
Skrblr: Thanks! It's funny, when I first write something, it's all dialogue, then I go back and add all the descriptiveness in the edit. And I'm trying to teach myself Latin, but it isn't working very well. I'm going to have to take a class in college... I'm homeschooled, so yeah.
Geckogirl: You're awesome! Thanks!
And to all...I FINALLY got the movie for christmas! I've watched about 20 times so far, lol!
EMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME
After making up a story about her "cold, lonely" night for her friends, Mandy went home, far too much on her mind for what was supposed to be a day of relaxing and sledding and building snowmen. Fortunately, she could do all her thinking at work. The greatest bonus about working at a library was that the entire time you were there, it was nice and quiet so you could think without much interruption. Mandy was rather grateful for that, she thought, as she showered and dressed, this time in a pair of heavy camouflage pants and a Pink Floyd T-shirt. She dried her black hair, grabbed her jacket, and went downstairs.
"So did you have fun at Jamie's last night?" Mandy's mother asked. Mandy, who was making herself a cup of cocoa, frowned.
"Wh–." she started, but remembered her cover story. "Oh! Yeah, it was a blast." Her mother smiled.
"That's good. What did you girls do?"
"Uh, you know. Hung out, played CD's, talked about boys." Mandy lied quickly. The microwave beeped, and Mandy gratefully grabbed her cocoa. "I've gotta go in to work, see you later, Mom!" And with that, she was out the door.
That was not cool, she thought, walking down the snow-covered sidewalk. Mandy hated lying, but she didn't know what else to do. There was no way tell anyone about Edward. She didn't want anyone to go up there and bother him. He would hate that... he was so nervous around people. With good reason, of course. In fact, she figured she was pretty lucky to have gotten to see him, let alone talk to him. She was even luckier that he actually liked her. What she didn't know was what to do now. How could she manage to keep Edward a secret if she kept going to see him? Going up to the top of the Hill and hanging out in the "Haunted old mansion" once was crazy enough. Going back a second time would barely be explainable, and anything after that would be far too suspicious. Not going back, however, wasn't an option. Not after the way Edward had looked at her.
Brian Larson watched as Mandy walked down the sidewalk towards the public library. She had her head down and was muttering to herself. Having known her since she and his little brother had met when they were four, he knew this meant she was thinking about something rather seriously. He had a pretty good feeling he wanted to know what she was thinking about. With that thought in mind, Brian ran to catch up with her.
"Hey." he greeted her, tapping her shoulder to get her attention. Mandy jumped about three feet into the air. She turned to look at Brian, who bit back his laughter at her reaction.
"Hi Brian." Mandy said, sighing. They continued walking, their breath making steamy puffs in the cold air.
"So." Brian began, grinning at her with his best conspiracy-sharing grin. "What's the real story?"
"What's what real story?" Mandy wanted to know. A nervous knot formed in her stomach, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions.
"You know, what really happened up at the House." The taller boy replied, tilting his head towards the mountain. Mandy froze only for a second. How did he know? She wondered. She gave him a skeptical look.
"What do you mean what happened? I went, I looked around, I waited, I froze, I pried my frozen self from the floor, and came home." She replied nonchalantly. Again with the lies. . .at least she was getting good at them. If that was any consolation at all. Which it wasn't. Much.
"Yeah, that's what you keep telling everyone, but I don't believe it." Brian said, smirking. Mandy narrowed her eyes at him.
"So you're calling me a liar." She pointed a finger at him accusingly. Brian shrugged, then stuck his hands into the pockets of his faded jeans.
"I'm just saying that if I had gone and found something, like Edward Scissorhands," He paused and looked at Mandy meaningfully, "I'd probably want to keep it to myself. It's a pretty cool secret."
"What makes you think I'm keeping secrets?" Mandy demanded, mentally cursing herself as she heard her defensive tone.
"Everyone has secrets, Mandy. I know that." Brian replied seriously. "And only a crazy person would spend an entire night in a frozen, old castle without a good reason." Having reached the library, Mandy turned and looked up at Brian, her blue eyes meeting his grey ones. Her face was grim.
"Then I guess I'm crazy." she said evenly, then turned and walked into the library. Mentally, she applauded herself for keeping so cool. Yet she had to wonder...how did Brian know? As Mandy clocked in and headed to the back room to get some books to shelve, she ran over possibilities in her mind. Could he have come up to check on her without her or Edward noticing? Maybe he had followed her to make sure she'd made it up okay. Or perhaps he didn't really know, perhaps he was only guessing. The next question, she thought as she began shelving books, was why did Brian want to know? Was he just interested in Edward like she was, or would he use whatever information he got for something less than good? Mandy sighed, pausing to lean her head against a shelf. This would make going back to see Edward even harder than it already was. She would have to wait a few days, now, and go on pretending there was nothing special about the mansion.
She just hoped Edward would understand.
Edward stood in his favorite window and watched for Mandy all day, hoping she'd come back soon. When it started to get dark, he started feeling rather doubtful. She wouldn't come back. Why would she? No one came back. His father hadn't, Kim hadn't, and Mandy wasn't going to come. No one came to see him more than once. Ever. Edward shook his head. No. Mandy said she would come back and bring something with her. A DVD player, whatever that was. It didn't matter. It just mattered that she'd come back. And she had said they were friends, and even given him something of hers! He looked up determinedly. She would come back and he would be waiting for her. A new idea dawned on him, and it made him smile.
Three flights of stairs, two left turns, and a scissor-handed break-in later, Edward had found his father's room of completed inventions. Or the ones that fit anyway. His biggest inventions were in the front hall, such as the cookie machine. Edward hadn't been here since before his father had died. He looked around the room, remembering his introduction to all the robots inside. . .
It was just after his Father had first let him open his eyes. He could see, he could feel, he could think. . . everything was quite new and wonderful. The old inventor smiled, watching the young man look around, the innocence and awe of a child on his carefully designed face.
Suddenly, a small round robot raced in, accompanied by a loud whirring noise. It began zipping around the room, leaving a shimmering streak wherever it went. It wasn't long before the entire floor shone. Edward's eyes widened in fear as the robot came near the table he was placed upon. The inventor felt a jolt of excitement. . . Edward's first reaction! It wasn't a very big reaction, but it was a reaction. And that was important.
"Don't be afraid, Edward," the inventor said gently. "It's only Leopold. He cleans the floors every Tuesday morning." Edward didn't speak, but understanding filled his dark eyes. The inventor could almost see the information passing through his mind.
"Leopold cleans floors on Tuesday, Quentin washes clothes on Monday, Geoffrey washes windows on Wednesday, Marguerite dusts the inventions on Thursday, Justina polishes the statues and bannisters on Friday, and Bruce gardens on Saturday." the inventor continued, watching as Edward took all this in.
"Sunday?" Edward asked. His Father smiled, happy to hear Edward's voice for the first time. He rather liked it, it was a pleasant voice. He was also proud of Edward for asking such a good question. Edward had realized he didn't know something, and had gone after the knowledge. The inventor was very pleased.
"Ah," he said with a sigh. "On Sunday I let Angelique sing."
Edward looked at the collection of robots in the room. His brothers and sisters, he thought to himself. He walked over to the small round robot. . . Leopold. He leaned down to blow some of the dust off Leopold's once-gleaming surface, then tapped it with his scissors.
"Wake up." He said in a half whisper. To his great surprise and delight, Leopold did so. Its sensors indicated that the floors were quite dirty, with many, many years of dust and grime. It zipped off, cleaning as fast as it could. Edward watched it for a moment, rather pleased with its performance. Considering the fact that it had sat locked in a room for countless years, it wasn't doing half bad. Clouds of dirt and dust flew up from the floor. Edward moved on to the tall thin robot with the green lights that seemed to be eyes, and a red "mouth".
"Wake up, Justina." He said, prodding the machine until it, too, started up. He moved on down the line, until the cleaning robots were all up and moving around the mansion. He left Bruce where he was, however...the gardens were his job now. He did silently apologize to Bruce, however. . . they were brothers, in a way. Perhaps he would let Bruce do the gardens once or twice. Someday.
Edward walked back out into the main hall, and a smile found its way onto his pale, scarred face. The mansion was already looking better. Leopold had uncovered a few layers of grime from the floors, and Geoffrey was doing wonders with the windows. To Edward's great surprise, the robots were even fixing things that were parts of their duties. Marguerite tweaked some of the machines, Justina re-built bannisters, Geoffrey repaired broken windows, and little Leopold even managed to clear away fallen debris.
Edward's smile lasted longer than most of his smiles as he returned to the room to find more robots to help him restore his house. When Mandy returned, she would have a surprise, he thought. She would come to a proper house, and be able to have a proper visit. There would be a fire in the fireplace, and more than just cookies to eat. She would be warm and comfortable. Edward's father had wanted him to be the proper gentleman, and had taught him everything he would need to know about it. It was time he showed it!
It wasn't until four days after the Dare that Mandy was able to come back up to see Edward. She had put her portable DVD player and her favorite movie, Nightmare Before Christmas into her messenger bag, along with other random things she thought Edward might be interested in. She slipped off early that morning, leaving a note for her mother saying that she'd gone on a hike, which was true, and it was something she did every so often, so no one would worry. In fact, Mandy wished she'd thought of the excuse before.
Mandy climbed up the Hill. The first thing she noticed was that the vines covering the inner gate were neater, swept back a bit so it was easier to get in. The second thing she noticed was the mansion itself. Something seemed different about it. It seemed to sparkle more than it had the last time she'd seen it. Mandy shook her head. It had to be her imagination, she decided. Because it was darker last time, it seemed to be brighter now. That was all it was. She ran up to the front door and slipped inside without another thought. She took a deep breath.
"ED-," she began to shout, but stopped halfway through, her jaw dropping. "...ward?" The rest of the name came out in surprise, as she stared at what she remembered as being a creepy, dusty hall. Now it was shining and magnificent looking. The floors shone, the windows sparkled, the morning sun gleaming off the freshly polished machinery. Mandy was simply in awe.
"What happened here?" She wondered. At that moment, Edward came down the stairs, looking rather dejected. He stopped dead when he saw Mandy, his whole face brightening. She had come back!
"Hello." he said, coming the rest of the way down the stairs. Mandy stared at him in awe.
"What on earth did you do?" She wanted very much to know. "This place looks like something out of a fairytale! Like, Beauty and The Beast, or Sleeping Beauty or something! How did you do it?" Edward gave her a small smile.
"I woke up the inventions." He replied in a way which Mandy found rather cryptic. However, she was too impressed by the state of the castle to say anything about it.
"Well it looks awesome!" Mandy praised. Just then, a small robot zipped into the room, and crashed right into Mandy, who fell over with an incredibly girly shriek.
"Holy snot!" She cried from the floor. "What was that?"
"Leopold. He cleans on Tuesdays." Edward explained. Mandy raised an eyebrow, picking herself up off the floor.
"But it's Sunday." She pointed out. Edward shrugged.
"Maybe he's confused." he suggested. Mandy nodded seriously.
"Probably from being locked up for so long." She agreed. She smiled. "So, Master Edward, since you're living in such splendor, shall we take a tour?" Edward frowned slightly.
"I don't know what everything is..." he admitted. "Father only let me go in the main rooms and my room." Mandy's blue eyes lit up.
"Then I have an even better idea!" she announced. "The most fun thing to do in a big empty house is explore! So let's do it! If Leopold doesn't mind, that is." She looked at the small robot which was still zipping around the room. It seemed consenting, so Mandy looked at Edward.
"Okay." He said, curious as to what the rest of the house held. He didn't ever explore. He didn't know why. Maybe it was because his father had told him not to. Then again, the thought had never occurred to him. He just stuck to what he knew, until someone taught him something else.
Mandy grabbed his arm and marched him off, throwing her bag onto the bannister. She started talking about the library, and about her friends, and pretty much anything that came to mind. Edward's smile returned. . . Mandy had come back. . . and the fun was already beginning.
End Chapter
YES! FINALLY!
Things You Should Know:
Leopold - He's the only one who I didn't just completely randomly name. The name Leopold is the name of my "demon" who sits on my shoulder and gives me evil ideas. Tribute to my newest influence. . .
Why the 'bots started up - The inventor, I noticed, liked to give his creations rather distinct faces and personalities. I think one invention would recognize another. So when Edward called them, they all woke up.
Yeah, you know? That's about it for now. Hmm. You know something, I think I need to create a name for the inventor so I can stop calling him The Inventor. I'll work on that, 'kay?
Anywho, reviews are incredibly welcome! And I promise to work very hard to get the next chapter out ASAP. Things are returning to something of normalcy, except I now lack a boyfriend and have gained a cell phone. (Those two things have nothing to do with each other, though. . .I just wanted to make sure y'all knew not EVERYTHING was depressing 'round here!)
Out-
AJ and as always: Mini-Edward!
(this chap brought to you by my Charlie & The Chocolate Factory Soundtrack!)