Chapter five

Weeks went by and life kept moving on, the sky showed signs of heavy rain that was approaching although it was about to become June. There hadn't been much for Emanuel to do since the house was about to be prepared for the winter season and Emanuel would move to Mortmain's summerhouse. It was also a few days until Mr Tweents would go missing, that Emanuel knew. Therefore he spent as much time with the tutor as possible and not only was Emanuel upset over the girl's parents but he felt worse because every time before summer his tutors would disappear. The little boy had tried to convince Mortmain to not continue on with this, instead let of making them disappear into thin air he could force them to leave the country by threatening them or such.

"Are you listening, Emanuel?" Mr Tweents asked with a concerned look.

"What? Ah, sorry." Emanuel uttered bewildered, he was sitting in the classroom and Mr Tweents was teaching him how to make the automatons efficient.

"Is there something your mind, boy? You look as if your mind has left the room."

"No, sir. I'm just feeling ill."

Mr Tweents raised his eyebrows, demonstrating that he didn't believe the lie.

"I may be just a mechanics teacher but it doesn't take a telepathic person to understand you're not telling the truth."

Emanuel was unsure to tell him why he was upset, maybe it was a trap set up by Mortmain? But Mr Tweents had always been kind and certainly did not look like he would take an order from Mortmain if it meant he'd trick Emanuel.

"I...", Emanuel muttered, "I had a dream." Mr Tweents looked upbeat and tilted his head to the side.

"My parents were in it." Emanuel finally said.

"But you have never met them according to your foster-father. How were you sure it was them?"

Emanuel shrugged: "It felt like it was them. I don't know, I think I miss them."

Mr Tweents looked concerned, he placed the chalk on the table and seated himself next Emanuel.

"I used to have a daughter."

"Used to?" Emanuel asked coming off almost a little rude. "Sorry, sir, I just meant-"

"It is all right. Her name was Lily and she was the most curios creature ever. My wife and I loved her dearly since we had tried so hard to have a child."

Mr Tweents sighed and it almost seemed that he would start to cry.

"But...I was too busy working, you see, me and my partner had worked very hard on this invention. I came home very late so I missed saying good night to Lily and I always left to early to say good morning. One day I was asked to come home immediately, I was upset that my wife forgotten that it was the day we would present the invention to investors. I ignored her message and when I came home...no one seemed to be downstairs not even the servants. So I went up and heard weeping from my daughter's bedroom. Apparently Lily had ran outside after a quarrel with her mother and without looking rused to the streets where a carriage had hit her."

"My apologizes, I'm very sorry to hear-". Emanuel was so shocked from the story, he couldn't imagine that someone would tell him such a deep, dreadful deed.

"My wife couldn't bear the pain of losing her child. She left me one night without telling me instead she had written a letter where she explained she went to live with her parents in the countryside. In just a week I had lost my family."

"Again, I'm sorry for the loss in your life, sir." Emanuel didn't understand why he would tell him such a horrible story now he only felt worse than before.

"No one is only good or bad, Emanuel, but that is not what truly matters. What matters is if you chose to be a better person and that you never take your loved ones for granted. I never knew your parents but I'm sure they loved you and that they would never stop loving you. One day you will have a family, that's when you will learn that nothing is stronger than the bond between a child and its parents."

They sat quietly next to each other, thinking. After a while Mr Tweents got up and was about to leave the room before he uttered:

"I think we're done today, we'll start tomorrow the same time."

The hour was very late although Emanuel tried to fall asleep he never managed to, he was turning and changing sides. Mr Tweents's story left him thinking, some part of him desired to help his kind tutor but another kept reminding him of what Mortmain would do with his foster-son. There was this turn and pull between his kind side and his reasonable side. Even though he was going to help Mr Tweents from not "disappearing" how would it be possible? What if Mr Tweents wouldn't believe him or worse what if Mr Tweents would be foolish enough to confront Mortmain of what his foster-son had told him?

Emanuel checked the pocket watch he had had since he could remember: the hour was quite late so the boy tried to count sheep thinking the ideas would have to wait until the morning.

"Good morning", Mr Tweents said as Emanuel entered the classroom he was taught in every day. His tutor seemed to share the experience of a sleepless night, the dark circles under his eyes were heavier and the rat-coloured hair was entangled. Luckily the silly idea of counting sheep lead him to rather think of various ideas of how to help Mr Tweents and he had thought of a quite good one but it involved an invasion of Mr Tweents private life.

"Good morning, sir. I was thinking and...I apologize in advance if my question is rude but what was your wife's name?"

He seemed shocked at the question. "Why is that important to you?"

"I was thinking if the name I heard about was the same as your wife's, you see, not long ago I was in a tavern, traveling with my foster-father, and I heard some men discussing an almost exact story of yours and this woman who left her husband was quite...sick."

"Sick?"

"Yes, she expressed regrets of leaving this...man." It was difficult to lie to such a warm-hearted person but Emanuel knew it was for the better. "She required to see him."

Mr Tweents glared at his student, his expression was doubtful but it appeared that Mr Tweents sought to believe Emanuel's lie.

"Well...I wouldn't trust that this woman you heard of would be my..wife but if you need to know, her name is Elisa Smith, she must have taken back her father's last name after what... occurred."

"Elisa? I don't remember that well but I think the name overheard in the tavern was something as Lydia."

Mr Tweents sighed. "Shall we carry on and leave this behind? I hope you won't bring this up again, I understand you mean well but it distracts us from work."

That same evening Emanuel sat at his desk in his room to write a letter signed from Elisa Smith, the letter mentioned how Elisa had received another letter from a concerned women writing of how her husband never returned home after working for Mortmain and a warning that the same would happen to Mr Tweents if he didn't leave unnoticed. After the first letter Emanuel began writing on the one that was going be sent to Elisa, fortunately Emanuel knew where Mr Tweents used to live and it was easy to find Elisa's adress since there's was only Elisa Smith in that town, that afternoon he had gone to the post office. Emanuel didn't forget to mention in the letter to Elisa that the worried woman had written another letter to Mr Tweents to leave but if he should not return she would have to write a new letter to her husband. Emanuel also knew the boy who brought mail in the morning so Emanuel had to wake up earlier to meet with him and tell him the letter is for his tutor. The boy wouldn't talk to anyone of this if he was given some coins, so the next morning went well without any worries. But the next morning Emanuel woke up from screaming and if he wasn't mistaken he heard the screams coming from Mortmain's room, the words "left, "unseen" and "useless guards" were being said again and again. Emanuel left the bed, dressed, ate breakfast and went to the classroom. Mr Tweents had left a letter signed to Emanuel, there was only two words written on it.

"Thank you."

Any thoughts on this chapter? Let me know :)