'The Mechanic' - Part One

Much time had passed and thing shad changed on Rukbat, the threat of the Kh’raal had quelled and now border raids were almost a non-existent thing of the past. Rukbat thrived and everywhere was just about linked up by the train system. Asurus became the centre, where everything came in, transferred on trains. Central station was the biggest station of them all and even housed the train maintenance section. All trains came in to Asurus to get fixed or repaired. There were smaller maintenance sheds at the other big stations but none had the level of sophistication that Asurus’ did.

From a young girl Claire had been raised around the trains, around the men that fixed the trains. Being and only child and raised by her father after her mother died in childbirth or so she was told, Claire didn’t have much choice in that regard. She loved it however and always quite happily would keep herself busy in the maintenance yard. Whether it was helping to direct the trains in or deal with the other outside people in something they labelled as being a woman’s job, Claire had been helping out ever since she was young.

She had never quite had the chance to see an Is’kyr in person, she had seen paintings of them and read stories even seen them fly overhead. She had never seen one real close up however; it was something however that fascinated her. As much as learning about the trains and how they worked. Now whilst her father did not quite approve of her learning his trade he couldn’t help it when the other guys who were quite besotted with her, each having known her since she was little and in some ways viewing her as theirs as well, one they had all had a part in raising, would show her little things and get her to help out on the easier tasks.

Today was a special day though, today was the day Claire was turning fifteen. Fifteen was a big age, it meant she was of marriageable age, able to be properly introduced to society and come out if her father wished her to. Finally getting up and out of bed, after they had all let her have a little sleep in on her special day, she pulled on her usual pants and shirt, suspenders over the top which did nothing to hide her blossoming body. Tying her hair up she shoved it under a cap and made her way down to the common room where she knew they’d all be waiting for her.

She was greeted with congratulations and one by one was hugged by all the men who despite their tough exterior were really just plain big softies as many of them began to cry. Their little girl was growing up too fast one them and it was a bit of a surprise that she was already fifteen. Time had passed so quickly, a little too quickly for some of them. Congratulations over the men all herded her to a table where two large packages lay. They were lovingly wrapped in brown paper with twine holding them together.

“We made one of them for you... The other we saved our money to get for you.”

It was one of the men who spoke, sliding the first of the packages across to her. Sitting her down at the end of the table Claire reached for the package in front of her. Slowly but surely she unwrapped it and had to gasp at what was revealed beneath the brown paper wrapping. There was a lovely set of welding leather pants, and a matching jacket for her to wear as well. She was really touched they had gone this far as to from what she could tell make this for her.

“We didn’t want you getting hurt missy when you helped us. You’re too pretty to have scars missy.”

Claire found the tears welling in her eyes and the men all gathered round her again to give her hugs as she thanked them for this very thoughtful gift. She knew her father wouldn’t approve very much but she had a feeling the men had his permission to make her the leathers just so that if she did help them she wouldn’t get hurt. Her father would not have been happy if she had gotten injured.

“Does this mean I get to learn to weld now?”

Her eyes lit up with hope and a lot of the men rubbed the back of their necks and smiled a little. “It will only be if your father approves.” Once again there it was, her father controlling what she was and was not allowed to do. She loved her old man, she loved him very, very much but sometimes she wished she could have a little more freedom to do that which she wanted to do. She wanted to become a mechanic just like her father; wanted to work on the trains with the other boys.

“This one we saved up real hard for, I hope you like it.”

Once again she was sat down and then passed the last parcel, this one felt much lighter than the last one did and it puzzled her. Slowly opening up the package she found herself greeted by a pale green fabric, lifting the garment from its wrapping she found it to be a dress. She never had a dress, so this was very odd. The odd look on her face must of said it all as one of the men spoke up.

“Well you didn’t have anything pretty to wear out, a pretty young thing like you miss should have a dress to wear out. We thought it would be nice for you to have something nice since your fifteen now.”

They did all that for her, she was never really interested in dresses but they found a colour she actually didn’t mine and quite liked in all honesty. She sat there staring at the dress for a very long moment not quite sure what to say but this time she really did break out into tears. At first the men were afraid that she didn’t like it but then it became very clear that indeed she liked it very much and was just very touched by the gesture they had made towards her.

She didn’t know what to say and finally her father came away from the wall and walked over towards her. Kneeling besides her he looked up at her and placed a gentle hand on her thigh.

“You mother wanted me to do this on your fifteenth birthday. The men worked real hard to get this for you and tonight I’m taking you out to one of the society balls. She wanted to take you herself, but she made me promise this.”

Claire was unable to say anything to that but nod, now that her presents were given they all sat down for a cake one of the wives had made for the occasion. After the celebrations were over everyone returned to work and Claire took her new things back upstairs to her room. She spent most of the day not quite sure what to think of everything that had gone on.

Then the evening came and she dressed herself in her brand new dress and went down stairs to meet her father who for the first time in her life was seeing him in a suit. She blushed a little at the looks she was being given as she walked down the stairs to greet everyone. She almost felt like she was parading herself in front of them in her brand new dress. She had to give them credit though, they had picked a perfect colour for it, whilst it did feel a little odd wearing the dress she found she really did quite like it, nice and simple but with the right amount of embellishment, just like her.

“The men picked the right colour for you if I must say so myself.” Her father remarked with a broad grin, holding out his arm to her he inclined his head slightly. “Ready to go sweetheart.” He asked.

Claire wasn’t sure if she was or wasn’t as she had never done this before in her life and suddenly she found herself very nervous, she didn’t really have much contact with people outside of the Train Maintenance yard, beyond those wives who took her out for shopping every once in a while, shopping for things her father couldn’t quite shop for. This however was something big, she was about to meet high society for the first time in her life, or rather go to a ball like she had never been to before. She hadn’t even attended the little country ones that happened in the smaller cities and towns when her father had taken her with him to work on a train out somewhere.

“As ready as I will ever be I guess.” Was Claire’s nervous reply, her father leant over her and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before leading her out to the carriage he had waiting for them. “You’ll do fine sweetheart. I know you will.” Came his reassuring words as he helped her into the carriage.

The ride was one like she had never been on before and she was in awe of the hall they pulled up at. This was where the ball was to be held that evening and for the first time in her life Claire found herself shaking as she let her father lead her off the carriage and up the long stairs that lead to the entrance of the hall.

The music was nothing she had ever heard before and the dancing. She had never seen dancing like that before in her life. Suddenly she felt very out of place, but a reassuring squeeze from her father’s arm settled her somewhat.

“Cameron, I’m so glad you could make it. I take this is the birthday girl, your little Claire?” The woman that came and met them was obviously very familiar with her father and she wondered exactly how. It appeared that she knew him quite well too, but she seemed to be very nice as she acknowledged Claire straight of the bat.

“Adela, I wouldn’t have missed showing of my little Claire for the world. Claire I’d like you to meet Adela, she was your mother’s best friend.” Her father turned to introduce her, still Claire felt quite nervous about being in such an extravagant place.

“It’s very nice to meet you.” Claire found herself stuttering nervously back, she was feeling terribly out of place and compared to everyone else her beautiful dress suddenly felt very plain.

“Oh Cameron, you should have brought her around before this. Come on dear, I’ll introduce you to a few of the girls and we can get something to eat in the mean while.” Coming around to her side Adela place a warm arm around Claire’s shoulder and suddenly Claire felt herself relaxing a little more. Her father nodded giving Adela permission, though he did admit to himself he perhaps should have prepared Claire a little more for this than just throwing her in the deep end just like he was doing now.

Lead away from her father Claire suddenly was very nervous again and found herself leaning into Adela’s side. There was a smile and a soft chuckle from the woman, “You’re very much like your mother Claire. She was absolutely terrified when she first came out.”Adela reminisced, almost as if it were like she was going through it all over again.

The evening progressed and slowly Claire felt like she was relaxing, however there was some gossip that had her little hurt though. She didn’t quite realise everyone could be so mean to everyone, the ones about her however hurt the most. Making cracks at her heritage and her class level, that all hurt and these people knew nothing about her. She watched the dancing never quite game enough to join in and soon found herself once again feeling out of place. Miss Adela was dancing with her father so all she could do was watch on.

“Care to dance miss?” The voice out of nowhere surprised her and she looked up to find a rather handsome gentle man looking down at her with his hand extended towards her. “I don’t know how to.” She admitted to him, it was the honest truth and it appeared the gentleman could tell that it was too. Many a time he had probably heard the same excuse given by the girls who didn’t really want to dance with him. With Claire however her honesty was plain simple and true, she also looked quite out of place from what he could tell.

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll teach you.”

Well if he was kind enough to offer and stick around after she had honestly told him that she didn’t know how to dance well then it couldn’t help. She had wanted to dance like them as well, they were so pretty but she didn’t think she could do it either. The man was still waiting for her and since it didn’t look like he was going to leave anytime soon she reached out and took his hand standing to meet him.

Leading her onto the dance floor he started simply with her, he took her through each step, one by one, bit by bit. Soon enough she was twirling and dancing through the steps as if she had grown up doing them. Seeing his daughter on the dance floor Cameron was taken back to the time when he first met Claire’s mother. Their first dance together and he found himself smiling and yet kind of nervous.

“Don’t be Cameron, she’s doing fine. Just like her mother.”

Adela’s voice broke his thoughts and he found himself looking back at her again as he twirled her through another step. She was right, but he couldn’t help but feel saddened, his little girl was growing up and so quickly right before his eyes. Watching his daughter dancing with another man, in a dress for the first time in her life made him realise just how old she was, that she wasn’t a child anymore but a growing woman and that it wouldn’t be long until she would leave him and go on to live her own life.

Eventually though the evening came to an end and once again Claire and her father were on the carriage back home. Bidding his daughter a sweet good night, Cameron left to go to sleep, trying not to worry his mind so much over his rapidly growing daughter. Claire stayed up however for some moments longer reminiscing on the events of the evening past. The young man she had met, though she had never even managed to get his name, not him hers. It was a magical evening and soon enough she was upstairs in her bed, new dress lain carefully over the chair by her dresser. Curling up in her bed a big smile on her face Claire finally managed to go to sleep.

Claire was woken the next morning by her father who sat on the end of her bed and gently shook her awake. “Claire, Claire wake up... Adela is here she’s like to take you out for a bit if you would like to go?” Claire slowly opened her eyes to her father and listened to what he had to say. Not even a day had passed before Adela was asking for her to take her out somewhere. She hadn’t quite had the time to make a proper opinion of the woman but she supposed since she had come out all this way that she should at least make an effort, after all she had known her mother very well apparently.

After her father left she dressed herself as best as she could, she didn’t know what to quite expect. Walking down the stairs she was in awe at what Adela considered to be normal wear. It was closer to the dress she had worn the night before in terms of its simplicity and here was Claire herself dressed in pants and a shirt like she normally was. She stood still for a long moment wondering if she should go back up stairs and change into her dress which seemed a little more appropriate and matching for Adela’s style than what she currently wore.

“You are fine child, we’ll find you some nice things. Do not worry so much.” It was as if Adela read her mind and allayed some of her fears before she could dash back upstairs to change. Adela though wasn’t going to tell her that it wasn’t exactly socially acceptable to wear the same outfit twice in a row.

“Shall we go Claire?” Adela asked when Claire finally made it down to the bottom of the staircase. Claire nodded softly and followed Adela from what was her home waving goodbye to her father as she did leave. Entering the carriage they made a ride to a part of town Claire had never seen before.

Alighting from the carriage Claire was in awe at the shops that lined the street they had been dropped off at. Never before had she seen such extravagance except of course at the dinner that had happened last night. Adela lead her into the first shop, this one was full of undergarments she had only ever read about and sometimes herself had dreamed of having.

“Here is the best place to start I believe. We’ll need to get you some proper undergarments to suit the young woman you are.” Adela told her, they were apparently going to start at the bottom and work their way from there. Despite being fifteen, Claire still had no absolutely proper undergarments and at the moment only had the very basics given to her by some of the wives of the men who worked for her father.

“Come sweet, we’ll get you measured.” Adela said leading her towards the woman that was waiting for them. Soon enough Claire was in a small mirrored room being measured by this little woman who was most impressed by her young figure and over and over again praised her on it. It didn’t take long before all her measurements had been taken and the woman hurried off to find a few example undergarments from which Claire was allowed to pick three. For the moment three would be a good amount for her to start with, a nice basic amount which could be combined with the basics she already had from the mechanics wives.

Now that that was all done and chosen it was time for them to move onto the next shop, this one was full of gorgeous dressed and some amazing fabrics that Claire could have only dreamed of in her life. It took a while but finally Claire picked some fabric she liked and a few dress patterns. She was to pick three every day dresses and one dress for wearing to balls and other social events. Soon enough it was time to move on to the next store. First thing first before they left was for Claire to change into one of the premade dresses that Adela had bought as well. It was entirely proper after all for a young woman to parade around in pants.

The next place they ended up at was a little shoe store, after all she needed some proper shoes to match the new dresses she had just been bought. After finally selecting a few nice pairs they made their way back to the carriage to go to a friend of Adela’s for a bite of lunch. It was only then on the carriage rider over that Claire wondered where all the money was coming from. Who was paying for all her new stuff, was it her father after all it was all pretty expensive.

“It’s all so expensive... Is father paying for it?’ Claire had to ask, she knew she wouldn’t know otherwise unless she did ask. There was a soft chuckle from Adela at Claire’s forwardness but it once again was another reminder to her of Claire’s mother herself.

“No sweetheart, it’s all on me.”

“But why?” Claire needed to know why, especially since she was feeling obliged to pay Miss Adela back for being so generous to her.

“Think of it as a belated birthday present.” It seemed that was all Adela had to say on the rest of it before finally she turned her attention to the carriage stopping. “Come on now, I’ve someone I’d like you to meet.” Stepping from the carriage Adela motioned for her to follow her, Claire did and alighting next to Adela unconsciously smoothed out her dress.

Once again she was feeling a little out of place but she followed Adela in anyway, she still was yet to really see the kind of woman she was. Claire was in awe as they entered the foyer of the house, she was not accustomed to such wealth or such extravagance. Soon enough they were lead down a hall and into a small room where an elderly woman sat waiting for them.

It appeared to be a tea room and lying before them on a silver platter was several rather ornate tea cups, each waiting to be filled with tea that still remained piping hot in an equally ornate tea pot. Leading her in Adela gave a little curtsey and in response Claire followed suit as well. Taking a seat Claire found herself seated besides Adela on a rather ornate two seater being poured a cup of tea to her taste.

“Oh my Adela, is that who I think it is.”

“Yes ma’am it is... Claire I’d like you to meet your grandmother and my Aunt.”

Grandmother... Claire didn’t know she had a grandmother, her father hadn’t even told her if she had a living grandmother. She knew her father’s mother had passed but as for her own mother, her father never mentioned anything. Then again the most she ever got out of her father was about how much she was like her mother at times, nothing more. There wasn’t much if anything about her life before she had Claire.

“Pardon me Ma’am, Father never told me I had a grandmother or anything about my mother really.”

Claire was honest, she didn’t really know what to say and this was all she could think of. There really wasn’t anything else she could think of to say to a woman she had just met and been told was her Grandmother. It also suddenly dawned on her that not only was Adela her mother’s best friend but she was also her cousin. In some ways that explained some more about the reason why she was so willing to spend so much money on her even though they had just met.

“That sounds just like your Father, Claire. The moment he lost Clarice; he was shattered. I never got to say goodbye before he disappeared with you into that Maintenance yard.”

It was the older woman who spoke, the woman who was her grandmother. Somehow she found herself believing what the woman was saying. It did make a lot of sense to her and there were so many blanks in her life she wished to fill, especially about her mother and just what had happened to her. Suspiciously she had a feeling that her mother had not died in childbirth as she had been told about all those many years ago by her father. Not only did some of the events since her turning fifteen yesterday make that belief rocky but also some of the hazy memories and dreams she had.

“What was she like?” Claire wanted to know more than anything about her mother and what she was like, even just a picture or something for her. Reaching down she gently took her tea like the other had and took a small sip of it, waiting for a response from either Adela or her Grandmother.

“Your mother, she was the sweetest thing. Your hair is darker than hers ways but you are very much your mother’s daughter. She was very head strong, always knew what she wanted in life and was never afraid to go after it no matter what.”

It was her grandmother that spoke, her voice fond of memories of her eldest daughter. With the first it was always something special, always something that made a mother prouder about the accomplishments they made.

“Did my mother die having me?” Claire’s next question nearly had her grandmother choking on her tea, much the same as Adela did. Well she certainly had her mother’s honestly that much was a certainty.

“Oh no child, whatever gave you that Idea.” Her grandmother was shocked to even think Claire thought such a thing, whatever had put that idea in the child’s mind.

“It’s what father always told me every time I asked what happened to her.” Claire admitted hanging her head as if she had done something wrong.

“Oh dear child, your mother loved you. She doted upon you; to her you were her world. No child she died when you were about four years old.” Her grandmother’s words were solemn and quiet; everything now made sense to Claire, the vague memories, her father’s slip ups. Without even knowing the tears began to slide down Claire’s cheeks and she wondered just what had caused her father to lie to her, to tell her those things when somewhere deep in her heart she knew they were not true.

“What happened to her?”

“She died, working on a train with your father. There was a big accident and she was crushed. There wasn’t anything they could do to save her.” Placing her tea down on the table it was her aunt that had spoken to her, her Grandmother was also too choked up to speak.

Hands shaking Claire found it to be a great effort to place her tea cup back down on the table without spilling any of the contents. It only took a moment before Adela’s arms were around her and Claire was bawling her eyes out into her arms. They sat there for some long moments before Claire finally settled enough that they could speak again. It was as if eleven long years of being lied and not having a chance to grieve had finally caught up with her.