The Multigenre Mashup Smackdown Collection

Part 2:1 . To be a toy , Steampunk edition

The clicking of gears being pushed into place is the first thing I remember. Then the ticking of a clock. Finally, the loud blaring train that was coming to a stop in the train station just a couple of blocks away.

I sat up on my tin and metal body, looking around curiously at the world around me.

I didn't know who or what I was or what purpose I was to serve but the very thought that I was alive filled me with great joy.

The old tinker who had greased me and dinged me into shape had sat about cleaning his workspace. He remained oblivious to me for a full five minutes. When he finally turned around and his eyes landed on my metal form, he looked at me in shock and I looked back.

"Oh my goodness! You actually work!" I heard him say.

I couldn't respond to him, I hadn't been given a voice box, but I merely watched as he wiped the grease off his hands and picked me up.

"Oh little Timmy is going to love you!" He continued.

Timmy? I wondered if that would be my owner. What would this Timmy be like? I had so many questions but I knew I wouldn't get the answers I needed just then.

The old tinker picked me up and packed me in a shiny wooden box. As he closed his shop and walked with the box I was in tucked underneath his armpit. My eyes scanned the busy streets as people scurried about with men women and children hurrying about their business whilst travellers hurried to catch the train before it lest the station.

I saw a boy who sold the latest paper.

"Extra, extra ! Read all about it!" He called out as he waved his paper.

A few adults stopped to buy his paper, handed his a penny or two. There was so much to see but so little time. Within minutes we had arrived at a little apartment at the end of one of the more abandoned streets.

We went up a winding staircase, possibly to the attic.

"Timmy, I'm home!" The old tinker called out.

Immediately after, a little boys with dark curly hair came racing towards us.

"Welcome back, papa!" The boy said cheerfully as he jumped the old man for a hug, accidentally knocking me out of the old tinker's grasp.

This was when he finally took notice of me still in the wooden box that he had knocked open.

"Oh papa, did you finally get Mr Jingles to work?" Timmy squealed in wonder.

Mr Jingles, so that must be my name. I stare up at him as Timmy gently lifts me from my box and runs over to his little corner. He has an entire wooden box carved into a house filled with other toys like me.

When he places me down and goes back to the old tinker to thank him, the toy soldier next to me looks up at me and gives me a salute.

"Welcome aboard, soldier!" He says. "Lieutenant Dudley at your service!"

"Pleasure to meet you." I said to him.

"Oi, Dudley, stop trying to recruit the kid!" Came the voice of the brown teddy bear who was sitting by the window.

I looked up at the bear as he steadily got off from his seating position as stumbled over to where I was.

"Hello, I'm Mr..."

"Jingles, yeah, we all heard the kid." He said as he came and stood in front of me.
I noticed he was a quarter of an inch shorter but he was built much bulkier than I was.

"I'm Frankie, the original toy in this establishment and I'd like to lay down a few ground rules." He continued. "Okay firstly, rookie, your very job is to make the kid happy. That's alls our job so don't let me hear you whining about that. You see the kid unhappy, you do your best to cheer him on."

"But, what if I can't? What if I'm unhappy myself?" I chipped in but he interrupted me.

"Did I say you could ask questions? Listen here and listen well, that kid there is alls our savior. He found each any everyone of us and convinced the old man to make us decent. You got a problem with that well that tough luck you're just gonna have to suck it up." Frankie continued, his tone reprimanding. "Or maybe you want to be thrown back into the gutter again."

"N-no! I don't want that!" I stuttered.

"Enough already, Frankie, you're scaring the poor kid."

I turned around and saw another toy, a wooden police man.

"Sorry about him, he can be a little intense that's why we call him grumpy." He said. "I'm George, nice to meet you kid."

"It's nice to meet you too." I replied, calming down a bit.

"You'll have fun here, don't worry. But you gotta get ready, we're taking a little trip. Have you been on a steam locomotive?" George asked with a curious smile.

"I saw the train pull on from the workshop when I woke up but I don't think I've ever been on one." I replied.

"Then you'll love it. Timmy and his father are just having their eats right now but the old man is sending Timmy over to his aunt and uncle over in Norway because of the war. We're going with him and we'll stay with him until the war's over." George replied in a solemn tone.

"War?!" I exclaimed in alarm.

I didn't know much about war but it sounded bad.

"Yes, they call it the world war. The old man wants to send Timmy away because he fears the war will arrive on these borders soon and little boys like Timmy will be shipped off to the front lines to die for someone's cause or another." Dudley chipped in.

I call tell this was now his area of expertise as he explained all this to me.

"But why would anyone send children off to such a bad place?" I asked, the information leaving me startled.

"Why are you asking us?" Frankie grunted. "Humans are stupid, you can never understand them. Now shush, Timmy's done eating. He'll come pack us up now for the journey."

Just as he said, Timmy hopped over to where we were and as he sung happily playing with each of us, he began to put us all into some special toy box.

"Sorry men, I'll let you out as soon as I get to my own private coach and we can have as much fun as we want until we get to Norway!" Timmy said excitedly before his smile faltered. "I wonder what Norway's like. Do you know, Mr Jingles?"

His innocent eyes looked down at me as he searched for some sort of reassurance. I remained quiet, not giving myself away. Besides, I could practically feel Frankie's glare as he was somewhat daring me to move and scare the poor kid.

After a few moments, Timmy seemed to be feeling a little less nervous than before as he finally put me into his toy box.

The journey to the station was a bumpy one but I was excited for this journey. We eventually got to the station and the old man helped Timmy board the train. I could hear many people bidding their families and loved ones farewell. After a little while, when Timmy was sitted inside one of the train coaches, he carefully opened his toy box and let us out just as the train pulled out of the station.

"Look, the train's moving! There's papa!" Timmy exclaimed as he waved out through the window. "Goodbye papa!"

He kept waving and calling out to the old man until he couldn't see him anymore. Only then did he slouch back onto the seat with a saddened expression on his face as it dawned on him that he probably wouldn't get to see his old man for a while.

I saw Frankie move slightly towards him such that Timmy grabbed the teddy bear and hugged him.

"We'll be alright, right Frankie?" Timmy said as he let out a brave smile. "I'm a big boy and big boys are brave. I'll go stay with Aunt Mary and Uncle Thomas and be a good boy. Once it's alright for me to come back home, papa will come get me."

We sat there in silence for the rest of the afternoon. The silence was occasionally problem by the whistling of the steam locomotive as it moved through the terrain and made its way to it's destination, to a new life that awaited us all.

I hadn't lived a day with these other toys, and with Timmy but I knew there was a long road ahead of us and that we will meet any obstacle head on together.