Tevun-Krus #36 - A Very Merry SteamPunk Christmas

The Invitation - A Short Story by @krazydiamond

The rhythmic thumps on the hood meant only one thing. Boss Cor wanted something, and he was fair irritable. He only got tippy tappy when he was irritable. Jem sighed as she slid out from underneath the safety of pipes and gears, wiping away a spot of grease. She kept a firm hold on her industrial sized wrench just in case.

"Yes sir?" Best to be polite with his eye whirring like that. Or maybe it needed a recalibration. She tried not to wince when it sparked, forcing his eye to twitch.

"This work order was supposed to be finished hours ago, Jem. Hours." He waited, watching the closed expression on her face before he sighed. "It's Christmas Eve. I want to go home to my woman and her roast. She made it with all the spices." Jem could see the longing in her boss's good eye.

She let her head fall back with a thud on the rolling board. "I'm sorry sir, it turned out to be far more work than I first estimated. There was a twisted gear inside the crank shaft that mucked up half the engine. I've had to rebuild it from nearly the ground up...."

She trailed off at the martyred look on his face. "Couldn't you have just fixed the original problem."

She frowned. "But then they would have been back in the shop within a week when the whole engine blew–"

"Yes, and it would have been a repair they would have paid for."

"Oh," she said, remembering how Boss Cor had so generously offered the inspector the repair on the house when Jem originally diagnosed a misaligned gear. A quick fix, nothing more than a few pounds cost wise, unlike rebuilding an engine from the ground up....

"You're garnishing my wages aren't you?"

She said it softly, honestly surprised by the affronted expression on his face. "What kind of animal do you think I am, Jem. It's bloody Christmas."

Not that the holidays usually mattered to her, but her boss seemed to have a small soft spot in his plated chest for all things Christmas. "I'll stay and finish up tonight," she said, starting to scoot back under the engine when he caught her foot, forcing her to look up at his concerned face. How utterly strange when he usually wore that scowl all the time.

"Aren't you going to go eat dinner with the family?"

Jem managed to contain her bitter laugh. She'd worked for Boss Cor for nearly six years and mentioned on more than one occasion she had no one left. The holidays were nothing more than another day for her, perhaps more lonely than the rest. "Not this year sir."

"Oh," he said looking down at her for a moment before he shrugged. "Well, don't dwaddle too long. I'd hate to pay the heating for you pulling another all nighter in this weather."

There was the Boss Cor she was used to. Skinflint and unobservant to a tee. His feigned concern was like rubbing salt into a long standing wound. Jem bit the inside of her cheek to keep from reacting and waved him off.

She returned to the solace of grease and shadows beneath the engine block, losing herself in the intricate gear work long after Boss Cor packed himself off to his waiting wife and roast. Not even an extended invitation for his long suffering mechanic, she thought bitterly, smiling at the futility of the thought. Invitation? That would mean sharing the roast. Instead, she would finish up here and head home to her freezing apartment, trying to coax the steam heater to warm up her bedroom as she scrounged through the few groceries she'd been able to afford last week.

She was moping. She knew she was moping. Shoving away such bitter thoughts she finished up the inspector's vehicle, a massive repair he'd get for free. She'd be lying if that didn't give her a small bit of satisfaction. Though she might have stretched the truth of the simplicity of the repair when she first diagnosed it to her cheap but suck up of a boss. Smiling, she started to clean up her tools when there was a fantastic series of sounds outside. A man's deep panicked shout, a crunch and twist of metal that made her wince and the low angry grunts of some sort of animal. Fair puzzled and wondering what all the ruckus was about, she made her way for the work shop door, catching sight of the clock on the wall. It was well nigh on midnight, and the lamps were still burning bright for her. Boss Cor was so docking her wages. Wondering how she was going to pay for food for the next month, she was utterly startled when the door slammed open. Jem screamed, leaping backward, her wrench raised to fend off wild intruders when the figure burst into the room, the sight so odd and unlikely she nearly dropped her wrench on her foot. A move that would have certainly cost her a few toes.