A winter story, part eight

by: Olivia Dale

"C'mon, Sara, it's over here!" Felix King shouted over his shoulder in his Uncle Jasper Dale's workshop.
Since Jasper had been working in Carmody a lot lately, Sara and Felix were assigned to keep the workshop tidy from any pesky rodents that might just pop by for an unwelcome visit to nibble on whatever invention Jasper had been working on. And since Aunt Olivia seemed to be keeping her proper distance from the mice, she had gladly given the unpleasant task of throwing out dead mice to the children.
Sara came rushing over to Felix. "You found another one?" she asked, "Mice are always a problem in the winter, aren't they?" she continued. But Felix wasn't holding a dead mouse by the tail, he was observing one of Jasper's inventions. An odd, boxlike contraption was hooked up with cables to a bicycle, and then other wires and strings connected to a large plank with light bulbs screwed onto it.
Sara and Felix eyed it all over.
"What is this supposed to be?" Felix asked.
"I don't know." Sara replied, "But the light bulbs we brought in last week is all screwed onto a plank. What do you suppose that's for?" she asked, pointing to the bicycle.
"I don't know." Felix replied.
Sara cautiously seated herself onto the bicycle, and started peddling. Nothing happened.
"Peddle harder." Felix suggested. Sara began peddling faster, but still nothing of interest happened.
Out of the corner of his eye, Felix spotted a loose wire.
"Aha," he stated, picking up the strand of wire. "I think this is our problem."
He wiggled the wire onto the box when all of a sudden, the light bulbs turned on, a static tick sounded, and threw Felix across the room. Sara stopped peddling and rushed over to her cousins' side, surprised indeed.
                                                                        ~*~

"It was like an invisible hand grabbed me and threw me across the room." Felix mused, eyes wide with excitement of his small adventure.
"Felix, really," Aunt Hetty chided, wiping off the blood and dirt from Felix's electrocuted finger."You know you mustn't play around in Uncle Jasper's workshop."
Janet came scuttling over to her sons' side with a dish of butter and quickly dressed down his finger in it. "I suppose you deserve this for prying into someone else's belongings." she scolded him as she looked at his swollen finger.
"Aunt Hetty," Sara piped up in Felix's defense, "Uncle Jasper told us that we could work around in his workshop."
Eliza saw the butter dripping from Felix's finger. "Ice, Janet, not butter." she said as she handed Hetty the ice tray.
"Eliza's right." Hetty said as she wiped the butter off of his finger and cooled it down with a chip of ice. Then she wrapped it up with a strip of cloth.
"What were you doing in there, anyway, besides cleaning up dead rats? You could have been badly hurt, as if this,"Alec said, pointing to Felix's sore finger, "isn't bad enough?"
Felix shrugged. "Just looking around, I suppose." he told his father.
Alec didn't smile but his lip twitched and his eyes held a sparkle of amusement.
"Your curiosity got the better of you two didn't it?" he asked, looking at his son and niece.
They looked at him sheepishly.
"Play it safe the next time." he finished, putting on his coat and hat. "I've got to tend to the lambs. Felicity, Hetty, Cecily, Sara and Felix," he said to them, "I'll need you all in the barn after your'e finished in here."
Hetty quickly finished wrapping Felix's finger. "I'm going out with you right now." she said, grabbing her coat and mitts. Alec, along with Hetty, closed the door behind them.
Janet cleared the table and rushed the rest of the children out to the barn, leaving just her and Eliza in the kitchen.
Eliza was complaining, as usual, with her infamous tjsk-tjsk.
"You really ought to know better, Janet, speaking of medicinal things, that butter does not help a burn at all, infact it just makes it even worse." she said, picking up baby Daniel. She felt him all over."And this baby here, is burning up with fever!"
Janet paled and quickly took the happily chortling child from Eliza's arms.
"I have always warned you about the sicknesses that can arise in a drafty old house, yet you never listen to me, do you? I can blame you for this." she said with a rise in her tone of voice.
Janet breathed a sigh of relief, the baby didn't have a fever at all. She hugged him close. But her cheeks flamed with furry at her old aunt. How dare she blame her for all the mishappenings!
"There is nothing wrong with this baby. He's just overheated, is all. And I thank you to keep your opinions to yourself." she finished with stomping out of the kitchen.