My Clockwork Muse Read Online Free PDF Page B

Mr. Poe," she said.
    I felt triumphant, for it was the first
complete thought I had ever heard her utter and I seized upon the
moment to press my luck.
    "Please, Miss Coppelius, Virginia always
called me Eddy, and I would like for you to call me Eddy, too."
    She would not meet my eyes, but I heard her
distinctly. "Eddy," she said in such a low whisper it might have
been a rustling of leaves. But it wasn't; it was "Eddy".
    I was about to say more when a black shape
suddenly crossed my vision and landed upon my shoulder. The thing
struck me with such violence that I was nearly thrown from my feet.
I staggered and turned just in time to see it scamper away under a
bush. I felt a pain in my cheek and when I touched it, my fingers
came away bloody. Seconds later, a cat appeared out of the
bush.
    But not just any cat. It was the loathsome,
one-eyed Pluto.
    It crouched there, hissing at me.
    It was Virginia's cat. She had loved it as
deeply as I detested the damned thing, and it hated me with a
passion that exceeded us both. That it had successfully ambushed me
at Virginia's graveside in the presence of Olimpia was an offense I
would not soon forget. For Virginia's sake, I still put out little
tidbits of food and milk for him, but the creature often went
missing for weeks at a time. Now I knew where he was, off in the
graveyard chasing rats.
    I was scandalized that Olimpia should have
had to witness an attack by such a vile creature, but when I turned
to calm her fright, I saw that she had gone. I looked around and
found her already in the distance, gliding elegantly away down the
path, out of earshot.
    "Nice going, Pluto, you damned thing," I
said, but Pluto had vanished too. Only the shuddering of the bush
showed where he had gone.
    I wiped the trickle of blood from my cheek
and turned to the vault where Virginia's name was engraved upon a
slate-gray slab and thought about Olimpia calling me Eddy and saw
how our two roses stood side by side, like twins.
     
    ~ * * * ~
     
    "So it's love then, is it, Eddy?"
    It was pitch dark by the time I fished the
key from my pocket and opened the cottage door. The voice came to
me from the gloom inside. I didn't want to hear it but didn't
bother saying so; navigating the darkness required all my
concentration.
    "Damn-it-all!" My shin struck a chair and
sent it scuddering across the bare wood floor. The voice chuckled
in the darkness.
    "Yes, very funny," I said, feeling the little
spot of fire on my shin. Doubtless, a welt would grow there. I had
hit the chair dead-on and hard. I hobbled to the mantle and found a
match.
    "I could have told you you were about to walk
into that chair."
    "Thanks," I said, striking the match. I lit a
candle and turned.
    The raven sat perched on the back of my
rocker. He cocked his head at me and then strained forward and let
out an ear-splitting squawk . I winced and the bird flapped a
little, clearing his throat.
    "Sorry," he said. "That one slipped out. What
I meant to say was—"
"You talk too much as it is, Tap," I said, cutting him off. I
arranged some firewood and kindling in the fireplace, thinking I
might warm up some cold tea. "I could live without the squawking,
but, I must say, I prefer it to your incessant—"
    "I said I was sorry," Tap replied crossly. "I
get excited when I actually have somebody to talk to. Sue me!"
    "I didn't know you required an ear for your
endless chattering."
    "Endless? Now, that stings, Eddy. You suppose
I sit here all day talking to myself?"
    "Don't you?"
    "You'd think I was crazy if I did."
    "Well, what do you do, then? Perch there
quietly?"
    "Perched upon my rusty chalice..." Tap said
in a sing-song voice.
    "Your what?" I blew on the kindling and the
fire flared up around a charred piece of wood. Hot tea in
moments.
    "Rusty chalice."
    "You mean 'bust of Pallas'."
    "Chalice ... Pallas ... Whatever, Eddy. The
point is, I got squat to perch on. Wait ... What were we talking
about?"
    "How you spend your days."
    "Oh, yeah ... Hardly