Time Will Tell

Sarah rotated the right lens of her goggles while she worked on the intricate gear of her new invention. She had made her own adjustments to her goggles in order for her to be able to work on such small gears and pieces. She held up a piece of fine copper wire and a coil to a torch. She wanted to melt the wire to the metal coil for a new idea she had. She had an idea that would help her invention work and even if she was the only one who used it she didn't mind one bit.

"Ah hem," someone cleared their throat.

She was satisfied that the copper had melted perfectly to the coil, she could then see if this piece would make her new device work better than all of her other inventions.

"Ah hem," again someone cleared their throat.

She smiled in satisfaction as she moved the coil down to her new device.

"Sarah? Do you know what time it is?"

Sarah jumped as she heard her name. She quickly checked to make sure she hadn't dropped the coil. "Oh good I didn't dropped it." She moved the coil down once again and placed the part in place. She then pulled her goggles up to the top of her head and started at Ian. "You know…you really shouldn't do that. You could have made me mess up my new invention.

Ian rolled his blue eyes at her. "You know we have to go to the launch of that new zeppelin Newbourne. It's supposed to be better than the Zephyr. I hope so."

"Yeah, but the train is what is best. Have you seen the new steam engine? It's awesome. I'm trying to design a new machine that uses the same moves as a steam engine, but not use steam. I hope to have it ready soon."

Ian scoffed. "You and your stupid inventions! Remember that model zeppelin you made that you made into that strange shape?"

"Yes, why are you bringing this up?"

"Remember when you test drove it and it flew for 5 minutes before catching fire."

"Yes, but at least it was a model. I think we should be able to make them into whatever shape we want, not that oblong shape. It would be nice to see some variation. Still you never complain about my beautiful magnificent balloon that I had designed and is still being used today for rides. It has helped with supporting our family."

Ian nodded, he couldn't ignore that her inventions all though strange at times were actually very useful. "All right, I guess you do make some useful inventions."

Sarah smiled as she took out her pocket watch. She flipped up the cover causing the face of the clock to sit up. Tiny wire replicas of the sun and moon flipped out and rotated around as the sun fell in place for noon. She had made several of these watches which provided a nice income.

Her family business was making and repairing clocks, well just the males in the family. She had watched her father as he would fix clocks and was happy when he decided to teach her how to fix them. She learned how the gears worked together to move the dial and how important it was to put the clock back together just right. She really enjoyed working on pocket watches. She learned to make one herself one day when hers broke. She didn't have access to gold, but was able to melt down some of the old works from broken clocks and watches to make a new one. She had a gift at making unique watches. Her father always let her work on new devices. That's how she got her own lab in their home. She enjoyed science, but most of all enjoyed the beauty of watching her inventions work.

"Sarah, are you ready to go?" Ian was impatient now. His sister always was working in her lab.

"I don't want to go, all zeppelins are the same." She sighed and slid her goggles back down. She rotated the lens and then looked down at her new invention. "I think this watch is going to be the best." She picked it up to show her brother. When you opened it, it showed a tiny dancer moving around.

"Is that a music box watch?"

"Yes it is. I love music boxes, so I thought if I could combine my love of watches with music boxes. Why not make this?" She smiled proud of herself.

"Yeah only you would come up with that. I know you want to go, so come on, let's go!"

"All right," responded Sarah as she pulled her goggles off her head. She smoothed down her red hair as she got up and wiped her hands on her apron. She put her apron on her chair and walked behind her brother.

As they hit outside she winced at the sun as it reflected off of the ground making it bright to her eyes. She put her hands over her eyes.

"That's what you get when you stay inside all of the time."

Sarah shrugged and waited till her eyes adjusted. She walked towards the gathering slowly. She wasn't in the mood to watch another zeppelin take off. She did look at it, there wasn't anything special about it. She walked over to it and inspected it. This was supposed to be better than any of the others, but it looked just like the rest.

She decided she was going to ditch her brother and go check out the steam engines. She knew she would get a long lecture from him later, but he never noticed her when he was around those zeppelins. He really enjoyed flying machines.

She hadn't heard any trains come in today. She took her time walking and finally came across a black engine on the tracks. It was beautiful. The grill was huge and the tires were shiny and bright. It looked like a brand new engine. She placed her gloves on so that she could touch the grill. She could feel the cool steel through her gloves. This is what everyone should be looking at; this beautiful work of art.

She dared not climb into it. She knew it would be too tempting for her to take it down the track. She had been in many engines before and this one was the most beautiful. She decided she would make her own engine when she got home. She would first make a model and hopefully it would come out just like this one.