The Automaton ( Part 6)

Tom was startled by the noise of the cup shattering on the tiled floor.

“Di, you okay?”

She said nothing, just stared him.

“Di, what on earth’s the matter?”

He held her close, he could feel her shaking. He sat her down on the chair and knelt beside her.

“Di, talk to me, what’s wrong?”

She swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

“Tom, I found the toy on the table this morning after you had left for work. It was the toys bell ringing that was the last thing I heard just before I passed out. It’s still here in the house Tom, in the room next door.”

Tom stood up.

“But Di, I took it to work with me, it’s in the car. You stay there and I’ll go and get it.”

He opened the kitchen door and disappeared. A few minutes later he was back holding the man on the bicycle.

“See Di, it’s right here.”

Dianne shook her head.

“Tom I’m telling you, it has been with me all morning. Something’s not right here.”

She stood up and walked out of the kitchen, Tom followed her. They both stopped at the doorway to the front room. Dianne put her hand to her mouth. There, on the floor by the bookcase was the toy. Tom began to laugh.

“Well that answers the mystery, there’s bloody two of them.”

He walked passed Dianne and picked up the toy.

“See Di, you’re not going mad after all.”

He kissed her on the cheek and put his arm around her.

“Come on, let’s go and have a coffee and see if we can work this out.”

She didn’t speak just followed Tom back into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

Tom made them both a coffee and then put both toys on the kitchen table in front of them.

Dianne took a sip of her coffee and for the first time started to smile.

“But how Tom, how the hell did two of them get here? It makes no sense.”

Tom smiled back at her.

“It has to be Ben, you said yourself that he’s been playing with it, perhaps he found another one somewhere in the house or the grounds and brought it into the kitchen.”

“What, and put it on the table?”

“Well he is a smart dog Di, maybe he did.”

Dianne sat back in the chair and relaxed. Tom took a close look at both toys.

“They’re slightly different, ones a few inches bigger than the other both in height and length. There’s also a slight difference in the colours, the bigger one has darker shades of red and greens.”

Dianne agreed and picked up the larger toy. She looked it all over carefully and then turned the key on the man’s back. She put it on the floor. Immediately the man’s legs turned and started to pedal, the wheels on the bike spun and off it went across the kitchen floor. Just before it hit the wall it turned right and carried on along the floor, its bell ringing all the time.

Tom was grinning.

“Wow, just like the other one, it has some kind of sensor built it and look Di, its body moves backwards and forwards like a jockey on a horse.
Sure enough the man’s body was actually “riding” the bike moving backwards and forwards on and off his saddle. Tom clapped his hands.

“This is great we now have two automatons to show the professor tomorrow.”

Tom finished his coffee and went back to work. Dianne, as promised, called the letting g agent and enquired about local doctors, apparently there was one at the top of their road. She called and made an appointment for the morning. Ben was fast asleep in his basket in the hallway and Dianne decided to have another search of the house in case there were any more of these gadgets hiding somewhere. After two hours searching every room she was convinced that there were no more surprises to be found. She poured herself a large glass of white wine and sat down in the armchair in the living room. Both toys were in the room with her. She couldn’t take her eyes off them; she was convinced that at some time they would move. They didn’t.

Tom arrived home earlier than she expected and after a dinner of chicken and pasta and a few more glasses of wine they were in bed before ten thirty.

The house fell silent.

At six minutes past three, Ben got out of his basket in the hallway awoken by the strange sounds coming from the living room. He stood in the doorway and started to bark.

Tom woke first and sat up. Dianne did the same a few seconds later.

“It’s okay Tom, just Ben barking, it’s probably a fox or something.”

“No Di, there’s something else, I can hear voices.”

Dianne sat up, she could hear it too.

“It sounds like people whispering.”

Tom got out of bed and put on his dressing gown.

“Stay there Di, I’ll have a look.”

“Shall I call the police?”

“No, let me have a look first, it may be nothing.”

Tom crept out of the bedroom and stood on the landing. Over the bannisters he could see Ben standing in the doorway of the living room, wagging his tail and barking. There were muffled sounds coming from the room. He could hear what sounded like whispering and the occasional laughter. Tom shouted out.

“Okay, we know you’re down there, we’ve called the police so you’d better get out now while you have the chance.”

Ben stopped barking and the room fell silent. He watched as Ben walked back to his basket and curled up tight. He waited. Nothing.

Dianne got out of bed and stood beside him.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing, everything’s quiet again. Bens even gone back to bed. Stay here, I’m going downstairs.”

“Be careful Tom.”

Slowly he crept down the stairs. Ben saw him and met him halfway wagging his tail and barking again.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and picked up an umbrella from the stand, his heart pounding.

“Okay, I’m coming in and I’m armed, the police are on their way!”

He rushed into the living room and switched on the light as he did so. The room was exactly as he and Dianne had left it before they went to bed. No open windows, nothing out of place. He breathed a sigh of relief, and then shouted out to Dianne.

“It’s okay love, nothing here, might have been the wind or something.”

Dianne was quickly by his side.

“But we both heard voices, coming from this room and Ben must have heard something or he wouldn’t have been barking.”

“You know what old house are like love, lots of chimneys where the wind can blow through, windows that rattle, pipes that make all sorts of strange noises, could have been anything. The main thing is everything is fine, come on let’s go back to bed.”

Ben went back to his basket, and the two of them climbed the stairs, none of them noticed the moving shadows in the living room and its door slowly closing.