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[DrSalvatoreUrbana]

Tinkering

Grease and oil stained the protective leather sleeves, Salvatore wore as he tinkered with the huge device. To distract him from not teaching at the RSMA, he had picked up the hobby of making odd contraptions… partially to see if he could improve on his constantly jamming steambernetic leg and hand. His latest work of art had gotten large enough that he had to drag it from the laboratory in the manor to the old carriage house. He still wasn’t quite sure what it was, but he knew it was going to be impressive. Stepping back from the machine, and letting the warm sun soothe his cold skin, the old gecko closed his eyes and smiled.

Daydreaming he could see his lovely Maria smiling at him as he worked… well… smiling as she worked. She was so much better with the mechanical side of things. While he was renown for his ability with a scalpel and medicine, she was the one skilled in machines. He opened his eyes and sighed. It was huge. Much larger than he had first envisioned when he had started fiddling with it. The contraption had grown a life of its own, and now swallowed the carriage house. The gecko sighed and spoke aloud, “Figures… I really need an assistant. I’m getting much too old to climb all the way up, only to have to climb all the way back down again.”

Holstering his tools, Salvatore shimmied and coiled his way around one of the support beams, and dropped down atop the invention. While its main body was only about 17 hands high, its dual wings made it tower over the normally hobbling gecko. For several, long, moments, he sat on it thinking. He drummed his fingers on it, counting to five each time… polydactyl… that was a gift from his Mother. He smirked remembering that he had an unfair advantage to counting, as he could count to ten on his fingers, when the other kids could only count to eight. Finally he jumped off, and loped out of the carriage house closing the door behind him.

Wandering around the grounds of the Urbana estate, Salvatore let his mind wander and made his way to the flower garden. Gardening had always made him smile. Arriving at the terracotta walls, he made his way to the garden gate. Vines had long since wrapped around the rod iron. Pulling open the gate with a tug, the old healer stepped into the garden.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath letting the pollen drift into his nose, and remembering Maria. Opening them, the gecko furrowed his brow and sighed. “This simply won’t due.” The garden had started to go wild again. Vines, shrubs, bushes, flowers, even the shade trees all conspired against him. While none of them were sickly or dry, they had become a jumbled mess of green. “I really need an assistant… and someone good at gardening too.”

Blinking, Salvatore’s eyes went wide. “Genius! I know.”

Loping, as best he could, the gecko made his way to Bon Bon’s town square again. He didn’t stop, and barely acknowledged the confused looks and greetings that came his way. He was a gecko on a mission. Stopping in front of the kiosk in town square, he panted for several minutes, catching his breath. With odd curiosity, he realized that during the entire trip, neither one of his prosthetics had seized up, as they usually do. Shaking his mind clear, Salvatore, scanned the kiosk looking for his posting. Finding it, his shoulders slumped.

“Several weeks and still nothing.” Taking a pencil from his coat pocket, he scrawled underneath his notification:

Paying 1500 florins upfront, and a monthly salary in compensation for all work done.

As if by afterthought, he finished:

Must also be able to garden.

Stuffing the pencil carelessly back into his pocket, he crossed his arms in front of him, and said to himself, “Now… now I should get some help.”