Page 17 of The Nutcracker
I hit the flame switch and below the skillet a blue flame ignited, heating up the nuts which began to roast.
I glanced up and watched as the monkey in the bi-plane swung curiously close to the far wall. I could sense a gadget waiting to be discovered and hurried over, finding a key in a lock on the wall. I turned it and a small Christmas tree appeared from behind a tiny door that flung open. Several mechanical elves appeared, placing presents under the tree while one of them placed a sprig of holly on top.
That’s when I heard the bi-plane making another round and ducked.
The plane narrowly missed me but clipped the holly, snagging it with its landing gear and plucking it from the tree.
As the homely smell of chestnuts roasting filled the room, I saw the toy truck roll to a halt on a ledge above a train track.
My gaze followed the train track which spiralled around the wall, also passing beneath the skillet and beneath the path of the circling bi-plane.
I took a chance and flicked the train switch.
From three tunnels hidden in the walls emerged three separate parts of a bright red model train—the engine, the caboose and an empty coal car.
The three carriages began rattling along their tracks.
As the engine passed beneath the ledge where the truck had stopped, the back tray of the truck tilted upward and out slid a small teddy bear, landing onto the engine of the train as it whizzed by below.
As the coal car passed beneath the skillet, the pan tilted onto its side, emptying the warm roasted chestnuts into the coal car as it bounced along the tracks.
Lastly, as the caboose rattled along, the monkey in the bi-plane swooped low just as the sprig of holly became unstuck from the plane’s landing gear, dropping neatly onto the top of the caboose.
As the three parts of the train clattered along their tracks, I realized there was one switch left.
I flicked the bridge switch.
From three different sides of the room, three drawbridges began to lower, connecting the train tracks that circled the walls to the tracks on the island in the middle of the room. I had to sidestep to make way for one of the bridges as all three of them slotted into place, just in time for the three parts of the train to veer onto the bridges and cross to the island.
There the engine, the coal car and the caboose rolled to a halt at the train station onThe Land of Wishes.
As the train carriages came to rest, tapping gently against each other in the correct order, the cogs and bells and whirs and whistles stopped, making way for one last chuff from the little train before everything fell still and silent.
It took a few moments for me to realize I was holding my breath.
I let out a lungful of air and the only word I could muster at the time—“Golly!”
Curtis laughed. “Golly? That’s the only word you have to describe the greatest creation of all time?”
“I’m sorry, it’s the first word that came into my head. This machine is seriously… golly!”
“Splendiferous is the word I’d use. Or perhaps luminous. Or maybe magnifilous… although I’m quite certain that’s not a real word.” He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it affectionately. “Nevertheless, if ‘golly’ is the first word that jumps into your head, then ‘golly’ it is.”
“But where’s the wish? What does it all mean?”
He stepped me toward the little train station onThe Land of Wishes. “Whatever the train has delivered you, those are the keys to make your wish come true.”
I looked down and saw the teddy bear.
The chestnuts.
The sprig of holly.
My brain was ticking over. “I totally get the teddy bear. He won a bear at the fair once and gave it to her. She sat it in the tree every Christmas. And the chestnuts… he always loved the smell of chestnuts roasting in the kitchen. But the holly? I don’t get it. We used to deck the halls with holly… is it that?”
I suddenly realized Curtis had no idea what—or who—I was talking about.
Or did he?