Amadeus Winds a Watch

By Christopher Cornell

A brief account of tech support in the nineteenish century.

"Doctor of Technology" Amadeus Skullthumper sets out to repair a state-of-the art watch only to find himself mixed up with a maddeningly thick watchmaker whose creations are a threat to the fabric of space-time and good taste alike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Cornell
• Release date: Oct 15, 2010

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Amadeus Winds a Watch

by Christopher Cornell

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Copyright 2010 Christopher Cornell

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Amadeus Winds a Watch

If there's one thing to be said about this recent technology boom, it's that a fellow can make a decent living for himself fixing all the broken machinery around the place. For as long as there are devices being built there will always be misaligned gears and stopped-up valves; and so long as there is money coming in there will be Amadeus to fix them.

It is a mundane Wednesday evening and I am closing up my shop as is the usual. The day has proved uneventful and I am left to assume that all the cogs in Newburg are spinning unhindered. I am prepared to flip the end-of-the-day switch – the one that changes the letters displayed just above the shop's entrance from OPEN to CLOSED using a mechanism of my own invention – when a man walks inside in the most casual manner.

He stops almost immediately, transfixed by the various devices I keep on display just beyond the portal. I call them my Curiosities. To the customer they are a gleaming display of gadgetry; to me, a load of gears and the like thrown together, polished, and made to move around a bit. I confess I am a cynical person, but the way people will stare at a disassembled potato peeler in awe does nothing to divert my philosophy.

Good evening! he declares when he catches my eye. His left arm is wrapped in leather, which in turn is wrapped in the mess of gears and coils that people have come to recognize as Technology. He has the voice of a man who is certain