The Trimmer
The large park of Old Downtown was an ode to gods from an ancient time. There were beasts hungry for human flesh, men loin clothed for battle, and women with swollen sex in silks as various statues in depiction of prior events in human history. To a degree, the gods were still worshiped in certain parts of Old Downtown and protected from teenage mayhem or any organized religion that insisted myth to all else but theirs. At the very center was a palatial fountain as if it were a pool sprung from the heavens and it was lit with dull light since the water was so vibrant with color.
She was in her pink and the fountain ran blue that day. She couldn't remember why she was there, but the blue fountain was her call. She sat at the edge and smiled. She knew in her dream that was what she did.
The man in Gothic Black & Grey Cape with Such, from her dreams, sat at the bench outside the spray of blue. His face was blank and his walking stick bright. She didn't understand the brightness, but she was drawn to it, so odd under the dim streetlights. No one around seemed to notice them and curfew was induced only moments before.
She popped a large green bubble and skipped to him, as she saw in her dream. "You're the Trimmer?"
He chuckled and shook his walking stick. He looked much younger than her dream. His eyes seemed to change color and his voice was deep in timbre. "If your dreams says so."
"He is taken with a Woman in Orchard. I don't know what that is-I just don't want it," she insisted with another pop of green gum in her school uniform, red and yellow for City School System. She kicked her red shoed feet out with disgust. "He deserves a better love-mine. He needs me."
"Too Young-NO," said the dark olive countenance in full seriousness. He shook his head to the ridiculousness."You know not what you choose."
"Trim me! Please Trim me! I know you can do it! You did it for my mother and, I know, YOU can do it for ME." She folded her arms with a large bubble and pop of her green gum. She didn't jump up and down, but her body moved as if she wanted to-yet couldn't.
He laughed, sardonically, at the sight. He looked a the spray of blue dance near him and let out a sigh of more laughter. "Sixpence, you have no idea what your mother did or has done since. Who is to say she is happier for it?"
"Father insists she is happier. She got to live and I got to live. I know I'm happier for living!" the short pink exclaimed with a wag of finger and hand on hip. "She loved me enough to trim and observe in her daddy's pocket watch!"
He looked at her in grave seriousness. Why or how she knew as much as she did could have only come from one fellow. . . her father. . .the scientist. He calculated quickly with the edges of Time he could Trim and the cost. It appeared fair, the end result, although a part of him hated to Trim so much in a bloodline. His father had warned him of such before his father had Trimmed to pass on Trimming. It had seemed to really have been the only hard rule for Trimming. He also knew if he didn't Trim this child she would bother him incessantly, and she already knew too much from her blabby brokenhearted father. He further knew the The Great Cosmic Wheel would set her choice to Universal Rights. All he had to do was Trim, the effects were hers.
With the revelation of her knowledge soaked in hubris, the young Sixpence pranced around and waved at every cardinal direction with a shout of ,"Hello, Dearest Mother! Hello, Shelley de la Mer! It's me! It's me! Sixpence!!" Laughter then became an about face stare and a serious one at that as she looked deep into Trimmer's dark eyes. "You have the color of Trim in your eyes. You are about to do it! YES!! I'm so ready!!"
He tapped the bright silver bulb on the dark and chiseled stick with his index finger. "The price will be your father's sanity and knowledge. He will be functional, but prone to folly. You will become the adult and he the child to an extent. You not fully, he either. That is the price of what you seek."
In the eyes and mind of a child, the thought of price was nonexistent to the Want of Now. She nodded in full fury of delight. "I CAN DO THIS! I've watched him. I know his routines and I know his discipline! Easy price, Trimmer! Shake?"
He shook his head. "Not this Trim. Spin like a top and count to eighteen. That will be your age from now on-unless we must meet again. Are you certain, Sixpence, this is what you truly want to do to your Time?"
She only answered with a spin and count. Her uniform twirled and twirled with childish sing-song counting until Time had Trimmed and all within had changed. He vanished by the dizzy end and there she stood in shredded clothing. Her legs were long, her breasts in an older state of growth, her face within the boundary of child and lady. Her head hurt and she knew it was the Trim as her body internally caught up and her mental state grew as her emotions did slightly. Her love for him had grown even further with the pubescence of nonscientific carnal knowledge. She already had an idea. She turned to where The Trimmer had been and said,"I will be back again. You will be here before the Moon wanes-I know this, so I will come back for more."
She quickly ran home as clothing and shoes broke away.
Case Taken
Shuffled feet in darkness echoed down the dingy hall of the fourth floor of the Simp-Samson Building in Old Downtown. The click click of the security card opened a dusty door to a stifled room. He touched the pad on his arm and the helmet retreated with the last hiss of his breathing apparatus. He coughed once at the thick choke the unused room gave. He removed his dark long coat and hung it on the rack that stood to his left.
How long had it been since he had been there?
"Good evening, Mr. Kay. Welcome back to your Old Downtown Office. It has been three years, six months, twelve days, four hours, two minutes, and twelve seconds since you last entered. Full logs are ready for inspection. Today is filled with Success. Mulligan Corporation. In it." the soft voice of Tammy, the disembodied personal assistant, announced from above.
"Tammy, shit evening. I'm back in business here, but quietly. Execute Titok. I only take the worst cases. I want the gruesome." Kay commanded sternly as he walked from the entrance to the bedroom at the right. He didn't trust the location and he had his FEG PA-63 in his right with his left in a steady grip of wrist. He was ready to kill squatters and Rego-Heads before anyone could cry "Fire!" to get attention. He knew, for the most part, the floor was empty. Below were the bail bondsmen and bounty hunters, then the high class whores above, so he had an empty floor of the fourth. Long ago it held tax advisers and check companies-all eight to five and nevermore, but when he had checked earlier they had flown when the CDC had moved in.
"Titok run successful. Credentials filed Titok. Post Titok complete. Upload in Fekete complete. Await match." Tammy strummed in softness as he stepped into the sudden illumination of the bedroom.
