Straightlaced Saturday — Cornelis Drebbel 24

Posted on by Teagan Riordain Geneviene

Saturday, December 29 , 2018 

Copper promo USS Razorback Torpedo rm Pixabay
Altered Pixabay image from the torpedo room of the USS Razorback

Here we are, in that limbo between Christmas and New Year’s.  It’s still a festive time, but it is rather a “between” time.  However, the train has arrived at the platform and we’re ready for another chapter of Copper, the Alchemist, and the Woman in Trousers.  Although the mode of transportation is about to change.  This time we also learn a little about Felicity’s heritage.

Previously with Copper, the Alchemist, and the Woman in Trousers

Chapter 22.2

When the entire large shape was in full view, I still didn’t know what it could be.  “Cornelis…” I began, but found I was at a loss for words.  “Wha—”

Cornelis Drebbel clasped his hands and a gleeful expression lit his face, as if he beheld something he had long missed.

“It’s my submarine!” he crowed.

Chapter 23

Through one of his “tricks” the alchemist saw a dozen villains rapidly approaching the family estate of the Wongs.  Alastair’s ancestral connection to Cornelis made him as eager to defend the alchemist as he was to protect his home.  Alastair and Victoria used the road locomotive to rush back home while our trio waited to board Cornelis Drebbel’s submarine.

“Cornelis Drebbel, are you trying to tell me that this submarine is powered by a magical creature that farts a highly concentrated vaporous form of absinthe?” I asked and I couldn’t prevent my voice going up a full octave on the last word.

All aboard!

Copper, the Alchemist, and the Woman in Trousers

24 — Coyote, La Llorona, Chupacabra

weeping-Girl Pixabay
Pixabay

Being under water in a submarine had not phased the bricky little girl.  So, her frantic reaction to a supernatural presence surprised me.

“We have to help her!” Copper screamed and burst into tears.

“She can’t be helped, Copper!  She is not alive.  Her pain follows her in death.  She is not human,” I urgently tried to explain as the girl struggled in my grasp.

Copper couldn’t be allowed to go to that woman.  If she did, she’d be killed.

I looked back to the water’s edge.  A woman with long dark hair wailed in sorrow as she walked along the shore.  Her dress of flowing white was a false suggestion of purity.  Although no one could hear her intense grief and not feel sympathy as she repeated the distraught cry.

“¡Ay, mis hijos!”

“Quickly Cornelis!  Pull Copper inside before the magic completely beguiles her,” I called to the alchemist.

La Llorona Pixabay catrina-2532270_1920
Darksouls, Pixabay

His blonde head popped back up from the submarine’s hatch where he had gone ahead of us.  He said the Green Fairy would need reassurance, so we wouldn’t startle it.  Meanwhile Copper and I were poised, levitated on a cloud of green above the water beside the submarine.

Wide-eyed, Cornelis hissed a warning that the noise we were making would frighten Absinthe, the Green Fairy who powered the submarine.  However, a glance at my face was enough for him to know something was wrong.  I motioned with my head toward the shore — I daren’t move one of my hands from the struggling girl so I could point.  She was already bespelled enough to try and reach the Weeping Woman.

“What is that…?” Cornelis asked, meaning the woman.

“It’s La Llorona!  She beguiles children.  Hurry and help me get Copper inside,” I urged.

However, Copper twisted free of my grasp.  She jumped from our levitated spot and dove toward the water in attempt to reach the sorrowful woman.

“Cornelis!” I screamed.

A thin thread of luminous green shot after Copper.  It was same trick the alchemist used to pull me from the river when the alchemically-amped road locomotive had taken a turn too fast and my hatbox (containing his skull) went overboard.  I had jumped into the river to save it, but we both ended up with head colds.  The alchemist’s sneezes had odd results.

Girl Flute Green pixabay
Altered Pixabay image

The magical thread wrapped securely around Copper before she even touched the surface of the water.  With a couple of hand motions Cornelis reeled her back and quickly pulled her into the submarine.  I jumped in behind and closed the hatch.

“Such a tortured soul!  How did you know what would happen?” the Dutchman asked.

Cornelis seemed to sympathize with La Llorona.  I looked at him closely, wondering if her spell had affected the Dutchman as well as Copper.  Her magic was only supposed to be effective on children, but Cornelis was no ordinary human being, so I felt a moment of uncertainty.  However, looking into his eyes, I decided he was not influenced, just uncharacteristically empathetic.

“It was La Llorona,” I explained.  “I learned the legend from my maternal grandmother.  She was from Mexico.  Although it now seems to be more than just a story,” I said shaking my head in disbelief at the scene I had just witnessed.

“Some say La Llorona was insane with jealousy, but whatever her reasoning, she drowned her children.  My grandmother told the story that she came to her senses enough to comprehend something was wrong, and she wandered, searching for them.  When La Llorona realized what she had done, she drowned herself as well.  But her spirit was forever trapped between life and death.  So she wanders and beguiles children, leading them to a watery death,” I explained the legend as my grandmother imparted it during my childhood.

“With that kind of bedtime story, you must have been afraid to close your eyes,” Cornelis said and I nodded.  “Why, your grandmother was a woman after my own heart,” he said with a lopsided grin.

I rolled my eyes at the incorrigible alchemist. 

“She would have said you were an old coyote,” I retorted.  “And she would have liked you,” I added in a sardonic tone, knowing I spoke the truth.

Wolf as Colonial man

The Dutchman looked over his shoulder and again reminded me to be quiet. 

“And whatever you do, you must not startle the Green Fairy,” he whispered.

Carefully, I climbed down the ladder from the hatch.  I was about to ask where Copper was when I heard muffled sobbing from a corner.  She was huddled under  a piece of furniture that seemed to be a sort of desk, and she was crying from the influence of La Llorona.

Whether it was a desk or something else, it was an interesting piece.  The hutch opened out, wing-like with numerous compartments of boxes and little apothecary type drawers.  Those drawers had crystal faces with little brass knobs.  The open boxes were filled with all manner of glittering apparatuses. 

On the desktop two broadly different variations of Cornelis Drebbel’s perpetual motion clock were mounted within shimmering glass domes.  I couldn’t help shuddering at the amount of trouble those might cause.

The desk had an ordinary desktop supported by drawered cabinetry on each side.  The middle, where a chair might go, had a roll-down covering which was part-way down.  That’s where Copper crouched, sobbing.

Perpetual Motion Clock Photo
Drebbel’s Perpetual Motion Clock

I moved to go to Copper.  The poor girl couldn’t possibly understand what had happened, or the spell La Llorona’s wail had cast upon her.  However, Cornelis caught my arm.  He held a finger to his lips and then pointed toward the space just above the desk.

“Is that…?” I began in fascination.  “Is that the Green Fairy?  And that tiny creature can power this vessel?” I asked.

Cornelis smiled like an indulgent parent and nodded. 

“Actually it is our energies combined, mine and his, that power this vessel.  Although I do believe Absinthe could produce enough power to run this submarine and another as well — if he were of a mind.”

I tilted my head and watched in amazement.  Absinthe would have fit in my outstretched palm.  He looked like a fluffy baby skunk, but where a skunk would’ve had black fur the Green Fairy’s was, well — green.  Moreover, it was bright green, just like the liquor.  On butterfly wings, he fluttered down toward Copper.

Absinthe chirped once as he investigated the girl, who had yet to see him.  Copper, sobbing, didn’t pay any attention to the next chirp either.  The tiny creature began snuffling at her hair, snuffle-chirp-chirp, snuffle-chirp-chirp.green skunk palm

I edged closer very cautiously, not wanting to interrupt the wondrous display.  I detected a faintly sweet aroma like licorice.  Apparently all the snuffling and chirping must have tickled, because Copper started to giggle through her tears.  I didn’t know if skunks, or rather Green Fairies, could smile, but tiny Absinthe looked like he was smiling when Copper looked up at him in delighted fascination.

Cornelis pointed to the roll-down covering where Copper had tucked herself. 

“He must really like her,” the Dutchman said.  “That’s his favorite pouting post.  Whenever Absinthe gets annoyed or frightened, he darts under there and slams down the cover,” Cornelis explained with a mystified chuckle.

A sharp ping distracted me and I turned toward the sound.  Beside what I thought must be a periscope was a multi-limbed brass contrivance.  Each arm ended with a walnut sized faceted gemstone.  The device gyrated and whirred so much that it was difficult to count its arms, but I thought there were seven, each capped with a different colored gem.  The base of the device lit up causing the gemstones to cast a rainbow effect.

Absinthe fluttered toward the colorful machine.  Apparently the tiny fairy had failed to notice me until I spoke.

“How pretty, Cornelis. What does it do?” I asked pointing at the device.

Green fairy skunk

Absinthe the Green Fairy, by Teagan

When I moved my hand to point, the Green Fairy fluttered backward a beat.  Luminous emerald eyes widened.  Absinthe hissed at me.  Then I heard a farting sound.  From his bantam backside blew a billow of bright green vapor.

“I told you not to startle him!” Cornelis admonished.  “Copper, stay where you are and don’t stand up until that cloud clears!” the alchemist instructed hastily.  “Felicity, hurry and open that hatch!”

“Hurry and open the hatch how?” I giggled as I wobbled up the ladder.

“Dear heavens it’s already too late,” Cornelis groaned as he climbed up beside me.

“I can’t budge the beastly bugger open,” I complained.  “Who needs fresh air, Cornelis.  It’s fine in here.  You’ll just let in that dank, damp…  Oh! Keep your daddles to yourself.  Watch your hands!” I cautioned as he reached around me trying to get to the hatch handle.

A whoosh of air hit me in the face.  When I looked toward the shore I could have sworn I saw a hippopotamus singing to a group of infatuated mermaids who played music upon lyres.  La Llorona danced with a chupacabra — a goat-killing blood sucker from another of my grandmother’s stories.  Then, as the alchemist had commented, I wondered how I had ever managed to sleep as a child.

When I turned my head, the world lurched.

The green vapors of concentrated absinthe streamed up through the opening around us.  When I looked at Cornelis, he seemed to be standing at a peculiar angle.  He looked back at me and snorted laughter.  He took my arm and pulled me upright.  Apparently I was the one who was leaning far to one side.

Albert Maignan's "Green Muse" 1895
Albert Maignan’s “Green Muse” 1895

For a moment he looked just like a coyote in a silk jacket.  I snorted out a laugh, then covered my mouth in embarrassment, then I collapsed in giggles.

I noticed that Cornelis held his harmonic tuner.  He looked quite bleary-eyed. 

“Cornelis you should take better care of yourself.  Are you coming down with another head cold?” I asked feeling more than a little arfarfan’arf.

He held the tuner above our heads and gave it one sharp ring.  The sound reverberated inside my skull in an unpleasant way.  I groaned as the world around me started to spin madly.  Cornelis rang the harmonic tuner again.

“Stop that!” I cried trying to reach high enough to take the damnable bell away from the alchemist.

As the ringing subsided, the coyote faded with it, leaving only Cornelis.  The chupacabra and La Llorona danced a final turn before they blurred and disappeared, leaving the shoreline deserted.

I took a long deep breath.

“I told you not to startle the Green Fairy,” Cornelis said drolly.

***

Real World Notes

Abraham Roentgen’s Writing Desk.  Imagining the cabinetry inside the steampunk submarine made me think of the work of Abraham Roentgen.  He was a very successful cabinetmaker in the  eighteenth century.  In his hands, a piece of furniture became a work of art.  His customers included sovereigns, aristocrats, and other influential people.  Roentgen’s style was characterized by grandeur, inventiveness, and meticulously detailed shapes.  He is known for writing tables that not only have numerous secret compartments but could also be transformed into a private altar. 

***

This serial continues on Hidebound Hump Day.  Next time, the “three things” were inspired by my Atonement novels: Home, Neighbors, and Mimosa. 

I’ll be looking for you at the station on Wednesday.  

Mega hugs!

***

Now some shameless self-promotion. 

Universal link to my Amazon Author Page

USA:  Atonement in Bloom

Amazon UK

Pigs collection cover banner

USA:  The Glowing Pigs, Snort Stories of Atonement, Tennessee

Amazon UK

Atonement Video Cover copy

USA:  Atonement, Tennessee

(E-book still on sale at 99¢ )

Amazon UK

Bijou front only 2

USA:  Murder at the Bijou — Three Ingredients I

Amazon UK

Novel-book-The Three Things Serial Story-Teagan Riordain Geneviene-The Writer Next Door-Vashti Q-spotlight-author

USA:  The Three Things Serial Story: A Little 1920s Story Kindle 

Amazon UK

 

This is a work of fiction.  Characters, names, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2015 and 2018 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.  Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

All images are either the property of the author or provided by free sources, unless stated otherwise.

 

69 thoughts on “Straightlaced Saturday — Cornelis Drebbel 24”

  1. Pingback: Hidebound Hump Day — Cornelis Drebbel 26.1 | Teagan's Books

  5. You worked La Llorona nicely into this segment, Teagan. Yes, I remember a number of such stories from childhood. It is surprising we all slept! I remember being afraid of the sound the old oil burning furnace made, like the sounds of a growling thing in the dark down in the basement.

    This is one creature I remember hearing about, only the myth I heard was changed to be a creature that has a sack on its back and carries off children..
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidebehind

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hi Lavinia. I appreciate your feedback on LaLlrona. I never felt good about how I handled these 3 things. But I liked that they gave me a heritage for Felicity. You’ve made me feel better about the chapter. Thanks so much for your visit. Hugs on the wing.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  6. Pingback: Hidebound Hump Day — Cornelis Drebbel 25 | Teagan's Books

  7. I just knew you weren’t going to be able to resist making the Green Fairy fart 😆 So much better to feel intoxicated than to be bombarded by frogs like when Cornelis gets a head cold 😆😆

    I did find a porcelain teacup with a moustache guard that you challenged me to find. Now I just have to figure out the best way to post the photos 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Tee-hee! How cool that you found a mustache cup, Joanne! That’s fabulous. 😀
      I loved the photos in your year-end post. I hope you are able to get the vision problem taken care of soon. That has to be terrible.
      La Llorona is nothing compared to how strange this story will get. LOL. Thanks for being on this train…. or submarine. Happy New Year, and hugs.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. I was a little concerned for Copper in there as she dove toward the water. Thank goodness for fairies. Tense episode, Teagan, with lots of mythical creatures. What an adventure. 🙂 Wishing you a Happy New Year and Happy Writing! Hugs. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much, Diana. I was never comfortable with the dream-like nature of this episode. That makes me feel better. I hope you’ve been having a lovely holiday season. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of your new monthly prompt!
      Happy New Year to you as well. Mega hugs right back. 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  10. Wonderful to be here again reading your story… And I wish you a wonderful Happy New Year.. Many thanks for all of your beautiful words filled with imagination that has taken me into realms of wonder over 2018…
    I am certain 2019 holds many more stories to be unleashed..
    Take care dear Teagan.. LOVE and HAPPY NEW YEAR.. ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Dear Sue, it is always so wonderful to see you. Thank you for your kindness and encouragement. It means the world to me. Happy New Year to you too, my friend. ❤ Wishing you an abundance of all good things. Mega hugs!

      Like

      Reply

    1. I’m glad you enjoyed the illustrations, Rob. I was pleased with the new ones I found for this rerun. Thanks about Cornelis. From the beginning I wanted him to be funnily fallible. Thanks for being on this train, my chuckaboo! (In case you missed the episode with that Victorian Vernacular, that’s “dear friend.”) Hugs on green fairy wings.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  14. Wow! That little tiny fairy packs quite a punch! Another intriguing episode. I loved the myth of La Llorona and amazed at the effect she had on Copper. This group goes from one adventure and peril to the next! Great segment, Teagan!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  16. You are answered my question as to what would happen if the fairy was startled and farted. I’ve never heard the tales La Llornoas before. Another great installment:)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Haha. I had so much fun writing that, Denise.
      I wasn’t familiar with the La Llorona legend either, until I saw an episode of the science fiction tv show that used to air called “Grim.” The episode’s story-line included the myth. Hugs on green fairy wings!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Hi Robbie. I’m happy you enjoyed this. Well… I had my hands full and it wasn’t with Christmasy stuff. But I am happy to have had the paid day off. It’s all good. And at least I’m finally making some progress. I’ve enjoyed seeing your holiday preparations on Facebook. Hugs on green fairy wings!

      Like

      Reply

  19. Your imagination is amazing Teagan! Thanks for another fun filled episode. I love the idea of a green fairie powering the sub, but must admit I’m not too fond of your vision of a green skunk/fairie. 🙂 I’m glad Copper and I survived your shenanigans! Happy New Year.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  22. Reblogged this on Smorgasbord Blog Magazine and commented:
    Time to catch up with the trio created by Teagan Geneviene in her serial story Copper, The Alchemist and The Woman in Trousers…known as Felicity – now aboard a submarine between a rock and a hard place… the rock being a wandering spirit in search of los ninos… and a wandering spirit of another kind that wafts…. confused…head over to Teagan’s and all will be clarified…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  24. I like Cornelis’ reaction to the bedtime story. Unexpected, until you realize it should be expected of him. In retrospect, it’s a wonder any of us slept at night after hearing the stories our parents shared.

    I was very scared for Copper. I think you’ve brought us fully into (or on board) this story, Teagan. I don’t know where we’re heading, but I will be happy when they push away from this shore.

    Since we won’t see you here until next year, I wish you a very Happy New Year. I hope 2019 is a good year for us all.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Dan. That scene was one of the times that I was really “feeling” felicity. If you were worried about Copper, then I must have gotten Felicity’s anxiety across.
      My next big challenge was to figure out how to show what happened next with the Wongs…
      A very happy New Year to you and yours as well, my friend. Yes, I dearly hope it will be a good year for us all too. Hugs!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Isn’t folklore fascinating, Olga? I wasn’t familiar with the legend until I saw an episode of the science fiction tv show that used to air called “Grim.” The story-line included their variation on the story.
      Wishing you huge success with the audio books of your Angelic Business series.

      Mega hugs.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.