Steampunk Family

Bettina’s Christmas Present, part 2

By Madame vonHedwig on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Read more from Children's Lab and Madame's Desk

Add a comment

Bettina went to find the twins.  She looked in their room first.  They weren’t there, but the door was unlocked.  (Most doors on the ship were unlocked.  Because Father believed that lock picking was an important skill, vital to a child’s education, there was really no point in locking anything.)  Bettina went in (which she shouldn’t have done) and looked around.  There stood Annabelle’s and Mirabelle’s writing desk.   Bettina climbed up on the chair and found rich, thick paper, elegant fountain pens, and exotic inks.   She picked a particularly beautiful sheet of paper, a silver pen, and purple ink (which she shouldn’t have) and thought about her letter.

She could not yet write in words, but knew how to sign her name.  Well, the B, anyway, and the two Ts together like trees.  That would have to do, and the rest she could do in pictures.  She started to draw.  Bettina had never used an elegant fountain pen, being only allowed pencils and crayons.  I don’t know if you have ever tried to draw a picture using an elegant fountain pen when you have only ever used pencils and crayons before, but it is not easy at all.  She had a great many blobs and splatters before she was through.  When she had drawn the toy she desired to her satisfaction, she folded the sheet in half (not at all remembering to let the ink dry) and drew another picture on the back.  This one was the letter’s address:  a picture of Father Christmas himself, Sinterklaas, Grandfather Frost, the Man with the Bag.

But how to get it to him?

Bettina thought about how letters were sent.  Mother and Father sometimes used signal flags to send messages.  They often used carrier pigeons, which Mother made, or propellered balloons, which Father made.  She could not get at either of these things without help, and besides, the pigeons bite.  Then she remembered another way.

Once, before Philomena had gone off to the Academy, Bettina had seen her writing a letter in the great room.  It had been many pages, with many crossed out lines, and much staring at the fire and sighing.  Bettina had observed this from her hide in the dumb waiter.  Then Claire and Adolphus had burst into the room (arguing, as usual) and Philomena had hurled her letter into the fire. She must have been using the fire to send the letter, Bettina reasoned.  (This is not, in fact why Philomena cast her letter into the fire.  However, burning a message is a long-respected way to communicate with ancestors, gods, and other non-physical beings.)

Read part three now!

Tags: Bettina, children, Christmas, gas, lamp, light, lock picks, steam, steampunk, stories, story, toys, von Hedwig, ya, young adult