The Tailor

By Lucia

Chapter One

The Burglar

“Get out here!” yelled somebody who sounded like a billionaire who just lost

all his money, “Iʼm growing out of my clothes and I need more now!”

The man he was screaming at, known as The Tailor, got out of bed and stared

outside at the blurry world. As everything came into focus a well dressed man

stood before him. The Tailor should know as heʼd made those clothes himself.

The man was rich. There was a limo parked in his driveway and the manʼs

clothes were certainly very tight, but maybe that was because the man was

putting on about twenty kilos a week.

“What is the reason for waking me up at two oʼclock in the morning? Donʼt you

know that I donʼt work until eight?”

“Iʼll pay you one hundred dollars for every minute it takes you to make me

clothes.”

“All right,” the tailor mumbled and he stumbled downstairs saying, “Ridiculous.

I see no reason for him to get up so early just to get a new set of clothes. Last

time Iʼm making deals.”

He pulled out his sewing machine and got out the design of clothes he made

for the man previously, made them wider and scanned the new designs into

the sewing machine. It rumbled and a huge amount of all the fabric that would

be needed spilt out of the needle. Then it set to work. The Tailor got out one

of the many spare beds he had and fell back asleep. He woke up half an hour

later and saw a pile of clothes lying on the table beside the sewing machine.

He dragged them out, gave them to the billionaire, collected his money and

fell asleep right there on his lawn.

As the tailor was sleeping, a burglar was sneaking into his house. He woke

up. He tried to stop him but his body was too heavy and the tailor couldnʼt

move. The burglar was coming out of his house now, carrying his sewing

machine. He tried to scream, “Thief” but his jaw wouldnʼt move. He woke up

with drops of perspiration dripping off his face.

“Lucky it was a dream,” he thought to himself. But when he walked into his

house there was a big surprise waiting for him. His prized sewing machine

had been stolen!

He spent the next few hours putting up signs everywhere saying that if

anyone found his sewing machine to return it straight to him. He knew he had

to do this because when he was in high school he didnʼt get enough marks to
go to university. This sewing machine was incredible, it did all the work for

him. If he didnʼt get it back soon, he was going to be poor.

Chapter Two

Lucia and Ayrton

On the way back to his house a couple of people shouted at him from the side

of the street. He turned around, but only saw one person. “Thatʼs funny,” he

thought, “I was sure I heard two people.”

“Lost your sewing machine, eh?” said the person on the street, although his

lips didnʼt move.

The only thing he could think of to say was, “You must be a very good

ventriloquist.”

“A ventriloquist? Whatʼs a ventriloquist?” replied the boy.

“Oh be quiet Ayrton. Iʼm Lucia. Iʼm Invisible. Donʼt worry about thinking Iʼm not

here, nobody ever sees me. This is Ayrton. You might want to use less

sophisticated words around him. His vocabulary isnʼt good.”

“Nice to meet you. My name is Flint, but just call me The Tailor.”

“Whatʼs a Tailor?” Ayrton interrupted curiously.

“Never mind. Havenʼt I told you not to ask questions? Last time you asked an

evil mastermind a question we were nearly killed!” Lucia said angrily.

“Iʼve been considering getting him a dictionary for his birthday,” Lucia

whispered to The Tailor. Unluckily, Ayrton overheard and said, “Whatʼs

considering? Whatʼs a dictionary?”

“STOP ASKING QUESTIONS!” Lucia shouted.

“Whatʼs a question?” Ayrton asked.

A roll of duct tape appeared in the air and a piece of it taped itself over

Ayrtonʼs mouth.

“Itʼs quite handy,” Lucia said a bit more calmly.

A muffled noise came from Ayrton but by now The Tailor was used to his non-

stop talking.

“I know him! He wakes me up at two oʼclock in the morning every day asking

for more clothes!”

The Tailor had a flashback. In his dream he remembered the burglar, he was

as wide as The Kidnapper, he walked like The Kidnapper. He remembered a

week ago when The Kidnapper had said he would pay all his money for the

sewing machine and when The Tailor had refused, The Kidnapper had

stormed out of the house muttering, “Iʼll do whatever it takes, I donʼt care what

I have to do to get that sewing machine. Iʼll steal it if I have to.”

“The Kidnapper! He was the one who stole my prized sewing machine! I

remember him saying Iʼll steal it if I have to! Oh, and do you mind calling me
TT?” The Tailor, or TT exclaimed with so much anger in his voice he sounded

like a devil.

“Really? Iʼve heard his hideout is down-under,” Lucia said happily.

They heard a sound, something like duct tape being taken off skin.

“Whatʼs down-under?” Ayrton asked.

Lucia put duct tape over Ayrtonʼs mouth and used some more to tape his

arms to his body. She was getting ready to put it over his ears when TT

started pacing up and down.

“How are we going to get to down under? Unless we have some sort of

gadget that works at two million kilometers an hour and is really strong weʼre

never going to be able to get through the first layer of crust. But where are we

going to get such a thing?”

“Leave that to us. Inventing and building is just about the only thing Ayrtonʼs

useful for.” Lucia panted heavily. She had managed to duct tape up Ayrton all

over except for his eyes and thatʼs not easy to do when heʼs wriggling. TT

untaped him and Lucia was relieved that Ayrton was so quick at building and

inventing that she wouldnʼt have to do any work.

Chapter Three

Drills and Traitors

TT went out to the shops and spent only a bit of money getting everything

Ayrton would need to make the invention. He brought it back to the street and
Ayrton set to work. His hands worked so fast that they were practically a blur

and he was finished in about three hours. Ayrton was holding a small drill, a

remote control and something that looked like a GPS navigator. He handed it

to TT and straight afterwards, with no warning, Lucia started taping him up.

TT and Lucia carried Ayrton and the three small gadgets to a park. They

checked nobody was around, then TT stabbed the ground with the tip of the

drill. He let go and looked at the remote. There was a big green button and he

supposed pressing that would turn it ʻonʼ. He pressed it, but nothing

happened. He realized it didnʼt have batteries, so he asked Lucia to run off

and get some. While she did that, he looked at the GPS. It was solar powered

and it showed that to get to ʻdown-underʼ, they would have to get through five

layers of very thick crust. He hoped the drill would be able to handle that.

Lucia got back five minutes later. He could tell that she was back because

there was a packet of batteries floating in midair. He took the batteries and put

one inside the remote and the rest in the drill. He pressed the giant green

button and the drill came to life. The next button he pressed had dig written on

it in tiny messy writing. The drill started to whir and the next thing TT knew, it

had disappeared into the earth. He looked at the GPS and saw that the small

drill had already cut through one and a half layers of crust. Now he knew what

they meant in the saying, “Small, but mighty.”

Once it had cut through all five layers of crust, TT was about a millimeter

away from pressing a button labelled return, when from somewhere beside

him there came a loud shout, “Donʼt press that! Ayrtonʼs inventions are usually

very dangerous if you donʼt press another button before you make it return!”

It was Lucia. The duct tape had started coming off Ayrton, “We should ask him

which other button to press before we make the drill return.”

Ayrton was finally untaped.

“Okay, Ayrton? Do we need to press another button before we make the drill

return?”

“I thought you said donʼt ask questions? Didnʼt you Lucia?”

“JUST HURRY UP AND TELL US! DONʼT FORGET IʼM THE ONE WHO

PAYS FOR YOUR FOOD!”

“OK, OK. You press the “off” button. I thought you would work that out

smartypants, because otherwise the drill would come back still whirring and

would most likely injure you”.

“Youʼll be injured soon, if you speak like that to me again….just wait until Iʼm

through with you……”

Lucia continued to shout at Ayrton, and Ayrton shouted back, while TT made

the drill return. He had to shout at Lucia or this would go on forever.

“CAN YOU STOP SHOUTING! IF YOU DONʼT STOP THEN IʼM GOING TO

HAVE TO ... to ... um ... GET RID OF YOU!”

Lucia and Ayrton were distracted from their squabble. “You all right? Youʼre

sounding a bit like a madman,” Lucia turned to TT, who replied, panting, “All

(wheeze) right. Would you (wheeze) two like (pant) to stay (pant) at my

(wheeze, pant) house tonight?”

TT didnʼt feel right, he felt his mind drifting and then he collapsed….but his

mind kept going.

No! Lucia and Ayrton were traitors, they had led him into a false trap. TK (The

Kidnapper) was laughing in a cold voice. In his hand was a leash, and at its

end, a giant red devil. It was running straight for him. He turned to escape but

below him was a mass of lava filled with burned and shriveled bodies with

flames still burning them. It was die in the jaws of the red devil or be burnt to

death in the raging lava…

The Tailor woke up, he was wet, covered in sweat. Or maybe it was just the

fact that Lucia had dumped a bucket of water on him.

“Are you all right? You were standing there panting and wheezing for a

second and then you just passed out.” Lucia sounded worried.

“I really hope that dream I had wasnʼt real. I dreamt that you and Ayrton were

traitors and you turned me over to TK. He had a giant dog and behind me was
like the inside of a volcano, except worse. There were all these shriveled

bodies burning in lava with flames coming out of them. And I either had to be

ripped apart and eaten alive by a dog, or burn to death in the lava ... and then

you poured water on me.”

“That mustʼve been some dream! Lucky for you it wasnʼt real. Now, come on,

weʼve got to make the hole big enough for us to fit through!”

While TT used the drill to make the hole wider, Lucia walked up to Ayrton and

whispered so only he could hear, “Pssst. Weʼve got to stop working for TK. I

like TT and I donʼt want him to be killed. If we donʼt switch soon TTʼsʼs going

to figure out weʼre linked to TK. Remember how before he had that dream

about TK stealing his sewing machine and it was true? Soon heʼs going to put

two and two together and weʼll lose the only person whoʼs ever been nice to

us.”

“All right. But you canʼt blame me if TK fries us like all the others who have

betrayed him.” Ayrton whispered in reply.

Chapter Four

The Boat

TT had finished making the hole bigger by now, thanks to the immense power

of the drill. He started thinking, “To get down the hole without hitting the
bottom at a great speed and hurting ourselves, weʼll need some way to get

down. I hope Ayrton is able to invent a vehicle that can fly, hold all three of us,

is strong, light, and can withstand boiling lavaʼs heat. I donʼt think that such an

invention can be made but itʼs worth a try.”

He turned to consult Ayrton, and then ran off to get everything Ayrton said

they would need. He came back, his arms full of steel and other kinds of

metal, car batteries, springs, cogs and hinges.

Lucia was taping Ayrton up again by the looks of it because his arms were

taped to his sides.

“Thereʼs no need to do that,” said TT, “remember he already promised not to

ask questions and Iʼve got an invention I need him to make.”

“See! I told you he wanted me to invent something!” Ayrton sounded

triumphant.

“All right. But you do lie quite often and I thought you were just trying to not

have duct tape all over you.” Lucia replied angrily.

“Oh, please Lucia. He did promise not to ask questions and ask yourself

“Woud you like it if you spent half your life covered in duct tape?””

“Fine. I promise I wonʼt put duct tape on you again….” Lucia said, annoyed at

being beaten. “For now.” She added under her breath.

Luckily neither Ayrton or TT heard her because they were already building the

invention.

“Hey would you guys like to come over and stay at my place?” TT asked

happily.

“With pleasure.” replied Lucia before Ayrton could.

About twenty seconds later Ayrton had finished the invention and in front of

them stood a boat. They pushed it to the hole and TT hopped in.

“Cʼmon. Weʼre almost there. Ayrton jumped in exuberantly. Lucia hesitated,

then got in, uncertainly.

TT turned it on and drove it (it was basically a car that looked like a boat)

down and down and down. They finally reached the bottom where a hungry

dog was just waking up. Then they heard a rasping voice, “Excellent. Youʼre

just in time for dinner. Thank you for your help Lucia, Ayrton. Youʼve managed

to lure him here.”

“Weʼre going to fight against you, not with you TK! TT is our friend! Youʼre just

a selfish old criminal!” Lucia shouted bravely.

“So, youʼve found yourselves a little friend? Good! I believe my Devil will be

very pleased to eat you. DEVIL! DINNERʼS READY!” The rasping voice

shrieked.

“RUN!” shouted Lucia. TT didnʼt need to be told twice. He ran with a speed

he never knew he had. Ayrton was about half as fast because he was
wondering why they needed to run anyway. A loud grunt came from behind,

then a bark. TT dared a quick look back for about a millisecond, and saw that

the dog was catching up fast. There was no sign of Lucia. They ran and ran

and ran. TTʼs dream had come true. His worst fears had had come true.

“STOP!” TT shouted so loudly he took the dog by surprise. It stalled as if in a

trance. Ayrton came to an abrupt halt. TT saw that just behind TK, Lucia was

lifting a sewing machine into the air and loading it into the boat. The boat was

then rose into the air, and came over to them. TK was busy shouting

commands at his dog and he didnʼt notice the boat floating silently towards

them. Then, he looked upwards towards the hole, spotted the boat and even

though he had shouted at his dog 999,999,999 times, he shrieked, “THEYʼRE

ESCAPING! STOP THEM, OR YOU WON”T HAVE ANYTHING TO EAT!”

This brought the dog out of his trance and it started running towards Ayrton

and TT, who had still not grasped what was happening. TT looked behind him

and saw the same lava burning the same shriveled bodies with flames coming

out of them. He and Ayrton would have to jump towards towards the boat, it

was their only chance to escape the Devil and the burning lava. Lucia caught

them just before they hit the lava and they soared upwards, TK howling in

rage. “Iʼm glad THATʼs over!” TT, Ayrton and Lucia said with relief and

collapsed onto the floor of the boat.

 Ten Years Later

TT was peacefully asleep in his bed. He awoke to the sounds of birds outside

and went downstairs for a cup of tea. Just as he finished, all three of his kids

burst through the door. One of them put their hands over his eyes and

bellowed “Guess Who?” In a low, hollow voice. He had heard this voice many

times so he obviously knew who it was.

“Good Morning Siena,” he replied. He felt the hands being taken off his eyes

as Siena replied sounding annoyed.

“How did you know?”

“You always do that in the morning and you always use the same voice.” said

TT calmly.

“Thanks. Iʼll remember that for next time.”

TT stifled a chuckle hastily. He knew that she would forget, and do the same

thing. A woman walked in juggling three bowls of Fruit Loops. The three kids

clapped loudly as the woman bowed, still juggling.

“I forgot it was the weekend so I didnʼt have time to go out and get you Coco

Pops and I hope these will do,” she said.

“Thanks Mum! This is my second favourite flavour of cereal.” said the eldest

boy triumphantly. “Fibs, fibs, fibs. It IS your favourite flavour of cereal.”

whispered TT.

“I know. Itʼs also Sienaʼs and Fredʼs favourite.” he whispered back. They

heard a whirring sound. They spun around to see Frederick playing with the

sewing machine. “Frederick Tailor! I have told you not to play with that!” TT
shouted. If only they knew what a valuable and special sewing machine it

was. TT had managed to keep secret that it was programmable to sew on itʼs

own and was desirable to greedy fiends for the money it could make them.

The only other person who knew of its existence apart from Lucia and Ayrton,

was The Kidnapper. He hadnʼt been seen since the day they escaped through

the hole in the crust 10 years ago.

“Yeah, Fred,” the eldest jeered. Fred jumped away from the machine and and

swiped at his brother.

“Oh, be quiet Clive.”

The doorbell rang and TT rushed downstairs to see who it was. Ayrton was

looking through the peephole. TT opened the door and said “Lucia, Ayrton.

How nice to see you. Do come in. How long has it been since we last saw

each other?”

“Quite sometime. We came as soon as we heard. The earthquake opened up

the hole in the crust.The Kidnapperʼs remains were found at the bottom with

the dried and set lava and all the shriveled bodies.”

TT felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders. “Hmmm. Would you care for a

cup of tea, Lucia? Coffee for Ayrton?”

“Yes thanks. It would be our pleasure, as always.”

“Whatʼs a pleasure?” Ayrton asked.

“Still got a problem with his vocabulary has he?”

“Yes. I thought he might grow out of it. Quite annoying. Iʼve booked him for

English lessons.”

At that moment, the children came running in and hurled themselves at the

visitors.

“Yay! Auntie Lucia and Uncle Ayrton.”

“Hi. Would you mind teaching English to Ayrton, Freddie?”

“Iʼll just go and get my dictionary and thesaurus” said Freddie running off.

“Whatʼs ʻdictionaryʼ and ʻthesaurusʼ asked Ayrton, who had spent way too

much of his life with his mouth taped shut to practice vocabulary.

“No more TK.” thought TT as he sunk into his favourite armchair.