Poppet

Mad science up in here yo!!!

“Hush now Archie!” Gilberts voice rang out with its usual dismissive tone. He had his back to me and was currently leaning over a large copper vat. Raising the heavy lid, the foetid stink of offal wafted about the laboratory.

“Good god man! That positively reeks! What an earth have you got there?”

Gilbert rounded on me with his characteristic hyena smile and eyes like gimlets, “Ha! It’s finished! Stay awhile and I’ll show you Archie.”

Picking up a small pair of tongs he resumed peering into the stinking pot. After a few short seconds of probing he pulled a small figure out of the filthy broth. He placed the dirty thing under a cool stream of water from the nearby sink. Carefully padding it dry he placed it neatly down onto the thick chopping board which dominated his workstation.

Leaning closer I peered at the thing with much interest. It looked like a childs doll, some form of crude poppet. Its body was pale, that is to say, not pale like Gilbert or I, but ivory. The thing gleamed in the confined clutter. Its layout was like that of a man although not a single hair seemed to grace the small things body. Its smooth, domed skull also appeared somewhat larger than what could be called normal to its relative size. Like the head of a baby. In contrast its arms and legs seemed almost perfectly in proportion to its torso.

“By Jove Gilbert! That is odd! What is it?” Gilbert fixed me with a look of amused success, the look one gets when they’re about to show off. This was, no doubt in part derived from my very own look of foolish wonder. “That dear friend is my own creation. A homunculus wrought by my very own hand! Don’t look so sceptical Archie, I tho-” “You’re damned right I don’t believe you Gilbert!” I exclaimed with a laugh “You’ve been down at the university again haven’t you? That thing there is nothing more than some unfortunate, under-developed foetus. This is all some kind of joke is it not? Its sick one Gilbert, come, I ask you to stop this foolishness. Why am I really here?”

Gilbert regarded me severely for a moment, before quite suddenly softening, as though having made up his mind. “Look Archie, you are ignorant, and for that I forgive you. I know this may be hard to believe, but that thing there, that is the product of my own labour. I have, like a mother, nourished it for some time in that copper simulacrum of a womb and it is my very own creation. I shall prove it to you, come closer.”

Gilbert quickly occupied himself by pouring and mixing various liquids into a small glass bottle. “You see Archie, although the process of creation is both magnificent and complex, it is not complete. It is unable to imbue the vessel with life. Some essential element, one hidden by Mother Nature herself, is missing. I myself also lack the ability to grant my creation life but through means far too complicated to discuss now, satisfy yourself with the knowledge that I have discovered a means to transfer the animating force, that is, life, from one organism to another. Behold! In this small and hallowed receptacle I hold what can be called the ‘life force’ of one of my own lab rats. It is with this, I shall grant that thing, my very own beautiful creation the means to live!” He held the small bottle to the light, in its depth swirled a milky grey fluid. “Watch closely now Archie.” Gilbert began to pour the contents onto the things fore head, curiously it seemed to evaporate long before reaching the little brow. “I think Gilbert, that - ” Gilbert silenced me with a wave of his hand and gestured towards the poppets small arm. It was, almost imperceptibly, shaking. Shivering softly as though it were cold. Slowly, its frail chest rose, then fell, then rose again. Eyes wide with wonder I watched as the little thing gently opened its eyes. Spheres wide and dark as pitch considered the world around it for the first time.