Chapter 19: Edder’s Eco-Kit World-In-A-Box

It was an open air stand, full of knick-knacks and gadgets that Jackson could only guess the function of, and it seemed true that Tarza would be able to see him when she passed by. Still, Jackson was careful not to go too far inside, and careful not to forget himself again like he had while eating his incredibly delicious meal. 

The purple-bearded merchant followed Jackson closely as he walked through the tables and glanced at the shelves that seemed to be floating with nothing attached. They passed a large open chest with ornate carvings on every side, but Jackson did not want to linger, with the merchant’s eyes on him. He had always felt uncomfortable around people selling goods- he felt bad when he didn’t buy something, especially when they had gone to the trouble of talking to him. In fact, throughout his life to this moment, Jackson had bought no less than 67 items out of sheer guilt. 10 of these items he gifted to someone else, 23 of them he recycled, 21 of them he never took out of the wrapping or box, and 13 of them he tried using and pretended to like, but did not use anymore and when he moved them or generally looked in their direction, he felt a slight pang of shame. 

The purple-bearded merchant tried his best to add to Jackson’s collection of guilt buys. 

“This is a fine piece,” he said to Jackson, holding up a slim strand of rope.

“Huh?” said Jackson, turning around and almost bumping noses with the merchant. “Oh, um, what is it?”

The merchant twisted the rope around two fingers in each hand and held it tight. 

“It’s the strongest rope ever created. It’s made from the silk of a spider on my home planet of Grezza. They only spin one web throughout their entire life. it never fails to catch their prey.”

The way he said “prey” gave Jackson a shiver down his legs. 

“That’s quite impressive,” Jackson said, moving to the next table. 

“And this!” said the merchant, pulling down a tiny box, “is one of my most prized items. “It’s an Edder’s Eco-Kit!”

“Wow,” said Jackson, pretending to know what that meant. Had Jackson known what an Edder’s Eco-Kit was, he perhaps would not have said “wow”, but rather stood there, stupified by the scientific majesty that was held in the merchant’s hand. Yes, he would have perhaps been speechless in the presence of the box, no larger than a baseball, that contained a nano-scale world, with the building blocks for complex ecosystems and thriving wildlife, that needed only a single drop of water to terraform a planet more lush and vibrant than even earth. 

But his reverence would have been misplaced, given that this box, unbeknownst to Jackson, to which the concept of an eco-kit was also unbeknownst, was not the genuine article. And since it was not a true Edder’s Eco-Kit, adding a drop of water would have likely yielded a single bush, or perhaps a lop-sided mountain the size of a lyzascent ant hole. This is why it is always important to look for the Edder’s label on the bottom of any eco-kit you intend to buy. 

“What’s this?” asked Jackson, pointing to what looked to him like an old rotary telephone from Earth. 

The merchant smiled, and the wrinkles on his forehead tripled. “Oh, that? That’s nothing. Just a Phonus.”

“A Phonus?” said Jackson, looking closer to find any sign that it was different from the phones he’d seen in museums back home. “You mean a phone?”

“Oh no, a phone is for calling whoever you want to talk to,” replied the merchant.

“And what is a Phonus for?” asked Jackson.

“A Phonus will call whoever you need to talk to.”

“I don’t understand.”

“If you were to pick up the Phonus, the receiver would read your mind and determine who you need to talk most, no matter who or where they are.”

“Are you saying it can call anyone in the universe?” Jackson wasn’t sure which part of the merchant’s description was hardest to believe. “What if they don’t have a phone?”

“Wouldn’t matter.”

“But…but… how could it possibly know who I need to talk to?” 

The merchant looked at the nails on his hand nonchalantly as he spoke. 

“It knows,” said the merchant. “It has its limits, I should tell you. It can only access the last 24 hours of your life, but once it has, it will determine who you need to talk to the most. And it is never wrong.” 

Jackson stared at the phone. His hand reached out. He felt the desire to pick it up and see if it was true. “Who would it call?” he wondered. Arn Brule? The Watchmaker so he could ask him more questions? President Racha, so he could talk her out of the debate? Maybe Tarza, so he could let her know where he was. Or maybe his mom or dad, so they could help him make sense of everything that had been going on, and he could tell them he’s coming home and forgetting about all this water-stealing nonsense. But something deep inside told him he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t just forget about it. And he still had something important left to do. He pulled his hand back.

The merchant looked up at Jackson again. 

“It’s quite a find, you know. Many people would pay a great deal of money for such a rarity. But we both know you don’t have such funds.”

Jackson was taken aback by a cold change in the merchant’s tone. 

“Normally I’d trick you into touching something that you shouldn’t, perhaps even breaking it, then taking you for all you’re worth. But given the nature of your current situation, I think we’ll try something else, Shouty Freckles- or should I say Jackson Fickle.”

Jackson’s heart sank. “Of course he had seen the broadcast,” thought Jackson, “Why wouldn’t he have! He must have recognized me in the street.”

The merchant held up the rope. Jackson didn’t realize he had still been carrying it.

“There’s no use resisting,” said the merchant with a sinister smile. “I’ve got plenty of toys here in my shop to make quick work of you, and word on the street is that the Byzong’s would give quite a bit of money to keep you from that debate.”

Jackson kept a table between him and the merchant, as they slowly circled each other.

“You don’t want to do this,” said Jackson.

“Of course I do! You’re going to make me rich beyond my wildest dreams!” 

Jackson eyed up all the items before him. He didn’t know what any of them were, or what they did, and the merchant did. 

“Now come here and let me tie you up,” said the merchant impatiently, “you don’t want to make me angry…”

Jackson’s eyes searched frantically one more time as he circled the table, and this time they rested on the Phonus. It was his only hope. Had he known the truth about the fake eco-kit, perhaps he would have been even more skeptical about the veracity of the merchant’s claims regarding the Phonus. But, since Jackson did not know what an eco-kit was supposed to do, and did not know that the one he had been shown did not do anything of the sort, he had less reason to doubt the merchant than he should have, but more doubt than he needed to, given that he still had trouble believing Phonus’ were real at all, and, as you are about to find out, this one was. 

Jackson snatched it off the table in front of him and held it close to his body. The merchant’s eye went so wide that his forehead wrinkles quadrupled. “Hey!” he shouted.

Then, in perhaps his most heroic act yet, Jackson used all his strength to push over the entire table between them.

“No!!!” shouted the merchant. 

To Jackson’s luck, one of the items between them was a bottle of a translucent powder that had a very special property. And when the bottle broke on the ground, it created a storm cloud that enveloped the shop. With lightning and rain suddenly thrashing around them and the shop, Jackson thought quickly. He jumped inside the chest with the Phonus in hand and closed the lid behind him.

He could hear the merchant racing around, knocking into things and searching for him. It was a matter of moments, he thought, before he’d be found out. Without any other ideas, and running out of time, he placed his hand on the Phonus and picked up the receiver.

He couldn’t hear a thing.

“Hello?” he said.

“Hello?!” he heard answer. “Who’s talking??”

“Jackson Fickle,” Jackson answered. “Who is this?”

There was a long pause, and then the voice broke in once again.

“The Clockmaker of Uldon.”