Science Projects Are Nightmares. And I Love It!

Change of "plans"

The more stores we checked, the deeper we got into the heart of the city. The veins were thin but there was no shortage of them. Clusters of cappilaries intertwined with each other. It was truly a glorified maze.

Fortunately for us, the veins had a lot of blood pumping through it. Most of the people we asked were fairly nice. Emphasis on the "most".

1 hour 45 minutes and 7 stores in we were close to giving up. My legs were throbbing. Rei, who had been practicing for a programming competetion the prior night, was basically trying to survive this venture.

I was a bit irritated at the shopkeepers as all of them kept on asking unnecessary questions about the project. I was both physically and socially drained.

I spotted a small cafe at the side and collaped on a vacant seat. The otherwise empty cafe was decorated with old furniture that reminded me of some I'd seen in museums. The center piece of the decoration was a huge mechanical clock hanging on the middle of the wall. An LED T.V screen was looking down on us from a corner. An old man approached us. He had a thick silver beard covering 70% of his whole face, a couple of circular spectacles and what looked like an 80's cap. It was easy to envision him as a pirate.

"You guys want coffee, cake, cookies or drinks?"

"Umm... we'll have two Fantas and some cookies, thank you."

"Coming right up!"

The 5 RPM ceiling fan did nothing to cool us off. Rei looked like he was practically dead at this point.

"I'm really sorry man..."

"Shut up dude. If you have the time to apologise, use that to think something up. We got a competetion to win."

He attempted a "dying hero" smile. But it looked like an evil grin instead.

The clock started it's 1 pm chime. However, it ended abruptly as the swing detached from the mechanism and fell inside the glass contraption.

A kid came in to fix the problem.

I was quite invested in the event as I once had fixed one of these ancient piece of technology back at my granny's place.

The 14 year old kid only managed to hang the swing from the gears, it didnt work at all.

I pulled out my wallet and counted what I had on me.

"Ahh... old man. Can I have a look?"

The old man (probably the manager of the store) didn't pay much attention and agreed half heartedly.

I could sense the 14 year old was irritated. Upon inspection, I figured out the problem. A broken piece. I asked the manager if I could try and do a cheap temporary fix to it.

"Do whatever you want. Just don't break it further." He said as he went off to tend to his other customers.

I looked around to find something useful. The large LED panel at the corner kept on catching my attention. Finally I scanned the T.V. at first I hadn't found something useful. Untill I looked below the rectangle. Power and network cables ran all along the wall down to a socket. The cables were held together with cable ties. Bingo.

I ripped off one of those ties and stuck it inside the clock. The bind wasn't tight enough. So, I jammed a lot of paper into it. I wasn't particularly proud of my work, but hey, it worked.

I warned the old man about how temporary the fix was. He was still very impressed. And then he said exacty what I wanted to hear.

"The cookies are on the house. You guys eat up. Here I'll even give you some extra!"

"Thanks pops!"

"Say, why are you guys here right now? You don't seem like delinquents skipping classes or something"

I explained our situation. He was very much interested in our story. So much so, he actually called one of his friends, who owned a electronics shop nearby. The old man seemed very confident that we would find what we were looking for. So, off we went.

"You guys remind me of when I was younger. I used to fix these clocks all around the neighborhood. This one is from our own home. Anyways, good luck on that competition!"

Nostalgia is always soothing.

1:05 pm

"Those are the only options. Either you buy this big one with more power or this one which is cheaper, smaller and less powerful.

When I finally explained how we were looking for he had a quick and interesting answer.

"You guys could ditch normal AA size batteries and use one of these bad boys."

He handed me one of those 12v box batteries. It was significantly heavier. He also added another larger motor. I was quite sure this wouldn't work. However, Rei didn't have the same idea. He had spotted something I had completely missed. A tailored fan for the motor.

Now, we had been using x-ray paperpaper cut-outs for the fans till now. I had no idea they made fans for these motors. It made complete sense. Why wouldn't they? I had unconsciously diverted from finding the correct parts thinking what I was searching for had no practical use except for stupid things like what we were doing. I had forgotten there are many other people just like us.

Me, who was ignoring all the ideas the shopkeepers were actually avoiding advices from people just like me. Just like me, but with more experience. I took a moment to laugh at myself.

"Gimme two of those batteries, a battery and a fan."