Chapter 12: Chapter 12 - The particular world of the university student
When he had put the last lid on the heater, Leonardo smiled, satisfied with his work.
― Great, now all that's left is to test it.
― Hey, brat, what do you think you're doing?
The rude voice behind him froze Leonardo in place. Slowly turning around, he found the tall, burly guy with his face like a few friends with his arms crossed staring at him. He was like a cartoon character that could kill a bear with a hug.
― Uh... Fixing the heater?
A growl had been let out by the fellow. Without saying a word, he had picked up the small heater and carried it over to a ruler where he plugged it in. Leaving the heater on the floor, he turned to Leonardo again.
― If this burns, I'm going to beat the shit out of you.
Leonardo nodded several times, swallowing hard. The rude finger pressed the reddish button and then gradually the heater started to work without any problem. The corpulent man evaluated the heater, checking if it really emanated heat, if there was any smell of burning, and waited a few minutes to see if it would work properly.
Leonardo succeeded.
― You got away with it, brat.
― You're welcome! ― Leonardo laughed, returning the tools. ― You were assembling the circuit wrong. It was going to burn.
The brute turned to the university student after turning off the heater, crossing his arms to frighten the boy.
― You seem to know your stuff.
― I like to work with machinery.
― Are you a new employee here then? ― Questioned the brute with an arched eyebrow.
Leonardo quickly denied with his head.
― No, I was just passing by while waiting for someone.
A playful smile appeared on the brute's face.
― So, if you have some free time, I wanted to test your skills.
An hour later, Vincent was walking through the tents searching worriedly for a certain young master. He had been told to stay still precisely to avoid getting lost among the employees. If someone mistook him for a visitor of the park who was intruding on the backstage, he would be kicked out in an instant.
Surely such an idea terrified the Victorian-robed boy.
― 'Where have you gone, young master? ― he whispered, retracing his steps.
From one side to the other, he searched incessantly for his young master. He made a mental note never to leave him alone in the circus again.
Passing by some stalls, he found a crowd of people watching a specific one. Fixing his glasses, Vicente prepared to lose a few more minutes of his search because of work.
― What is going on?
― Mr. Vicente!
Opening a passage, Vicente could find the reason for the commotion and his concern. Leonardo was assembling safety equipment under the watchful eyes of Barley, a foreman, who was holding his mobile phone.
― Come on brat...
― I'm done! ― Leonardo said suddenly, raising his hands.
― Ten minutes! That's very fast, brat.
The commotion increased when Barley showed everyone the time marked on his mobile phone. And when he stopped in front of Vicente he cracked a smile, pointing at Leonardo.
― Is he the new employee by any chance?
― No, why?
― His hands are magic, he managed to deal with several broken pieces of equipment in a short time. ― Laughed the brute, returning to Leonardo's side to hug him by the shoulder. ― A born talent, for sure. It would be a great help to have this brat in my assembly team.
― Come on, uncle! I don't even know how this business works.
― I'll teach you, brat.
Vicente laughed softly, covering his mouth with his gloved hand. It was fascinating how the boy seemed to captivate people when you least expect it. How could he do that with only a screwdriver? It seemed that Leonardo had found something to dedicate himself to while he was in the circus.
― Should we try to teach him? ― said the blond man going to Leonardo. ― In the park and in the circus there are many machines that need repairs, and for sure projects will always need to be made. A perfect job for a mechanical engineering student.
― Oh, the brat studies engineering then?
Leonardo's eyes got a special gleam from this advertisement from Vicente. Nevertheless, he pretended not to be that excited about messing with more machines.
― G-Good... This could certainly help me in my studies and gain experience in the market...
― Come on, brat. I'll give you a challenge. Back at the circus we have a project to automate some apparatus to make the shows more magical...
Vincent was surprised that Barley had conquered Leonardo's attention so quickly. The foreman himself was already directing the university student to the circus tent, while explaining the project. He imagined that if he had launched such a challenge, Leonardo wouldn't be so interested, or he would think he was being tricked.
Certain things needed to be said by other people.
In any case, Vincent was happy that his young master had made some friends inside Dreamland.
The three of them entered through the back of the tent, where the backstage was. Much bigger than the stage where the show was taking place, there were some training and equipment spaces.
They could already see some artists practicing their numbers in teams, leaving Leonardo stunned with their ability to contort themselves or to balance on wires. Instinctively Leonardo avoided looking too much, he feared he might run into a certain perverted trapeze artist.
Barley had entered a large room where they could find a panel with several projects. Vincent remained quiet and watched his young master taking an interest in what was being explained about the automation project.
The aim was to make the scenario more realistic and magical for visitors. Technology worthy of floats would be used for a circus show. The various plans of the floats were placed on the table, where Barley kept talking incessantly.
Once in a while Leonardo gave some tips, showing he knew a little bit about the assembling of this kind of technology.
Then, Barley left the room to get one of the cars that were being assembled, and Vicente finally got closer to Leonardo. The university student kept his eyes on the papers, looking at the drawings with the excitement of a child who was seeing magic for the first time.
― You look lively, young master.
― If I could get my hands on something like that, I'm sure it would be the peak of my life.
Vincent just laughed.
― Here at Dreamland we are always innovating to make the visitor's experience as magical as possible.
― But this kind of material is quite expensive. Do you have a reserve for it?
― Duly, as long as we can find a good supplier. ― Watching Leonardo nodding without thinking much, Vicente found a small window of opportunity to get him interested in the park. ― Do you want to know more, young master?
― About what?
― The suppliers, of course. I have a list of them, surely at college the young master must have learned about how to evaluate the quality of the material.
― That's true... All right, I can take a look. I'll call my teacher if I have any doubts.
Vincent suppressed a victorious laugh at his small achievement. The conversation was interrupted when Barley returned pulling a cart with a copy of the project.
Soon Leonardo emerged in his concentration again, completely ignoring the presence of the administrator.
It was hard to get Leonardo interested in anything related to the park as a whole. But Barley seemed to have shown him a lousy possibility, which skillfully could be used to arrest the university student in that place.
It would put the useful and the pleasant together.
Letting Leonardo have as much fun as he wanted in that project, he used his time taking care of some park administration issues. Solve punctual problems and verify if everything was in conformity for the functioning of the park.
When he had noticed the functioning of the toys, he had looked at the watch on his wrist, certain that lunch time was approaching. In other words, he would have left the young master in his mechanical world for two hours.
It was time to return to reality.
Returning to the living room, he found Leonardo with his hands in the dough. He had already removed his sweatshirt, remaining only in a t-shirt, sitting on a stool while he moved the cart under Barley's supervision. Surprisingly those two had got along well, what was another positive point.
When Barley had noticed his presence, Vincent smiled sweetly.
― It's time for lunch, you should take a break.
― But already? I forgot to check the sound equipment. ― Barley had left a slap on his own forehead.
― Is there a problem with the sound equipment?
― Last night the band complained that the drums didn't sound good in the speakers. They also complained about the amplifiers.
― Oh, that's a pity. ― Vicente approached Leonardo, who had hardly cared about the conversation, and squeezed his shoulder, waking him up from his concentration. ― It's lunchtime, take a break.
― Eh? Already?
Leonardo's stomach had made itself present as he complained loudly enough. Barley had laughed, hugging the boy by the shoulder.
― Is this all hunger, brat? I'll introduce you to a snack bar in the plaza that has delicious snacks.
― Whoa, you said food, I'm in.
― We can go then. But first I need to do some quick work. Do you mind?
Vicente denied with his head when Leonardo also said he didn't mind. Then the three left the room to go to the big tent where the circus stage was. Without the audience filling all the bleachers, Leonardo realised that the place was much bigger than he imagined.
This time he was passing by the artists' entrance, going straight to the stage. Certainly the view was completely different from the one of someone who came to watch a show.
However, he had only realised where he was when he saw Benjin up there with other people practising the trapeze. The protective netting surrounded them, looking like a safe barrier that prevented the pervert from suddenly appearing beside them.
At least Leonardo breathed a sigh of relief.
But for an instant he had been unable to tear his eyes away from Benjin's movements, when he had jumped holding on to the arms of another trapeze artist. There had been a moment when he had let go and spun around in time to catch himself again, drawing a startled gasp from Leonardo.
He was good. Really good.
Realising that he was admiring the same guy who'd crawled into his bed, Leonardo huffed, shrugging into his sweatshirt.
Pretending not to have noticed his presence, he followed Barley to the back of the stage where there was an elevation with several musical instruments. There a band seemed to be rehearsing, although the sound of the drums didn't sound that good.
As soon as they approached, the drummer suddenly got up from his stool and went over to the sound box where he had left a loud punch. A loud pop made a deafening noise come out of the speakers. Barley quickly walked over to the amplifier and pulled the wires to turn it off.
― Do you want to make everyone deaf?
― This shit doesn't work!
― Oh, they got one of the expensive ones ― evaluated Leonardo, looking at the amplifier with interest.
Barley turned furiously to the drummer.
― If you've broken this thing man, I'll break your teeth!
The drummer soon cringed in fear at Barley's growl, while Leonardo fiddled with the amp looking at the electronic drums. He didn't like them much, but he still understood a little bit about how they worked.
I mean, the difference between electronics and acoustics depended on the drummer's personal tastes. Some people say the electronics are better because of the small panel that allows you to configure the sound. For Leonardo, it was a matter of observation.
Only Vicente paid attention to his movements, since Barley seemed to be more busy lecturing the musicians. He plugged the wires in other places, checked the volumes and then went to the drum set, sat on the stool and fiddled with the module. Through the speakers, the coordinated sound of the beats rang out perfectly.
― Hm... It's not so bad...
The other musicians turned to Leonardo, surprised to hear him play without anyone's permission. As he plucked out a few light synchronised beats for the sound test, Leonardo cracked a wide smile seeming to dive into his concentration for the second time.
The sound that came out was completely different from what the drummer would be making minutes before punching the amp.
Not only the musicians but Barley and Vicente seemed surprised to see that the university student seemed to be doing well on the drums, even though the sound was starting to sound clumsy. Certainly the sound had caught the attention of a certain trapeze artist, who soon noticed Leonardo's presence so close to him.
Benjin had abandoned the training to go down the stairs, he wanted to get to the stage as fast as possible by standing next to Vicente. But when he was about to call him, the administrator squeezed him by the shoulder, signalling silence.
Unwilling to remain quiet, Benjin limited himself to just watching his beloved university student seem to be enjoying himself in his own lonely world. Moving his legs as he fiddled with the module testing other settings, Leonardo seemed to explore that musical world with immense pleasure despite sometimes grimacing and looking discreetly at his right hand.
For Benjin, that pleasure was worthy of a painting.
When the sound test was over, Leonardo got up and went to the drummer to give back the drumsticks.
― You'd better go back to acoustic drums. You'll spend a lot of money if you keep punching the equipment every time you don't get the desired sound. And since there are no problems with loud sounds here, the acoustics are better.
― Lunchtime! ― shouted an employee, having the artists and other workers abandon their tasks to leave the stage.
The drummer didn't seem too happy with the university student's remark, but the other musicians dragged him off the stage before he could say anything. Barley smiled openly as he stroked Leonardo's shoulder.
― I'll tell the sound guys that the problem seems to have been solved ― Said Barley following the other employees off the stage.
Remaining only the three from the mansion, Benjin soon jumped in front of Leonardo with his eyes shining in excitement. Noticing his presence, the university student tried to escape from the euphoric glow that the trapeze artist emanated.
― I didn't know you could play. It was great!
Making a face, Leonardo had taken a step backwards trying to escape from that agitated sea.
― It's nice, I'm glad you liked it.
― Young master, are you sure you want to change the instrument? Until today the electronic drums have been well worked out.
― It's better, believe me. Although it is my personal taste. Anyway, it is better to have the microphones to better pick up the nuances of the sound.
Vincent crossed his arms and arched his eyebrow.
― I am not sure about that...
― The drums bring different sounds. Some are louder, others softer. Some serve to mark time while others mark the beat ― Smiling mischievously, Leonardo approached Vicente ― Weren't you the one who investigated my whole life? You must have seen me playing the drums.
Vicente let out a low laugh as he raised his hands in surrender.
― Unfortunately I have never had that pleasure. But if the young master speaks with such propriety, then I must believe him.
― I have heard that electronics are better than traditional ones ― Benjin commented, approaching the drums and looking at them closely ― Why would we switch?
― It's better for those who know how to use it. Your drummer doesn't seem to know much about the module. He'll do better with the acoustic drums.
Having Benjin jump on his back to hug his neck, Leonardo growled, trying to push the trapeze artist away.
― Leo is so smart! That makes him sexier.
Immediately the university student blushed, trying to get Benjin's arms away from him without any success. Vincent made a note in his notebook, and then pushed the two boys away.
― Okay, okay, let's eat then. We have a lot of work to do this afternoon.
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