Redundancy 8/8

Robert took the lump of tooth material and excitedly mounted it in his lathe. He didn’t bother with any decoration, but just made a simple vase shape to try out the quality of the work. The turning was passed round and everybody agreed that the quality was saleable.

“All we need now are some prettier designs and we’re in business,” said George happily.

“If I can make a suggestion,” said Dave, “I can give you a design for an automatic machine that will turn out a basic shape very quickly indeed; perhaps Fundin might be able to help you make it. Then I suggest you send the blanks to a wood carver to add the sort of intricate patterns that are difficult to produce using simple machinery. I’m sure Polly can come up with suitable designs that are acceptable in this world, while once Robert has made the machine, workers with only very basic training will be able to produce the blanks very cheaply. Robert can then get on with his normal work and everybody should be happy!”

“I think that all went very well in the end,” said Dave that evening after supper. “Polly is going to have a small office with a drawing board at the Witches’ Home. She can make design sketches and show them to Robert to make sure that they’re practical, so that should keep both of them happy. George and his company can sell the goods which I’m sure are going to be of high quality now, while Morwenna can fill in her spare time making the basic shapes from the teeth that everyone will be only too glad to get rid of. Last but not least the fairies will have a source of income from the alternate world and that must be of some advantage to them.”

“I suppose that any ideas taken from the ivory carving books of this world might be of help,” suggested Mary, “perhaps Jennifer Jane could take photocopies of anything that looks interesting and give them to Polly next time she sees her.”

Jennifer Jane didn’t say anything; she had the feeling that a lot of her spare time in future was going to be taken up researching all the suggestions made by her parents. Although usually very good at solving problems as they occurred, in the past she hadn’t been very good at predicting her future actions and in this case she was once again completely wrong.

Polly had really taken to heart Dave’s suggestion that she should design goods suitable for making from teeth. She already had what she considered to be some wonderful ideas and was seriously thinking of handing in her notice at the Wish Warehouse.

All she needed to do now was find a really good sculptor and make sure that the designs in her head were both practical and saleable. For the first time in her life she was thinking for herself and if she was as successful as she hoped, she could see no reason why she shouldn’t be able to marry Robert in the very near future.