Calvin the Engineer

         Calvin was a strange man, to be honest. He was average of shape and height, but had a particularly morbid way about him. My skin crawled upon meeting him. His skin was pale, unlike my father's engineer who spent much of his time working in the sun. Calvin was not an outdoor sort of man. He preferred to be holed up in the confines of a brick building with little light, aside from the Tesla Coil and oil lamps.
         What struck me about him more was his odd appearance... Set deep into the pale potato of a face were two gray eyes, surrounded by greenish blue skin. I am still convinced that the man was born without eyelids, because I never saw him blink. The discoloration about his eyes made him appear older, but he could not have been much older than myself or Oliver. He had thick, dark eyebrows that, though perfectly groomed and shaped, hung low over his eyes, and his dark lips never ceased to smile. I detested that smile; it made me feel uncomfortable, as if he would snap at any given moment.
         The most bizarre part about Calvin was the fact he was so well dressed. He was mucking about the laboratory, working on this project or that, in a suit and frock coat, topper on his head, and a set of tarnished brass goggles lying neatly on the brim. He wore a silk ascot and fine clothing - too fine to work as he did. I had met such men who preferred to be fully dressed before, but none with a set of thick rubber gloves and leather smock, dissecting a horse. I looked up at Oliver, begging him with my eyes to lead us out of the dank laboratory, and away from this man.
         "Your father tells me you've gotten much use of the Peppercoach. I could take a look to make sure it's all still in working order, if you'd like," he said with a soft, yet still menacing voice. It was a counterfeit voice, and it disgusted me.
         "That won't be necessary. My father's engineer back in Texas has serviced it," I declared. I tried to swallow my words, but they had already tumbled from my mouth. I had a vexing feeling that this man before us would be offended and take some fashion of weapon to me, but he never did. He just looked to me with that same strange smile upon his face, nodded, and slowly turned away.
         "Very well, then," he said, almost emotionless. He pulled the goggles away from his topper and placed them over his eerie face, and began working again on the horse cadaver.
"Experiment?" queried Oliver. Oh please, could we not just leave?
"Taxidermy!" piped Calvin. Indeed.