THE TOWN DAILY
RESIDENT INTERVIEW · No. 9
Nib
Tinkerer
"It worked fine — so I improved it."
Nib, our tinkerer-blacksmith, has never met a working object he could leave alone. He forges true, files fine, and then keeps going one turn of the wrench past perfect — which is exactly where perfect stops being perfect. This reporter interviewed him beside the town well, whose pump plays a little tune every seventh bucket. It cannot be turned off. He seems delighted about this.
The Town Daily: The well pump. Every seventh bucket, it plays music. People have complaints.
Nib: It was silent before. Silent! You'd stand there hauling water like it's a funeral. Now the seventh bucket rewards you. That's not a bug, that's morale. Fig says take it out. Fig also thinks a chair should only be a chair. We are not close on philosophy.
The Town Daily: Kiko's your biggest customer. What does he keep bringing you?
Nib: Scales, shelving, a coin-sorter, a doorbell that also counts who comes in. Half of it he asks for, half of it I add because he'll want it later — he always wants more, that man. The trouble is I add it too well. His till now sings when the drawer's empty. He says it's bad for business. I say it's honest.
The Town Daily: Is anything you've made simply… finished?
Nib: Old Ben's fish-hook. He handed it back the day I made it and said 'this is done, Nib, don't touch it again.' So I didn't. It's the best thing I ever made, and I made it by not making it more. Don't print that. It'll go to my head and then I'll improve the hook.
The Town Daily: Ever accidentally make something genuinely brilliant?
Nib: Once. A latch that opens itself when your hands are full — knows you're carrying. I still don't fully understand how. I've been afraid to open it up and look, because the moment I look, I'll want to improve it, and then it'll only open when your hands are empty, which is when you don't need it. Some genius you have to leave shut.
Resident file
- Temperament
- Restless, sky-brained, incapable of leaving well enough alone; happiest mid-tinker, elbow-deep in a thing that was working ten minutes ago.
- Obsession
- The word 'enough' offends him. Every finished object is a rough draft of a better one that will, tragically, work slightly worse.
- Relationships
- Trades barbs with Fig the carpenter, his oldest sparring partner (Fig: chairs are chairs; Nib: chairs are opportunities). Kiko the grocer is his biggest client and enabler. Quietly reveres Old Ben, the one man who ever told him to stop — and was right.
As seen in the Town Daily
- WELL PUMP GAINS THE ABILITY TO SING, LOSES THE ABILITY TO STOP
- GROCER'S NEW TILL APPLAUDS EVERY EMPTY DRAWER; KIKO 'NOT AMUSED'
- TINKERER REFUSES TO OPEN OWN MASTERPIECE: 'IF I LOOK, I'LL RUIN IT'
Nib will remember you
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