Word: Trangam

trangam

[ trang-guh m ]

noun Archaic.

an odd gadget; gewgaw; trinket.

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          The small package lay open on the table.  Mark and his girlfriend, Cindy, looked at the area next to it.  Occupying that space was an object that could best be described as a thing.  It’s central body was a metallic sphere the size of a baseball.  Thin pieces of metal like inch long bicycle spokes jutted out of it at irregular intervals.  A few odd lumps made themselves known here and there, and a few scattered light lay dormant along the surface.

               “What is it?” Cindy asked.

               “No idea.” Mark replied.

               “It didn’t say when you ordered it?”

               Mark briefly looked at her before going back to the thing.  “I thought you ordered it.”

               “So neither of us ordered it?”

               “Doesn’t seem like it.”

               “Then who did?”

               Mark checked the package.  It was addressed to them.  The return label showed an address in a different state, and offered no name.  The box itself was otherwise ordinary.  Just a container of thin cardboard that had, until recently, been filled with bubble wrap and the thing. 

               “Should we do something with it?” Mark asked as he tossed the box back on the table.

               “Like what?”

               “I don’t know.  Maybe figure out how it turns on?  I mean, it’s got to do something, right?”

               Cindy nodded her agreement.  Neither seemed in a great hurry to actually do anything with the thing though.  Cindy was about to say something when Mark took hold of it, placing his fingers between the spokes.

               He examined it carefully, looking for any seams, switches, buttons or anything else that could turn something on or open it.  He found nothing.  He twisted it, pulled on the spokes, pressed the bumps, and all around handled it in any way he could think of.

               “Well, whatever it is, it’s not doing it.” He said.

               “Here, let me try.” Cindy said, holding out her hand.

               She did very much the same things that Mark had.  The only things she changed was the order of what she interacted with.  She too had no success in getting the thing to do whatever it did.  She growled in frustration and tried to push the spokes instead of pull.  One of them slid into the sphere.  Both of them froze.

               The held their breath as Cindy pressed more of the spokes down.  When she had finished, the lights flashed.  A series of clicks and whirrs sounded from inside the thing.  Cindy felt it shake and she placed it on the table.  Each of the lumps slid in a different direction, revealing gaps in the metal.  Half of the sphere lifted, showing the hollow interior, filled with the spokes.  They met in the middle, and a small golden ball of light had formed at that point.  The light seemed to condense, becoming more solid.  The spokes slid out, and the ball of light popped out of the ball, rolling onto the table.  The thing closed, the lumps returned, and the spokes shot out.  The only thing that gave any indication that it had done anything was a single red light that was now on, and the tiny golden ball nearby.

               “Huh.  That was something.” Mark said.  He nodded to the shining golden light.  “Now I guess we just figure out what that is.”   

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Yeah, I don't know what the thing is any more than the characters do.  Maybe someday I'll figure it out.