No matter how immense his wealth and power, John "Jack" Pierpont Morgan Jr. didn't have the heart to push aside his 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter to ride the car they wanted to try.
As if he had no choice, Jack Morgan yielded the test drive to his son and daughter and said,
"After the kids, I'm the first."
I knew from my future knowledge about the desire men have for cars, but seeing it manifest right before my eyes was fascinating.
Come to think of it, on the day I first completed the car, Dad and the other male employees in the house all wanted to ride it too.
I put the kids in the back seat, but 5-year-old Junius Morgan wouldn't go to the back and tried to sit next to me.
"You go to the back too."
"No, I want to sit here. There are lots of kids in the back, but there's a seat here."
The back seat was narrow enough that Mom and Dad could barely fit together, but with seven 2-year-olds, it didn't feel that crowded.
When I drove the car forward, the kids stomped their feet in delight.
Surely it won't break just because those little kids are bouncing around.
After circling the Morgan family garden for quite a while, I told the kids to get off, but they wouldn't budge. Moreover, Junius Morgan in the passenger seat pestered me, saying he wanted to drive too.
"You can't because you don't know how to drive."
"I watched everything Henry did from the side. I want to try too."
"Do you think driving is easy enough to do just by watching from the side for a moment?"
"Henry can press the pedals there. I want to try driving."
Eventually, I had no choice but to hand over the control stick to Junius. This car didn't have a steering wheel yet; instead, it used a bent stick, perhaps called a steering arm, as a control lever. So, there was no need to switch seats to change drivers; simply handing the stick to the person next to you meant handing over the control. However, I was pressing the brake and accelerator.
Whether it was because driving using a control stick was so intuitive or Junius had a talent for driving, 5-year-old Junius Morgan drove quite well. The little girls riding in the back chatted noisily.
"Is Junius driving?"
"Junius, go that way."
"Go around over there. Wow, Junius drives well too."
A frank thought occurred to me, so I said to Junius,
"Junius, want to try going backward?"
"Huh? Is that possible too?"
"Since I installed a reverse gear, it's possible."
This car is equipped with two forward gears and one reverse gear. At this time, most cars only had two forward gears and often lacked a reverse gear, but I deliberately installed a reverse gear.
When I shifted into reverse, Junius was a bit flustered at first, but soon got used to it and drove backward well.
"Wow, it's going backward."
"It can go backward too?"
"Is Junius a magician?"
"Silly, Henry made this, and Junius is just driving as Henry teaches him."
"Then is Duke Henry a magician?"
"Maybe he is a magician."
"Duke, are you a magician?"
Amidst the kids making noisy chatter, the men watching the scene murmured.
"What? It could reverse too?"
"I'm definitely buying that."
"Aren't the kids going inside soon?"
Whether the adults' wish came true or the women inside got tired of seeing the men fret, a voice calling the kids was heard from inside.
"Kids, come here and eat Christmas cake. There are chocolates and candies too."
Just because they are children of rich families doesn't mean they can always eat chocolate or candy. Eating only such things could rot their teeth or make them refuse other food, so their eating is usually regulated, and days they can eat freely are only Christmas or Halloween.
Hearing they could eat cake or chocolate inside, the kids all clamored to be let off.
"Let me off, I want to eat chocolate."
"Junius, go eat cake."
Once all the kids, including Junius, went inside, this time the adults flocked around.
Jack Morgan was at the forefront.
"If you made something like this, you should have told me sooner."
"Uncle Jack, I'll teach you how to drive, so listen carefully."
As I explained how to drive to Jack Morgan, all the adults gathered close to listen together.
"So, if you change gears, it changes to reverse, and if you push it up again, the speed increases. And you press that accelerator thing to control the speed."
"Why are two brakes needed?"
"So that thing you pull by hand is the parking brake. That's what you mean."
I got out of the car, Jack Morgan and other adults got in, and the car started moving. It was a bit precarious at first, but since the speed was so slow, they got used to it quickly.
No matter if Jack Morgan was the owner of the house, he couldn't hold the steering wheel alone forever, and soon people switched turns driving the car, and in the meantime, it became quite dark.
"Uncle, flip the switch in front of you."
As I said, when the person holding the steering wheel flipped the switch, the headlights attached to the front of the car turned on.
Exclamations burst out all at once.
"So this is what you meant by being able to drive at night too."
"With that brightness, it would really be enough to drive."
Someone asked me.
"Is there something like a generator attached, or do you turn on the lights with a battery?"
"There is a quite large battery next to the engine."
"Is it separate from supplying electricity to the engine's spark plugs? Or does it share the same battery?"
"It shares the same battery. As you can see, the space is small, so it's a bit hard to put one separately."
"Then couldn't the engine stop because of the lights?"
It seemed this uncle was technically knowledgeable.
"So I attached a small generator to automatically charge the battery. It's just that the battery in our car has a large capacity because it has to supply electricity to the lights too."
Other adults also flocked over and asked me various questions about the car, and I answered as faithfully as possible.
While spending nearly two hours like that, Mr. John Pierpont Morgan arrived, and the people gathered around the car followed Mr. Morgan into the building.
This house was originally where Mr. Morgan lived, but when Jack Morgan got married, he gave it to Jack Morgan, and Mr. Morgan and his wife were living in another house. Mrs. Morgan, Jack Morgan's mother and Mr. Morgan's wife, disliked such noisy gatherings and didn't attend this Christmas party either.
"Phew, anyway, men all become kids when they get strange toys like that. If Father hadn't come, they would still be outside looking at the car."
"Well, thanks to that, wasn't it okay that we women could talk amongst ourselves?"
"It was good for us, but the young ladies must be very angry that the young men weren't looking at them and all went out to see the car."
I approached Mom, and upon hearing that, my heart sank, so I hurriedly looked around at the young ladies inside the building.
I couldn't guess the expressions of young ladies of this era, so I didn't know if they were angry or not, but their expressions certainly weren't smiling.
Are they really angry?
What if they take it out on me?
The only fortunate thing was that this party was a family party where children could join. If this gathering hadn't been a family party but a ball or something, I might have faced great trouble.
While examining the young women, I discovered two beautiful young ladies looking this way. They looked very much alike, appearing to be sisters, and were very elegant and beautiful young ladies, so even young me looked towards them, and our eyes met.
Surely they won't say anything just because their eyes met with a kid like me.
When our eyes met, the two young ladies walked straight towards me. I was a little surprised and grabbed the hem of Mom's dress, and when Mom saw the two, she said,
"Alice, Elena, stop pranking for today. And stop tormenting our Henry."
Alice and Elena? Where do those ladies look like those tomboy girls...
"Aaaah!"
When I screamed in surprise, Mom hugged me lightly and said to the twins,
"See, the child is having a fit just looking at your faces."
Alice retorted.
"It's been months since we saw him. Last time, we just tested our Duke because everyone said he was such a genius."
Elena chimed in.
"I didn't know last time, but seeing he made a car today, I guess the Duke is indeed a genius."
"Just call me Henry. What's with the 'Duke' even from you guys."
In my first encounter with the two, I fell into a trap set by them and got doused with water mixed with horse dung, and after that, whenever I visited the Morgan house, I planned revenge on them, but I was the one who got hit every time. In the end, I fell into their trap, got covered in sticky oil, and then walked home on the street with goose feathers stuck all over it; the humiliation of seeing passersby holding their bellies and laughing is something I will never forget for the rest of my life. There were even people who stopped their passing carriages, looked at me, and laughed holding their bellies inside the carriage.
If Mom and Dorothy, who were already used to the twins' pranks, hadn't known how to remove the oil, I might have had to shave my head bald back then. Even though Mom and Dorothy knew well how to remove the oil, I had to wash my body for nearly an hour.
The two returned to boarding school when summer vacation ended, and now they returned home for winter vacation. But in just a few months, the two had matured surprisingly enough that I couldn't recognize them at first glance.
When they left for boarding school in August, they were clearly children, but now they were completely young ladies.
Upon seeing the two, I hurriedly looked around.
There must be a trap set for me somewhere.
While I was looking around, Mom spoke again.
"Both of you have grown so much in a few months. Seeing that the childish look is completely gone, you could debut in society now."
In Western high society, a woman's debut is a very important event. Especially a woman's debut is called a debutante ball, and after going through this, she is no longer treated as a child but as an adult, and the event of officially finding a spouse begins.
When Mom said the two could debut in society, I cheered inwardly.
Please, please, debut quickly and get married off. Then I won't have to see you again.
This isn't because I got trauma from the twins or am scared just looking at their faces. It means that since both of them have grown up like that, wouldn't it be good for them to get married now?
Aunt Jessie, who was listening to Mom, said,
"Still, thirteen is too early."
No, it's not early. Look at their build; with that build, they could get married and have several kids.
Mom said,
"No, early ones debut early. Even in our time, there were girls who debuted at thirteen."
"That was in unnie's time. Quite some time has passed. Lately, they don't marry them off that early."
"Is that so?"
Mom, don't agree. What's the use of Aunt keeping her husband's nieces for long? Please marry them off quickly.
While Mom and Aunt Jessie were talking about the twins' social debut, Alice looked at me and said,
"Did you really make the car outside?"
I glared at the twins and said,
"Yeah, I made it."
Elena said,
"Making something like that at that age, that's really amazing. Others called you a genius, and I guess you really are a genius."
No, these aren't kids who praise me like this; what's wrong with them today?