Dead Diamonds - America x Reader

Upon his calloused hand, Alfred Jones held a simple uncut topaz gem.  Its light blue jagged surface shone brightly under the vacuum-tube lamp upon his father’s desk; the color holding an eerie resemblance to his own blue eyes.  Beams of multicolored rainbows would gleam across the wood surface and glide onto his hands that held the little nugget of treasure. The sight was truly remarkable.  The jeweler’s son knew that only a select few people in the world would ever get to see such a precious stone, and the thought saddened him.  Such beauty should be shared among many, yet is hidden away behind closed shop doors.

Despite these strong feelings Alfred holds for jewels, he feels even more strongly about the Earth itself.  You see, rather than becoming a jeweler like his father, Alfred wanted to become a geologist.  Instead of cutting gems, he wanted to be the one to find them.  He always did have a thing for adventure.

Sadly, this was not what his father had intended.  The whole reason Alfred was going to college now was because his father was paying for it.  And since he was paying for it, the man decided to choose Alfred’s future as well.  Said future would involve Alfred working in his father’s gem shop.  And so, there Alfred sat, at his father’s work station, staring at a beautiful gemstone that would have normally calmed his frazzled nerves.

“Alfred, you best be heading off to class now,” ordered the young man’s father, who just walked into the home after running some errands that morning.  The request was a typical one that Alfred got every day since he was always caught sitting in that very same chair every day.  It wasn’t that he didn’t like going to school.  It was just that he felt like he wasn’t learning anything useful there.  “Alfred?  Are you listening to me?”  Suddenly the beautiful topaz was being forced out of his hands by even larger ones.  “Although I would love to see you continue to show an interest in gems, you need to stop cradling them with your daddles^[1] and head off to University, or else you’ll be late.”

“I know.  Sorry father,” Alfred replied so monotonously, it was as if he were reading the words straight from a silent film.  “I’ll be going now.”  He begrudgingly stood up from the stool and went to go grab his hat, coat, and schoolbag that were all slung over a hook near the door.  Yet, before he could reach his destination, his father placed a kind hand onto his shoulder.

With a jovial smile, that caused creases to form at the edges of his mouth, his father said, “Have a nice day, Al.”  The sincerity in his deep voice made Alfred return the gesture with utmost genuineness.

“You too, father.”

 

The streets were rather busy this morning.  People bustling around, getting their chores and errands run before afternoon’s lunch.  However, Alfred paid them all no heed as he quickly ran around them all, through a pair of couples who shook their fists at him in fury, and an old lady whom he almost knocked over into a fruit stand but thankfully caught just in time.  After placing the woman back onto her feet, he tore off down the street and turned the corner, smacking into yet another woman, this time quite a bit younger than the last.  Out of instinct, his arms wrapped around her tightly, keeping her in place and preventing her from falling down.

Readjusting his gaze down to the woman that he’d grabbed ahold of, he had to keep from letting his jaw drop.  The young woman in his arms was, as some people referred, the jammiest bit of jam ^[2].  She was rather beautiful, and here he was practically wrestling her to the ground.  Catching himself staring, he smiled sheepishly and quickly let go, allowing the woman to dust herself off and readjust her overalls and shirt sleeves.

“Apologies Missus.  I’m in a bit of a rush, and wasn’t quite watching where I was heading,” he stated bashfully.  The girl smiled with intrigue at how boyish this young man was.

“It’s quite all right sir.  No harm befell me.  Just um…mind the grease ^[3].”  She then grinned at how laughable their predicament was.

“Right…” Alfred muttered, as if he were in some other realm at the moment.  Suddenly a thought struck him.  Glancing down at his windup wristwatch, he noticed the time to be 11:50am.  He had exactly ten minutes left until class started.  His blue eyes glanced up at the young woman in dread.  

“I’m sorry, but I have to go.  It was nice meeting, er…running into you Miss…?” Alfred inquired while extending a hand.

“___,” the girl answered with a laugh, shaking his hand firmly in greeting.  “And the pleasure’s all mine.”  When the two parted ways, Alfred grinned as he turned and ran the last few blocks to his University.

 

“Today, class, we shall read an excerpt from a wonderful article I had recently stumbled upon while researching about semiconductors,” the elder professor said animatedly, grinning from ear to ear as he began to pass out copies of the article to each of the students.  Alfred sighed.  Why of all things did he have to take an economics class?  The last thing he wanted to learn anything about was how to manage money.  His father had taught him enough to get by.  When would he finally learn about something that involved the Earth?  The teacher, pausing next to Alfred’s stool, stated eagerly, “Alfred, I feel this could be an interesting topic for you.  The entirety of the article talks about diamonds.”  The young man felt his eyes light up.  Diamonds?  Perhaps a little onceover of the article wouldn’t kill him.  Picking up the parchment that lay neatly before him, Alfred began reading the introduction. 

“Since the dawn of this boundlessly innovative era of our time, people everywhere have been looking for new ways to create a simpler way of living about our daily lives.  One such business that has seen some formidable breakthroughs would be the semiconductor industry.”  Another internal sigh escaped Alfred’s mind before he could even think to stop it.  Where were the diamonds?  Scanning his eyes a little further down the page, he spotted the term he’d been looking for.

“…by creating diamonds from ashes.”  Alfred’s eyes grew wide.  Ashes?  Like, human ashes?  Who the blazes would think of such a morbid thing?!  Reading the author of the article to be a Russian male, Alfred nodded his head in understanding.  It all just suddenly made sense.

“Excuse me, Professor?” Alfred asked, raising his hand in hopes of garnering the teacher’s attention.  It didn’t take but a second for the professor to make his way over to the blonde young man.

“Yes, Alfred?”

“Sir, this article is unquestionably morbid!”  Alfred’s blatant outburst caused several students to glance over his way in curiosity and annoyance.  

“Morbid?” the professor questioned, not quite understanding where this was coming from.  “On what terms?”

“Creating synthetic diamonds…from ashes.”  He still didn’t seem to understand why Alfred was getting so worked up about this.  Was it simply because the diamonds were created out of fake material?

“Yes.  What is so incredibly morbid about that?”

“Human ashes,” Alfred stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.  “How is that not morbid?!  I mean, I’ve heard of cremation being done on people plenty of times.  But to create an object out of them as well?!”  Alfred’s professor stood in place for a second before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“…You merely glanced at the article again, didn’t you Alfred?”

“Um, yeah.  Why?”  The professor shook his head and groaned a bit before answering the young man.

“Oh Alfred, you’ve got it all wrong.”  The old man picked up the discarded article left on Alfred’s desk and found the sentence he was looking for.  He pointed his finger at the sentence, “The author wasn’t referring to human ashes, but rather,” and then read the fine print, “vegetable ashes.”

“Oh.”  Now the young man felt kind of stupid.  He set his downcast gaze back onto the table in humiliation.

“But, you know,” the professor continued, “the idea is a bit intriguing.”  Alfred’s blue eyes lit up in astonishment.

“Really.”

“But of course, you also have the problem with all of those religious folks fretting over their dead relatives and not wanting to tamper with the bodies.  ‘Tis a shame really.  I’d say what you had just accidentally thought was a rather ingenious notion.  It would securely protect one’s relative from those dirty grave robbing heathens.”  With that, the professor walked away and left Alfred to ponder over this new idea of creating diamonds from ashes.  He picked up the article once more and read the title before the metallic sound of a bell tolled 1:00 in the afternoon.

“Well if this Russian man can do it with vegetable ashes, surely I could do it with human ashes.  It’d definitely be more impressive.”  And so, with that thought, Alfred’s destiny changed from being a boring Jeweler into one of the era’s most astounding scientists…or at least that’s what Alfred had hoped.

 

While at home, Alfred delved into his father’s library where he researched how diamonds are made in the Earth’s crust and how the makeup of human genetics could tie in with that.  Of course, he had to stop by the library to pick up a book on genetics as his father would have no such resource.  Thankfully he was making some excellent progress with his research.  Blue eyes scanned the yellowed book pages for hours…that is until heavy footsteps made their way into the man’s upstairs bedroom.

“Alfred, could I speak with you for a moment?” his father inquired as he walked up to stand behind Alfred’s desk chair.  Peering over his shoulder, Alfred’s father took notice of what his son was reading.  “How Diamonds Are Made.  Curious.  Why the sudden interest?”

“Not really a sudden interest if I’ve enjoyed learning about those kinds of things since before you decided to turn me into a jeweler.”

“Alfred, for the last time, I’m just doing what is best for you.  And speaking of what is best for you, that brings me to what I wanted to discuss with you.  You’re growing into a fine young man and I feel it is about time for you to consider marriage.”

“Marriage?”

“Yes.  But since I know you won’t just go out and meet a young lady, what with your studies being first priority, I have decided to arrange for you to be betrothed.”

“Why does this not surprise me?” Alfred wondered in thought.  Of course his father would make another life’s decision for him.  He may live in America, but he’d never felt more controlled.

“So, how does that sound?” the elder asked his son, sounding a bit timid.

“As you wish father,” Alfred stated haughtily, spinning his chair around so that his back was facing his father.  “You are the ringleader of this circus and I am but your humble pet performing every trick you teach me.”  A suffocating tension filled the room after those words left Alfred’s lips.  His father, feeling rather guilty for treating his son in such a way, sighs and leaves the room.

 

It took weeks, but all of Alfred’s researching and spelunking for parts around town had proven worth it.  He could not count how many wires, metal sheets, nails, , cogs, and other trinkets he had found while rummaging through the next door mechanic’s unused materials (the man said it was okay for him to do so), but he was happy he’d found enough.  Of course some parts he had to buy from the store, such as a hundred of those vacuum-tube lamps to create the amount of heat necessary to replicate that of the Earth’s crust.  Installing the final lamp in with the rest, Alfred stepped back to look at his clockwork masterpiece.

“It’s finally built,” he muttered in astonishment.  He never realized how much time and thought it would take to create such a thing.  But at least now he could finally test the darn thing.  All he needed now was a body: cremated or not.

A sudden knock on Alfred’s bedroom door caused him to panic slightly as he quickly grabbed a sheet to cover up his large contraption.  He did so just in time before his father walked in.

“Alfred, great news!  I have set up an outing for you.”  Alfred’s scrunched his eyes together in thought.

“An outing?”

“Yes!  My son, you will be heading out into town with a young lady that I feel would make a suitable bride for you.”  Great.  Again with his life being controlled.

“Oh!  Oh Dad…you shouldn’t have.”  Really, he shouldn’t have.  Alfred was so close to finding out whether his invention would work or not and in no way was anything going to stand in his way of that verdict.

“I know, son.  You don’t want to do this, least of all for me.  But could you at least do it for yourself?  I just don’t want to see you end up alone and miserable.”  Debating on how to answer his father, Alfred decided to humor the man and take him up on his offer.

“All right.  I’ll do it,” the young male replied dejectedly.  “Where will I meet this woman?”

“Oh spectacular!  I am most positive that you will come to love this woman.  You will need to go next door to pick her up.”

“Next door…she’s the mechanic’s daughter?  Even more peculiar than that…the mechanic has a daughter?!  How was I not made aware of this!?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea, but you will need to meet her at her front door at noon.”

“Tomorrow?”

“No, today.”  Raising his wristwatch up to his face, Alfred took note of the time to be 11:30am.

“You couldn’t have picked a better time to tell me all of this, father?” Alfred stated flippantly.  His dad merely laughed and told him to prepare for the date.

 

To say Alfred was nervous walking up the stone pathway to the mechanic’s front door would be an overstatement.  He’d been to this place so many times within the last two weeks, he felt like he could just walk through the front door and make himself a cup of coffee.  And he still found it rather odd that he’d never once seen a single sign that the mechanic had a daughter.  Perhaps the daughter is more sheltered than he is, being that all Alfred ever does is go to school and then head home.  Who knew, maybe this girl had never seen the light of day and was as pale as a ghost.

He shivered at the thought.  Although he was to retrieve a dead body, ghosts were something he’d always feared.  That and the dead potentially coming back to life, but he’d rather not think of such a horrid thing.

He knocked twice and stopped when he’d heard the familiar voice of the mechanic coming to the front door.

“Alfred!  It’s great to see you again.  I assume that you’re here to see my daughter?”  Beginning to feel slightly embarrassed, Alfred started rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yeah, about that…I actually didn’t even-”

“Father, has he arrived?” a high-pitched chipper voice cut in.  The young male’s eyes widened upon seeing a familiar womanly figure pop out from behind the mechanic.  “Say, you’re that funny man I ran into a few weeks ago,” ___ stated with a laugh.  Alfred could feel a blush coming on as he stuttered a bit with his answer.

“Yeah, yeah I am.  So…how’ve you been?”

“Oh, I’m doing fine.”  The girl then switched her gaze to stare back at the mechanic.  “Father, I’ll return in a few hours’ time.”

“All right!  I will see you then!”  Her father then shut the door and left her in Alfred’s care.  He coughed a bit in awkwardness before finally saying something.

“Well, um…lovely day we’re having?”  A giggle escaped the girl’s lips and caused Alfred’s face to turn even redder.  ___ began to make her way down the path through her front yard and began heading into town, causing Alfred to follow her like a lost puppy.

“Yes, I suppose it is.  I would rather wear lighter clothes than this long dress and itchy corset, but society…what can you do about it?”  Her grin was contagious and Alfred soon found himself smiling and beginning to relax a little more under her gaze.

“Yeah that reminds me.  The last time I saw you, you were wearing a pair of overalls and a regular shirt.  Pardon me, but I thought only men wore those.”

“My father lets me wear whatever I please.”

“Then why didn’t you just wear overalls on this date?”

“Because then it wouldn’t be a date.”  Alfred’s boisterous laughter caused the girl to jump a bit, but she was soon joining him in the merriment and laughed as well.

“You have a quick wit Miss ___.  I like that.”

“Well that’s rather rude,” ___ suddenly stated, causing Alfred to inwardly panic.

“Pardon?”

“You know my name, but I don’t believe I ever got yours after our first run-in.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!  It’s Alfred.”  The blonde young man held out a calloused hand to the younger lady as if he were meeting her for the first time all over again.  “Alfred F. Jones.  It’s a pleasure to actually meet you Miss ___.”

“Likewise, but you can drop the formalities.  I prefer to just be called ___.”

“As you wish…___.”  She smiled before walking into a tavern that Alfred hadn’t realized they’d walked to.  When he entered, his ears were suddenly bombarded with the clanking of glasses and the drunken slurs of several men sitting at the bar.  If he had to be honest with himself, the place was a bit of an odd choice for a first date; but seeing as ___ walked in first, he couldn’t complain if it was what she wanted.

“Alfred!” he heard her shout across the room.  Apparently she’d found an empty table while he was staring at his new surroundings.  She waved at him eccentrically, gesturing for him to join her at the table.  He quickly obliged.

“So Alfred, I have a question,” ___ began after Alfred took a seat.  “You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to.  I’m just a bit curious.”

“About?”

“Well, I’ve seen you over at my house an awful lot these past couple of weeks.  May I ask why?”  Alfred’s eyes grew wide with fear.  Should he tell her what he’s been up to?

“Um, well…” he began, uttering nonsense to the wind.  ___ chuckled a bit at his nervousness.

“Like I said, you don’t have to answer my question.”

“But, I kind of owe you an explanation.  I mean, it is your house.”  The young woman remained quiet as Alfred collected himself enough to explain why he was at her house almost every day these last two weeks.  “Basically, I’ve been over at your house collecting pieces of material for a contraption that I’ve been building.  Your father claimed to have some scraps and told me that I could use whatever I pleased.  So I took him up on his offer.”  She smiled excitedly at hearing this.

“Oh!  That’s fascinating!  So what is this contraption of yours?”

“It’s uh…um…well, it kind of…”  “Please don’t be scared when I tell you,” he thought to himself.  “Creates diamonds from the cremated remains of dead humans,” he sputtered while clamping his eyes shut, quickly forcing the words out of his mouth like tearing a bandage off of a wound.  Things remained quiet between the two, and Alfred hadn’t been more fearful of anything in his life.  What if this girl thought he was loony?!  She could call the police on him and have him arrested for spouting nonsense about dead people!

“I’ll be right back,” the girl sitting across from him stated.  “I’m going to go order a couple of drinks for us.  When I come back, I expect to be better informed of this magnificent idea of yours.”  Alfred quickly opened his eyes to see ___ staring down at him with a comforting smile.  She liked the idea?  Maybe this relationship had hope after all.

After retrieving the spirits, ___ sat down and demanded Alfred to tell her more about his studies and how his contraption would work.

“You see,” Alfred began, “the Earth’s core contains temperatures as high as 1500 degrees Celsius.  That being said, creating a synthetic diamond on the Earth’s surface-”

“Should be impossible,” ___ interjected.

“But I’m determined to prove that hypothesis wrong.  Just because it should be impossible, doesn’t mean it could be as well.  I mean, look outside!”  ___ did so and continued to listen to Alfred speak.  “We’ve made it so humans can fly!”  As he said this, a giant blimp flew overhead, creating a giant shadow across the town beneath it.  The young woman nodded her head in affirmation.  Indeed, humans were capable of flying now.  “And we can travel at speeds that were at first viewed as incredible!”  ___ watched as the moving mechanical horse carriages zipped on by along with the bicycles that had pipes billowing steam out of the rear.  “But now those speeds are seen as an everyday thing.  So why couldn’t scientists also come up with ways to recreate Earthly materials?”  ___ returned her gaze back to Alfred’s and smiled.  Instead of answering his question, she decided to voice her own opinion on the idea of synthetic diamonds.

“You know, turning people into diamonds has a certain aesthetic romance to it.”

“You believe so?”  She nodded in confirmation and smiled jokingly.

“You do realize, however, that this would make you a regular Dr. Frankenstein, right?”  Alfred shrugged.

“Eh, just because I’m messing with dead people doesn’t mean I’m trying to bring them back to life.”

“True, but ‘messing with’ people’s loved ones would cause a bit of mafficking ^[4] in the streets, but I think the idea itself is mad as hops ^[5].  If I were to personally choose how I would look after death, I would rather be a diamond than a rotting corpse.”  Alfred grinned and raised his glass.

“Truer words have never been spoken.”  And with that, the two clinked glasses and sipped the bitter alcohol from their glasses in agreement.

 

That night, the couple headed to the graveyard and dug up the cremated remains of a recently deceased man.  Alfred, after reading the man’s obituary, discovered that he’d had a prosthesis leg and hoped that it wouldn’t mess with the test results.  After a few close calls with the graveyard’s watchman, Alfred and ___ refilled the grave so that it wouldn’t look suspicious, and quickly headed out of there and back to Alfred’s home.

With the time being midnight, the two were sure to be quiet as they headed upstairs to the young man’s bedroom where his contraption lay waiting to be utilized.  After shutting the door, Alfred released a bated breath meanwhile ___ started to laugh.

“I can’t believe we just did that,” she said, breathing heavily from all of the running they had just done.  “We sure aren’t meaters ^[6], are we?!”

“Right you are!” Alfred gleefully cheered before taking the urn and dumping its contents onto a metal sheet that sat on his desk.  As he began dripping a chemical agent on top of the remains to get the carbon ions extracted from the man’s ashes, he said, “You know, I feel kind of bad for not getting any consent to do this.”

“Aw, you’re a right sweet guy, you know that?”

With a grin, Alfred replied, “I try to be.”  With that, he placed the metal sheet holding the ashes into his machine that would replicate the heat and pressure of the Earth’s inner core.  His large hand wiped the perspiration off of his forehead as he pushed a large button to make the machine begin its work.  Some clanking sounds were heard, causing Alfred to think it would literally blow up in his face, but after a couple of more seconds, a humming resounded from the contraption and the lights within the oven-like machine began to burn brightly.  With a proud smile, Alfred clapped his hands together and stated, “Now all we have to do is wait.”

“For how long?”

“Well, seeing as diamonds take years to form, I’m going to assume that we have to wait at least three weeks, if not a month, for the process to complete itself.”

 

A month later, on their wedding night, Alfred and ___ bounded up to his bedroom to inspect their findings on the synthetic diamond.  Opening the door to the inside, Alfred grabbed a cloth from his desk and proceeded to reach inside and drag the metal sheet out.  The scraping sound was rather horrid, but the two didn’t seem to care as they had awaited this moment for weeks.  Billowing black smoke had ___ coughing and wafting the air around her as Alfred focused on trying to see what the outcome was.

What he saw made him want to cry.

A lump of coal sat on the tray, black as the night sky.

“Oh Alfred,” ___ muttered in sadness for her new spouse.  “I’m sorry.”

“No.  It’s okay.  This is how science works, right?  Failure just brings you one step closer to your desired outcome.  Things like this happen all the time.”  Alfred hung his head in shame.  Why did he waste his precious time trying to do something such as this?  He was no scientist.  He was just the jeweler’s son.  Suddenly angered, Alfred roughly picked up the blackened piece of coal and chucked it across the room and into the wall where it proceeded to fly…right through the wood.

“What the…” Alfred, intrigued by this chunk of coal once again, ran to the wall to inspect where it had gone.  “Did you see that?!”  ___ nodded her head, too shocked to speak at the moment.  “It flew right through the blasted wall!”  Laughing, he opened his bedroom door up and practically skipped into the hallway to retrieve the stone.

“Alfred, if I may interject, why are you so giddy about this?  Not saying that I don’t like to see you happy, it’s just…why?”

“Because this is a very good sign,” he answered vaguely.  Making a beeline for his desk, Alfred immediately sat down and grabbed some of his gem utensils and started to inspect the lump of coal.  He tested the toughness of the stone by scratching a nail across the surface.  Looking at the stone, he found there to be absolutely no damage.  Normal coal would have broken apart, but this one did no such thing.  Feeling more excited as the seconds ticked by, he then compared the stone’s shininess with other gems.  Looking at the stone once more, he noticed a slight chip that had formed on the surface.  Scratching it away with his fingernail, he unearthed something he’d never suspect to find.

A shiny blue diamond.

The lump of coal was actually an incredibly dark blue uncut diamond.  After wiping a cloth along the jagged surface, practically cutting himself in the process, he discovered that the color was actually a bit bluer than anticipated.  Adrenaline rushed through his veins as he jumped for joy.  Quickly he ran across the room and set the windup music box to play a melody as he grabbed ahold of ___ and began twirling her around the room, happier than a child receiving candy.  The two laughed joyously as their special night only seemed to become more special for that night was the birth of Alfred’s new business: producing synthetic diamonds out of the dead.