by Melissa Kuch
On the metallic casing were two large handprints that matched the size and shape of Otus’s hands. Then there were two sets of hand prints that were engraved into the metal. One was the size of Boreas’s hands and the other matched Aurora’s. Together they stared at this metallic casing, and Otus placed the two teenagers on the top of his head to be able to reach it. They sat on the soft strands of his hair and reached up to fit their hands into the pre-destined hand prints. Once all three had their hands together they pushed upward, and the casing gave way.
“It worked!” Otus cried out, so excited that Aurora and Boreas nearly flew off the top of his head and clung onto strands of his hair for dear life. He immediately caught them and placed them safely back into the pocket of his overalls.
“Oops, sorry about that. Need to remember that you aren’t giants like me. Now hang on.”
Like a gas explosion, the metal cover shot up into the air, and Otus flew up with it. Otus took long leaps into the air, going faster than the speed of light. If someone did see Otus, it would be in mid blink, and then they would assume they were seeing things, if they even pondered it at all. Boreas and Aurora gaped down at their town in disbelief as they were hurled up. The town resembled miniature dollhouses from the height they reached, nearly as high as the clouds. The pressure was astronomical in the atmosphere, but they were going so fast that their bodies were quickly restored to their natural pressure and gravity levels each time they were suspended in midair. It was almost like being sucked into a vacuum and released so quickly that the body didn’t have a chance to react.
“Woohoo!” Otus cried out into the atmosphere. “And you both thought I was a crazy oaf of a giant. I may be. Or I may be much more. Now grab on tighter. Time to leave the burrows of the earth and make our way toward the lights.”
here’s no connection between our names and the northern lights! It is purely a coincidence.”
“What if there is no such thing as a coincidence? We are the only ones who could hear the conch shell.”
Aurora and Boreas were in the Candlewick Private Library, having broken in with the help of their new travelling companion. Boreas had disabled the security camera as Otus stood watch outside since he was unable to fit into the miniature library due to his giant proportions. The two teenagers were now in a desperate search for information about the Geometric Storm.
“He’s a nutcase,” Boreas exclaimed, throwing another book on the pile. “I can’t believe he said that Mrs. Taboo belongs to a spiritual party. I thought all religions were abolished by the Common Good Party.”
“I guess there are still people working underground.”
Boreas and Aurora continued to search through the mounds of books for any reference to a Geometric Storm, but were coming up empty. Guilt gnawed at Aurora’s throat as she kept reminding herself that she was in the library illegally. Books were no longer available to the public, except for government-mandated textbooks used for teaching. Everything else could be found online. However, the problem with the material on the Internet was that everything was censored by the Common Good Party. If anyone had an opinion that differed from the Common Good, it was immediately taken down and destroyed. The people had agreed to this when the IDEAL had come to power fifteen years earlier.
Aurora held one of these rare relics, now a museum piece to be observed and never read. She ran her finger down the spine of the book and opened the thick cover to behold the yellowed pages within. Dust filled her nostrils, and she sneezed, fearful that she had awakened the silent books in this mausoleum. She cautiously turned the yellowed pages, expecting the paper to combust in her hand. She didn’t understand how something this small could be so damaging.
“Wait, what is this?” Boreas whispered, thrusting a magazine article in her face.
Aurora picked up the magazine, and there in black and white was a picture of Mrs. Xiomy, their high school science teacher. She was around the age of twenty-one, wearing a shawl that covered the top of her head and wrapped around her shoulders. There was a look of pure agony on her face as she reached out toward a man being led away by two police officers in handcuffs, his back to the camera. Falling from her hand was a protest sign that read “Abolish IDEAL! Keep Freedom for All!”
“She was a protestor,” Aurora said, astounded.
“Still as beautiful then as she is now!” he sighed, drooling over the picture.
Aurora grabbed the picture from his hands, aggravated. “Can we stay focused, Boreas?”
“Oh, um, yeah.”
He shuffled his chair, turning a shade of mauve, and Aurora proceeded with reading the article. Since the Common Good won the majority party in government, their followers have already begun tearing down signs of churches, mosques, temples, and other places of worship and converting them into IDEAL meeting houses. The Religious Protest leader, IMAM, has been arrested as he attempted to barricade the doors of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City along with several followers. IMAM, also known as the rebel David Xiomy, got into a confrontation with one of the officers and construction workers looking to tear down the building. This lead to a brawl that resulted in fifteen killed and forty arrested. Without its leader, the organization has been dissolved, and the Common Good has finally declared to loud pandemonium and cheer that after two years of unrest and war, freedom of religion has been abolished. A brighter future has been initiated for all in the newly established United States of the Common Good.
The two teenagers finished reading the article but continued staring down at the pages and the picture of their teacher reaching out toward David Xiomy, her husband.
“I think we just opened Pandora’s box,” Aurora whispered, fear resonated in her chest as she stared into Boreas’s eyes. Before he could respond, the sound of keys jangling broke the silence. Aurora quickly ripped the newspaper article out of the archives and stuffed it into her bag, and Boreas switched off the flashlight. They stood there like two defenseless mice about to be caught by the hungry cat.
The door creaked open, and two high beams of orange light pierced through the darkness of the library. The beams were followed by heavy footsteps emerging into the sanctuary.
A voice with a thick Brooklyn accent boomed out, “Where you at, kiddies? We know you’re in here.”
A husky female voice sounded after him along with a bang as she hit her partner with the flashlight. “Woolchuck, cut it out. You sound like you’re a dog catcher.”
“Dog catcher. Common Good officer. Same thing. We are both out to nab someone or something. Pelican, do you have a better idea?”
“Well, now they know we’re here,” the female exclaimed, disgruntled, as she shone her flashlight in a multitude of directions. “I am Officer Pelican. You thought you were slick disabling the security camera, but that didn’t stop the floor tracking device from going off at headquarters.”
“Yeah, you’re both busted, so let’s make this easy for us all. Come out slowly with your hands up, and no one is going to get hurt.”
Boreas and Aurora slowly inched backward hiding behind a large shelf that was labeled the Travel Section. Crouched down, they huddled in the darkness as the light beams went from shelf to shelf. The front door was about fifty yards away, and the police officers had locked it in order to barricade their escape. Aurora squeezed her head in between two books and saw a window that she might be able to use to signal to Otus that they were in danger. However, one of the officers was standing right in front of it.
“I need to get to that window,” she whispered to Boreas.
“I’ll create a diversion,” he whispered back, taking a peek to see that the coast was clear and then making a mad dash for the shelves parallel to the Travel Section. Aurora watched him in awe as his tennis skills kicked him. He zigzagged from one shelf to the next on the balls of his feet, just being missed by the high beams of light. The book she had been leaning on started to slide out of its nook, and she caught it right before it was about to plunge against the
floor and reveal her whereabouts.
“Cursed book!” she whispered, aggravated with herself but relieved by her reflexes. The title of the book was Alaska Uncovered, and her heart stopped, wondering if there could be something about the Aurora Borealis in that book and the mysterious Geometric Storm. She stuffed it into her bag and peered out through the crack of the book shelf. Boreas had disappeared, and she didn’t know what kind of diversion was up his sleeve.
She didn’t have to ponder for long because out of nowhere his voice boomed out over the loudspeaker.
“This is the ghost of Candlewick Library. You are trespassers in my house. Leave immediately.”
Officer Woolchuck cried out, “Pelican, is that you?”
“No, you fool. I’m over here. And since when do I have a manly voice?”
“I mean no, of course you don’t have a masculine…I mean I just was hoping it was you.”
“It’s the kid, you idiot. He’s over the loud speaker. Come on.”
They started to run to the front desk of the library, and Boreas’s voice echoed through the loud speaker again. “You can run but you can’t hide.”
Once the coast was clear, Aurora made a running dash, and she didn’t stop until she was at the glass window. She banged on it with her fist and tried to make out Otus’s shape through the glass. All she saw was the large tree that he had been standing next to but no sign of the giant. She banged on it more forcefully, and then she heard over the loud speaker, “Got you, ghost!”
And then there was screeching feedback as the loudspeaker went dead. Aurora gulped and knew she had to get to the back door. With all her energy, she flew toward the door, not stopping until she got there and fumbled frantically with the door knob. It was locked. She remembered reading something about breaking a lock by using a credit card. Aurora dug her hand into her purse, shuffling the contents wildly until her fingers found her parent’s credit card that they gave her in emergencies. This was an emergency. She slid the credit card through the crevice of the door, wiggled it around until finally she was able to pry the lock open. The knob turned and she opened it cautiously. Her eyes screened over the parking lot, making sure that the officers didn’t have back-up outside. To her relief, there was only their police car sitting there empty, the red lights on top of the car blinking in a circular motion. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the front of the library.
“Otus,” Aurora cried out, searching in circles for the giant. He was nowhere to be found. She cried out again, not believing that he had abandoned them. “We need you. It’s Aurora. Help us!”
The soft rustling of leaves was all she heard in response. She didn’t know what to do. Boreas had been caught by Common Good officers in the library and their giant had run for the hills out of fear. It was up to her to save Boreas, but she had no idea how she could do it.
Aurora crept back toward the officer’s vehicle and saw that they had left their keys in the ignition. Instead of talking herself out of it, she quickly opened the driver’s side door and slid into the front seat. She had just gotten her learner’s permit for driving that year and went through the steps in her head. Check mirrors, put gear into drive. The officer’s two-way car radio was crackling with the terrifying voice of Inspector Herald asking for an update.
“Officer Pelican, respond. Did you find the trespassers? Answer me.”
Aurora took a deep breath knowing what she was doing was breaking a million laws. She picked up the walkie-talkie and in her most masculine voice responded, “Nabbed the kids. Bringing them to headquarters shortly.”
She turned off the walkie-talkie, and the Inspector crackled back, “Good. Bring them to me immediately. We need to make an example of them trespassing during the Sacred Hour.”
“Ten-four.”
She threw the walkie-talkie back into its holster. Her eyes focused on a button labeled Siren, but she hesitated. The Inspector’s words haunted her, but she was out of options. She pressed the button and left all hope behind.
Her foot moved from the brake onto the accelerator and started to drive, the siren blaring as she did wheelies in the library parking lot. As she predicted, the two officers came dashing out of the library, tripping over each other. They called out to her to stop, chasing her in the parking lot; Aurora laughed, playing this game with them. The officers were chasing her, but there was no sign of Boreas. He had to be still inside the library. She had hoped they would have taken him out with them, but no such luck.
“Otus, where are you?” she grumbled, exasperated.
She put the car in neutral and opened the front door, rolling out as the car continued heading toward Main Street. She hid behind a hydrangea bush as the officers continued to chase the car down, blaming each other for leaving the keys in the car.
“It was kids. I didn’t think they would give us this kind of trouble,” Officer Woolchuck stammered, out of breath.
“Shut up and catch the car!” Officer Pelican cried out.
Aurora’s knee was bleeding from where she had hit the pavement, but she ignored it and made a running dash for the back door of the library. It was still open, and she ran in. “Boreas, where are you?”
“I’m here,” he shouted back. “I’m handcuffed to one of the shelves.”
She followed his voice and found him sprawled out on his back on the floor with his left wrist handcuffed to the shelf.
“Aurora, get out of here,” he cried out. “It’s no good if we are both caught. Where is Otus?”
“Otus is gone,” she replied, huffing and puffing as she examined the handcuffs. “Shoot, how are we going to get you out of this?”
“Where are the officers?”
“Chasing a car, but not for long. They’ll be headed back here and very angry. We have to get out of here.”
“Unless you have a saw or a key in that bag of yours, you need to get out of here.”
Aurora searched the front desk of the library for anything that was sharp that could work. She found a paper slicer and shredder but nothing that could cut through the steel handcuffs. She found a hammer and decided to try to break the wooden shelf. She ordered Boreas to sit as far away from the shelf as possible, cleared the books with a sweep of her arm, and heaved with all her strength. The hammer hit the shelf and broke off splinters of wood. She hit it again with all her strength, watching as more of the wood gave way.
“It’s working,” Boreas cried out, continuing to eye the door for any signs of the officers returning.
She continued to hit the same spot over and over again, remembering her father teaching her when they took apart a bench in their backyard. “Keep hitting the same spot like a bull’s eye,” he would say. “Then aim and strike. It will break under the force.” She struck again and again until finally the shelf collapsed and Boreas was free, the handcuff dangling from his wrist.
“Come on,” she shouted, grabbing him by the hand and lifting him to his feet. Together they ran for the back door. They just got outside when they were suddenly grabbed by strong hands that held them aggressively by the chest.
“Good try, kiddies,” Officer Woolchuck’s voice boomed out maniacally. “But we got you in the end.”
“You can’t arrest a ghost,” Boreas rebuked, but then the officer held out his gun and pointed it directly at his left temple.
“Don’t tempt me. You are under arrest. Both of you.”
Officer Pelican reached to find handcuffs and faced Aurora against the wall. “No more chasing car tricks, girlie. Now you get to ride in the back seat where you belong.”
Facing the wall with the brick heaved against her face, Aurora felt the night getting darker. Earlier that day she had woken up like everyone else and here she was, having trespassed into a library and stolen private property, and a Common Good vehicle. Her parents were going to kill her.
Officer Pelican was fumbling with the handcuffs but finally got them untangled and was about to fasten them on Aurora’s wrists when she noticed
an obstruction to the moonlight. Her head lurched upward as she let out a high pitched scream, and the handcuffs dropped from her hands, clanging against the cement.
Officer Woolchuck exclaimed, “What on earth is the matter with you, Pelican? This is no time to be afraid of the dark.”
He then was lifted off the ground, his squeal even more high pitched than his partner, and his gun plummeted to the ground.
“Put me down!” the officer’s voice cried out. “Please don’t eat me!”
Boreas and Aurora whirled around to behold Otus lifting the officer into the air. Officer Pelican ran to the car to call for help, but Aurora and Boreas both tackled her simultaneously, and she hit the ground. Aurora picked up the handcuffs and snapped them onto her wrists.
“Listen to me,” Aurora said. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
“What is that thing?” Officer Pelican cried out, her eyes bulging out of her head.
“It will eat you if you don’t cooperate,” Boreas replied, winking at Aurora. She smiled slightly and then observed Otus still holding onto the other officer, who looked like he was about to pee in his pants.
“Put him down, Otus,” she said, nearly laughing. “We’ll lock them up in the backseat of the Common Good vehicle so they can’t follow us.”
Aurora found the handcuff key out of Officer Pelican’s pocket and unlocked the latch. Boreas clutched his left wrist gratefully and massaged it to regain blood flow. Aurora used the cuffs on the hands of Officer Woolchuck, who was relieved once his feet were back on the ground. He dashed into the back seat of the car without anyone saying a word. Boreas let the air out of each of the car tires, and Aurora slammed the car door shut, took the keys out of the ignition, and handed them to Otus. Then, like Zeus hurling a lightning bolt, Otus threw the keys as far as he could. The metal streaked across the sky and disappeared into the darkness.
They bid their Common Good officer adversaries farewell and jumped onto Otus’s palm. He lifted them up like an elevator to his overalls pocket. The officers watched, mystified, through the backseat window as the giant took an enormous leap into the air and sped off into the darkness. Before they could blink, he vanished into thin air. The officers stared at each other, contemplating their narrow escape and knowing full well that Inspector Herald was never going to believe their tale about a giant.