by Melissa Kuch
Otus handed Mrs. Xiomy a handkerchief, and she blew her nose in it. Aurora watched her, mystified, and then looked to Otus, who was reading a book on one of the bookshelves. He read it so fast that the pages were whirling past, creating a breeze. He then picked up another book and did the same thing.
“Are you able to read that fast?” she asked picking up each of the books that he was dropping on the floor: Koran, the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Vedas.
“Yeah. Can’t you read this fast?”
She shook her head as she opened one of the book covers. “It would take me at least a week to read one of these books, if not longer. We read it page by page.”
“That’s what I do too,” he said, giving a demonstration with a book he had just picked up. He then flipped through the pages like a flip book and then slammed it shut. “See? Page by page.”
Aurora then picked up the Koran and started to read it. Otus tapped his foot as she proceeded with reading the first page silently in her head.
“Are you done yet?”
“Halfway.”
“With just one page? No wonder you humans are such trouble. If you were able to read faster like me you could use that knowledge for more good than evil.”
“The Common Good says books cause more evil than good. They give people ideas. They want us to share one idea.”
“Mrs. Taboo says that we all have different ideas. It’s the people who act on their ideas that show whether they are evil or good. We can all go in either direction.”
Aurora nodded, looking at Mrs. Xiomy, who had gotten into a conversation with one of the cloaked men that she recognized.
Aurora looked up at her friend and asked, “Otus, did you ever hear of a book that describes the Geometric Storm and the prophecy? It was something that Mrs. Xiomy’s husband mentioned before his death, and he predicted that we would find each other. I have a feeling that either you or Mrs. Taboo knows about this.”
He leaned back against the wall and nearly hit his head on one of the bookshelves. His left eyebrow shot up toward the tip of his head as he tried to extrapolate this piece of knowledge from his brain.
“There is a book,” he finally said. His eyelids fluttered as if in a trance. “The last time I saw Mrs. Taboo, she came down to the house and brought the conch shell with her. She said that this shell would lead me to you. I asked her how she knew. She said that she had read about it, and it was a reliable source. I had asked her how she knew, and she replied that he is the last remaining heir of the Gassendis. His ancestor predicted this while gazing at the northern lights.”
“Pierre Gassendi?” Aurora gasped. “He is the one who named the northern lights as Aurora Borealis. His long lost relative is the man we need to find. He must be the one who has the book. Do you know where Mrs. Taboo is? Is she down here?”
Otus shook his head. “No, she’s not here. Her conch shell was the last gift she gave me. She said she was travelling north to wait there until you and Boreas have inherited your gifts.”
She tugged on Otus’s sleeve, and he picked her up so that she was right near his ear cavity. Mrs. Xiomy was still deep in conversation with the cloaked man, so Aurora quickly said, “I don’t know if we can trust these people. I don’t think they know about our mission, but I could be mistaken. They might have an agenda of their own for you, but we need to still get you to the northern lights. But first we need to find out who this long-lost heir is. We’ll bide our time, but please don’t say anything to anyone about our mission. Okay?”
He winked back at her. “You got it. Now on with my reading.”
She was carried back to the ground when the door shot open. She expected Boreas, but it was a man who entered. He was the man Charlton that had announced that they needed to go to the chapel when Aurora had first entered this strange place. Now that she was face to face with him, he appeared much more inept and spineless.
He bowed and then proclaimed, “In case you have forgotten, I am the Great Secretary of Plymouth Tartarus and proclaim that you are all invited to our gala tomorrow night in the Great Hall. We will have outfits prepared for you to wear. Weren’t there four of you?”
“He’ll be back in a minute,” Aurora quickly chimed in.
The Great Secretary nodded. “We are having our people create an outfit especially for you, giant. Two of our head seamstresses will be here to measure you all and make sure that they have the proportions correct.”
Otus bowed down to the Great Secretary, but Charlton took a step back, horrified, and immediately scrambled out of the room.
Otus shrugged. “I always have that effect on people.”
Aurora and Mrs. Xiomy laughed. The two cloaked figures left and two young girls entered. One had auburn hair with bangs that swept over her eyes. She was wearing a golden frock with lace along the edges. The other was the fiery redheaded girl with the cross that Aurora remembered when they were carried into the hall. She was wearing a beautiful emerald frock with golden trim. She smiled heartily at her when they walked in. The auburn-haired girl spoke with an Irish accent, a scowl over her beautiful features.
“My name is Babs O’Hara, and this is my sister Eileen. We are here to get your measurements for the gala tomorrow night.”
Eileen stepped forward and offered her hand to both Mrs. Xiomy and Aurora. She then looked up and offered her hand to Otus, who recalled the lesson from Aurora and said, “Are we shaking on it?”
Eileen giggled. “Shaking hands is also to say ‘How do you do?’”
Otus nodded, taking this in, and then offered his hand to Eileen. Babs was busy getting out her measuring tape and started with taking down the proportions of Mrs. Xiomy, who was complaining that she couldn’t remember the last time she wore a ball gown.
“I think the last fancy dress I wore was on my wedding day. And that wasn’t fancy at all. I bought it for $25 since it was wartime. We got married by a priest in the ancient woods. Probably was one of the last religious ceremonies of our time.”
Eileen shook her head. “We have religious ceremonies down here. Babs will be married later this month to Josh Schroeder.”
“She means there aren’t any religious ceremonies on the mainland.” Babs huffed as she took Aurora’s measurements hastily.
Aurora watched her curiously and asked, “You are both around my age. When did you come down here? How did you find out about it?”
Babs ignored her and made a few markings on her clipboard. She then proceeded toward Otus, not even flinching and took out an extra-long measuring tape. She handed the two edges to Otus and instructed him to wrap the tape around his waist. Otus attempted to but only got a quarter of the way around his large torso. Babs nodded and then made a note in her clipboard. “Multiplying by four, that makes 320 inches. Now put it at the top of your shoulder blade and let it hang down.
She climbed onto a ladder near the bookshelf and made a mark at a point on his belly where the measuring tape landed. Otus was getting a kick out of this whole process.
While this was going on, Eileen turned to Aurora and said, “I was born here. Babs came here when she was two years old with my parents. They were escaping from the religious persecution after the rebellion fell. They weren’t willing to give up their Catholic beliefs. It’s the same story for so many here. Most ended up in jail and arrested. Others gave up their beliefs once their loved ones were seized and tortured. Then there were my parents, who weren’t able to just give up. There was a rumor about a new world that was being built under the ocean, the only unexplored and unchartered territory of the United States of the Common Good. My mother was pregnant with me and my father didn’t want to take the chance, but my mother said she would prefer they die trying than have us be raised in a world without God or freedom.
“So they ended up sneaking out at the Sacred Hour to the Cliffs of Moore. Others were there waiting for the cue. A bright neon blue light shone out from the water, and everyone watched as this giant torpedo-like submarine
emerged. Just then gunshots rang out, and people started screaming. Everyone dove into the water and swam for their lives as bullets shot their townspeople and friends down one by one. My parents, with God’s help, managed to make it out to the center of the ocean. They swam toward the submarine and were hoisted inside and carried back here with about 100 others. The submarine did the same thing for every country that it could get to, for those brave enough to start a new life as Puritans, for everyone to be welcomed no matter what your belief.”
“Prisoners is more like it,” Babs spit out, the measuring tape in her mouth as she was trying to estimate Otus’s shoe size. “We aren’t allowed to leave this place.”
“Babs, stop it. Please don’t mind her.”
Babs turned to Aurora and laughed. “You think you are leaving here. Guess again, my friend. They won’t risk you telling on their precious hideaway.”
Just then the door swung open, and Boreas entered. He froze when he saw Babs and Eileen staring at him. Embarrassed, he turned to leave but Aurora called him back.
“Boreas, this is Eileen and Babs. They are taking our measurements for the gala tomorrow night.”
Boreas laughed. “I’m not going to their little gala. I am leaving this place, and so are you, Aurora. Otus, come on.”
Otus instead took another book off of the bookshelf. “Sorry, Boreas, but we’re not leaving until after the gala.”
Boreas went straight up to him, “Have they brainwashed you? We are leaving. I am not going to stay here another minute as my m—as they keep us down here with all their religious dogma and fake promises.”
“I told you that you can’t leave,” Babs repeated. She took the measuring tape and put it up against Boreas’s chest as he watched her with his intense gaze. “They want to keep their flock on a tight leash. And you’re now part of that.”
Eileen clutched onto her cross and looked upward as if asking for help. Boreas grabbed the tape measure from out of Babs’s hand, and they struggled with it until Boreas won with his force and flung it across the room. Otus caught it before it hit the ground and handed it back to Babs, who accepted it gratefully.
She angrily yelled at Boreas, “No one has ever done that before!”
“Well, then it’s about time that you had more people from the mainland knock some sense into you all. I am not a prisoner here, and we are going to leave here whenever we damn well want to.”
Babs took hold of Eileen’s arm and led her to the door. “For your sake I hope you’re right. To be stuck down here with people like you for eternity would be hell.”
The door slammed shut behind the two girls, and Otus laughed, “Wow, Boreas, I think she likes you.”
“Shut up, Otus!” He sat down sullenly.
Mrs. Xiomy had watched the little expose with great anxiety. “I just remembered Newton is waiting for me. I hope he has enough sense to go back to the house, especially if we are to stay here for a while.”
“Don’t blame me,” Boreas exclaimed. “I want to leave. Blame the giant who wants to party it up all night long with these religious fanatics.”
Otus banged his fist against the wall, and all stepped back as part of the sheet rock crumbled around them. He grabbed Boreas, who struggled violently to get out of his clutch. “Look, Boreas, we are not leaving yet, so get it into your head. If anything I know that we were meant to find this place. And you were meant to find your mom. For whatever reason we are all meant to be right here. So put on new clothes because you are going to that gala if I need to carry you there myself.”
He dropped Boreas, whose body smacked against the carpet. He rolled over onto his back and looked up into the odious eyes of Otus. His mouth hung open in disbelief, having never seen this side of Otus before.
“Fine, I’ll go. Not because you are scaring me into it—because you’re not—but because I need to look out for the rest of you and make sure you don’t get into more trouble.”
He sulkily walked to the other end of the room and stared out of the window at the ocean life swimming past. Aurora gave Otus a thumbs-up sign, and Otus gave one back, picking up on the meaning behind the gesture.
Inspector Herald took the call. It was from Officers Woolchuck and Pelican.
“You better have found them,” his voice rattled into the phone.
Officer Woolchuck’s voice sounded through static. “Not yet. But we did find something else. In the Candlewick Park an abandoned vehicle was found hidden in the forsythia bushes near the haunted cave.”
“The cave is not haunted,” the voice of Officer Pelican exclaimed, grabbing the phone out of her partner’s hand. “I am sorry, Inspector. The car was near the Candlewick Park cave, and a dog was in the passenger seat with the window down. Whoever had abandoned the car did not intend to leave it for long.”
“Who does the car belong to?” Inspector Herald growled.
“A Mrs. Rana Xiomy. Widow of David Xiomy.”
“Of course I know whose wife she was you fool!” The Inspector started wheezing through the phone like an asthmatic having an attack. “What else did you find?”
“The footprints lead to the cave, but then they disappear. Washed away from the high tide.”
“That’s probably what they want us to think.”
The Inspector looked into the mirror at his burned reflection. Patches of red and white scarring covered his face and his bald scalp. Where eyebrows should have been, they were stripped off, just leaving suntanned outlines, and his nose square and disfigured from plastic surgery, as if it wasn’t his own. Only his lips were still intact.
“They are all still alive, and you will find them! I will relay this to the IDEAL, but use whatever methods necessary. Wherever they are, we will find that giant!”
He hung up the phone with a slam and looked out his window where there was an unmarked grave in the Candlewick Prison cemetery. Though it was lined with many rebels from the Last Straw rebellion, this one still stood out, for it was the only one with a forever plant blooming beside the tombstone. He cringed at the sight of it, screaming into the intercom and summoning his secretary into the office. She was wearing a black suit jacket and a short black skirt that caused his eyes to be distracted, staring instinctively toward her long, bare legs as they advanced toward him. She still could not look him straight in the eye even after working together for two years. He didn’t question it, though, since no one except the IDEAL could ever look at his disfigured face without being terrified. Now the Inspector couldn’t differentiate if they were more terrified of his appearance or his reputation.
“Miss Thompson, I thought I asked that you and your team destroy any flowers or plants buried in homage to those rebels in the cemetery.”
“They have been dug out and burned upon your request,” she sincerely stated, highlighting her English accent.
He pointed his finger menacingly out the window. “Then what do you call that?”
She followed his gaze, and her eyes opened wide in disbelief as the forever plant bloomed mockingly next to the unmarked grave.
“I am so sorry. I personally saw to it that it was destroyed. Someone must have planted another one. I will make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
He tapped his fingernails onto the desktop, like drums at a funeral procession. His voice spoke with an eerie calmness. “It better not, Miss Thompson, or else there may be a need to dig another grave in that cemetery. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?”
Her lips quivered as she quickly nodded and hastened out the door, closing it abruptly behind her. The Inspector looked out the window again. Though an innocent plant, it was a reminder that even after all these years, David Xiomy was not forgotten. The rebel’s prophecy was being lived out, and the Inspector had to stop it. It was for the Common Good that the Geometric Storm occur without any interference. As the IDEAL said, “It will remind them who is really in power.”
David Xiomy could not prevent the Geometric Storm from taking place. The Inspector should k
now. He was the one who killed him fifteen years earlier. Now all that was left was a giant and two teenagers to follow their leader’s fate.
urora twirled around in the most beautiful dress that she had ever seen. It was a deep shade of maroon, and the fabric elegantly draped down her body. Seashells were sewn into the hem of the dress. Eileen had curled her golden brown hair, pinning part of it up with a clip made out of gold. Aurora wouldn’t have recognized herself if she passed her reflection in the mirror. Even her own parents wouldn’t have recognized her. She doubted the town would call her Fatty Alvarez wearing this. Even Hattie Pearlton would be speechless if she saw her like this. And perhaps Jonathan Stockington would see her as something more.
She froze as she thought of Jonathan. He still was up there in Candlewick, unaware that his mother was alive. She wondered how he would take the news. Probably similar to Boreas. But then again, the two brothers were nothing alike. She thought that Jonathan would forgive his mother, while Boreas seemed not to have a forgiveness bone in his body.
Mrs. Xiomy walked in. She was wearing a stunning fitted purple dress with a sweetheart neckline, revealing a hint of cleavage. Aurora compared herself to the other woman immediately and noticed the lumps in her own stomach that were hidden beneath the cut of the dress but still noticeably there. And her large hips were more emphasized in the dress than when she wore jeans and a t-shirt.
“Eileen, do you think that maybe I should wear something else?”
“You look stunning.” Eileen smiled and put her arm around Aurora’s shoulders. “No eligible man in Plymouth Tartarus will be able to keep his eyes off you.”