Doug scrunched his nose. “Dude, you better go take a sh—”
I held my hands up. “I’M GOING!”
I thumped up the stairs and flung open the door of the room that Doug and I had been sharing since November. Loopy was snoozing on the lower bunk. We added bunk beds after Christmas, rock-paper-scissored for the top, and Doug won.
“Hey, Loop! No wonder you didn’t come down to greet me. Why are you in here with the door closed?” I sat down next to him.
“Oh, man. I’m sorry, boy. Have you been in here all day? Come here, let me give you a snuggle . . .”
Loopy sat up, sneezed, jumped off the bed, and ran under it.
“You too? Come on, I can’t smell that bad.”
I stood up and stripped off my shirt. Around my neck hung my Triple T Token. An old woman gave it to me at the library soon after my family moved to New York City, and ever since, it had been taking Zoe, me, and my friends on adventures through mysterious elevator doors. The last adventure had taken place the day after Thanksgiving, when the elevator took us to China to return a flamingo named Flames to the Beijing Zoo. I missed the little shrimp hog.
I looked at Loopy. “Hey, at least I don’t smell like shrimp anymore.” He poked his head out from under the bed.
“You think I stink?” I put my nose under one arm and took a big whiff. “Ugh. I guess it’s true, then.”
As soon as I said that, the Triple T Token, which had stayed cool and silent for almost two months, began to flash brilliant lights around the room.
CHAPTER 3
Seeing the Light
ZOE! COME IN HERE! IT’S AN EMERGENCY!” Loopy ran out from under the bed and chased after the light patterns that swirled around on my floor. He even jumped to try and bite the ones on the wall.
Zoe burst through the doorway. “WHAT? Arcade, are you all right?” She stood, frozen, staring at my token. “What the . . . OH, NOOOOO!”
I looked toward the ceiling, expecting what normally came next when the token came to life.
“Where’s the glitter?” Zoe stood with one fist jammed into her hip.
“Maybe it only appears if the token heats up.”
Zoe came over and touched the token. “It’s cool.” Then she examined the patterns on the wall. “But it’s sure creating a dazzling display. What did you do to it?”
I shrugged. “Nothing.”
Zoe adjusted her reading glasses on her face. She moved closer to the token, picking it up off my chest, and turning it around to examine the back, where “Arcade Adventures” was stamped across the bottom.
“Think, Arcade. Did you say anything before this all started?”
“I was just talking with Loopy.”
“What did he say, Loopy?” She ran around until she caught him. She brought him up close to me. Loopy barked.
“Loopy told me I stink.”
Zoe petted his head. “You are a smart doggy.”
“And then I said, ‘Ugh, I guess it’s true then.’”
“HA! You admitted the truth!”
“Yeah! So what?”
Zoe shrugged. “I don’t know. I just like you to admit I’m right once in a while.” Her eyes widened. “Hey, maybe that’s what triggered the token! You’re finally seeing the wisdom in EVERYTHING I SAY.”
I shook my head and waved my hands. “Now wait a minute, Zoe. That is NOT why this thing came to life. You have some of the weirdest ideas that I’ve ever heard.”
I barely got that out of my mouth when the token stepped up the light show a hundred percent. Light prisms took over the room.
I squinted. “I’m gonna need my shades for this.”
Zoe, who usually scowls and screams and complains when the token comes to life, danced around instead this time. “This is amaaaaaazing! You’re seeing the light, Arcade! Zoe’s truth about the world! I can’t wait to see where we’re going!” She ran over to my dresser and grabbed my spray deodorant. “Apply this, please. I don’t want to regret one minute of this adventure.”
I took the can, lifted my arm, and sprayed. Nothing came out. Zoe flew to my closet and pulled out a clean, red T-shirt.
“Here, at least put this on.”
When she closed the closet door, it turned into a sparkling-gold elevator door. A golden coin slot rose up out of my floor, this time with a sign attached that said GET TRUTH.
I reached for the token, pulled, and it came off my chain into my hand. I turned to Zoe. “So, you good with this?”
Her eyes reflected the brilliant rays coming off the token. “Oh, yeah. I have a feeling I’m gonna love this.”
I approached the coin slot. “Okay then, no complaining when you find out I’m right about everything in life.”
“Ha.” She pointed to the sign. “It says GET TRUTH. I’m sure I won’t be complaining.”
I held Triple T right above the slot but hesitated.
“What?” Zoe threw her hands up.
“We haven’t been on a Triple T adventure for a while.”
Zoe reached over and smacked the top of my hand, causing the token to drop directly into the coin slot. “Let’s see what all this light is about.”
Light streams shot through the cracks of the elevator doors. I had to shield my eyes.
“Make the open-door motion!” Zoe yelled.
“Oh yeah. Almost forgot about that!” I put my palms together and then pulled them apart. The doors opened. The light was unleashed. It was brilliant, but for some reason, it didn’t make me want to jump back. It made me want to climb in.
Woof! Loopy appeared by my side as I took a step toward the elevator entrance.
“Loopy, last time you went through, you got lost! I’m not risking that again.” I picked him up and placed him on my bed. “I’ll be back for you, I promise.” I jumped in the elevator, where Zoe was holding a golden handrail and staring at the dazzling lights all over the walls.
“Let’s hope we aren’t the ones who get lost this time,” I said.
The elevator door closed.
Triple T elevators are tricky. Sometimes there’s a button with only one choice. Sometimes there’s one button with many choices. A few times, I had one button with no choices, so I shouted a command out loud. I’d learned the hard way to be careful what you ask for.
This time, there were no buttons at all! Just this golden sign at the top that said GET TRUTH.
“So, what’re you gonna do, Einstein?” Zoe had one hand on her hip, and the other rubbing her neck.
I pointed to the sign. “I guess I’m going to ask it to show me the truth.”
“The truth? About what?”
I grabbed hold of my golden chain that, just a few minutes ago, held the biggest mystery of my life over the last year.
The Triple T Token.
“I wanna know where the token goes every time I drop it in the slot.”
And then we dropped.
“AAAAAHHHHHHHH! ARCAAAAAAADE!” Zoe screamed as the elevator plummeted. “Why did you SAAAAAY THAAAAAT?”
I reached for the golden doors to steady myself. “BECAUSE I REALLY WANT TO KNOW!!!!!”
“BUT WE’RE DROPPING!”
“I KNOW THAT! MAYBE THE TOKEN GOES TO ANTARCTICA!”
“ANTARCTICA?”
“YEAH, THAT WOULD BE DOPE!”
“NO, IT WOULD NOT BE DOPE!”
“WOULD TOO!”
“WOULD NOT!”
Right in the middle of the argument that was going nowhere, the elevator began to slow, as if a parachute had opened up on top. It eased to a stop.
Zoe and I stood there, staring at each other. The doors didn’t open.
“Great. They’re stuck.” Zoe felt along the cracks of the doors that were still gold but had now turned an antique gold.
“Patience, Zoe. Remember your goal.”
My sister Zoe and I set goals back in August for the school year. Zoe’s was to grow in patience. Mine was to grow in compassion. I’m still working on it, especially with
Zoe.
Zoe stepped back from the door. “Okay. Open when ready, ancient doors.”
The doors creaked and slid open.
CHAPTER 4
The Beginning
Radiant sunlight streams through the doors. It’s warm. I step out.
Zoe rubs her upper arms. “Well, good. It’s not Antarctica.”
We’re at the top of a large, outdoor amphitheater. The seats are made of white stone. There’s a stage at the bottom of the many rows. Behind the stage is a stunning crystal blue sea. A few small boats float in the distance.
Zoe and I take a few steep steps down to the middle of the amphitheater. Zoe shields her eyes as she looks out at the ocean. “This is where the token goes? I don’t get it.”
“Check it out, Zoe.” I point toward several rows of white stone arches on our right.
Zoe smiles. “Arcades.”
“What?”
“Arcades.”
“I heard you. What?”
“What?” She crunches her eyebrows together. “Oh, did you think I was calling you?”
“Well, you said my name.”
She throws her head back in frustration. “I’m saying that those . . .” she holds her hand out to the arches, “are ARCADES. A series of arches is called an arcade. You should know that. Check it out.” She turns in a complete circle. “They’re all around us.”
She’s right. Arcades everywhere.
I turn back to the ocean view and notice two people sitting way down in the front row of the amphitheater. One appears to be a boy about my size, and another is a woman of small build, wearing what looks like a ball cap and a white sweat suit.
I jet down the steps of the amphitheater.
“ARCADE!” Zoe yells.
“I know! They’re everywhere.”
“NO! This time I am calling you. Wait up!”
I don’t stop. I have to get a closer look at the two people in the front row. Within eight rows of them, I trip over the uneven stone. I watch from the ground as the boy stands, hugs the lady, glances at me, and disappears into the sun’s blinding rays. I scramble the rest of the way, finally reaching her. She turns to look at me. I freeze.
“Uh . . . oh . . . I’m sorry. I thought you were . . .” I crane my neck forward and examine her face closely.
She smiles. “It’s me, Arcade.”
I put my hand over my mouth to stifle a gasp. She’s wearing the Triple T ball cap, but she’s . . . young.
Like, Zoe-young! In fact, she even kinda looks like Zoe.
I sit down next to her. “Uh . . . you’re . . .”
“Younger. Yes, I know. This is the real me.”
“The real you?”
“Yes. The other way is just how you perceive me.”
I stare down at her white running shoes. “Well, I always wondered how you could move so fast.”
She laughs.
“ARCADE!” It’s Zoe. She’s still many rows up, waving a shoe in the air. I know I should go check on my sister, but the Triple T lady makes only brief visits, so I stay put.
“Do you have a name?”
The woman grins. “Ruah.”
I glance down at a hunk of metal Ruah is holding in her lap.
“In the elevator that brought me here, I asked to know where the token goes when I put it in the coin slot. Is it in there?”
She pulls off the top of the metal piece, and there it sits. In a mold! It’s the same mold I saw at a gold refinery where the Triple T Token was cast in one hundred percent pure gold. Ruah was there too.
Ruah glances out in the distance. The boy who left a few moments ago is scrambling over some rocks, heading to what looks like a cluster of homes.
“ARCADE! MY SHOE BROKE! DON’T YOU CARE?”
I care about Zoe, but not her shoes. That pair, in particular.
“Where is he going?” I ask, pointing to the boy just as he disappears over the other side of the rocks.
“Back to work.” Ruah frowns. “Every day. Back to work.”
“Work?” I scratch my head. “But he’s my age.”
“He’s exactly your age.” Ruah holds up the mold. “And a craftsman. He made this.”
“That boy made the Triple T mold?” My heart beats faster.
Ruah stands up, takes the token out of the mold, and drops it in my hand. It lights up. Gleaming, but not hot, yet somehow warming me on the inside. Ruah puts her hand over the dazzling token. “Use it well, Arcade. You have traveled, and you have been tested.”
“Yeah. About that testing. Do you know how hard it is to take care of a baby flamingo?”
Ruah chuckled. “Now you are free to experience the widest, the longest, the highest, and the deepest.”
“The widest what? The deepest what?”
Ruah nods. “Yes. You’re getting it now.”
“GETTING WHAT?”
The glittery Triple Ts on Ruah’s ball cap shoot out rays of light. I shield my eyes.
“Arcade!” Zoe jumps down from the row above me and holds up her shoe. “I fixed it. With no help from you, of course.” She sits down and pokes me in the side with her elbow.
I stare in front of me, trying to see past the flashes in my eyes, but Ruah isn’t there anymore.
“Arcade?” Zoe looks around. “Why did you take off? Why didn’t you wait for me?”
“She was down here.”
“Who was down here?”
“Ruah.”
Zoe rubs her neck with both hands. “Okay, I’ll play your game. Who’s Ruah?”
“The Triple T woman. That’s her name.”
“Of course. Ruah! That’s a pretty name. Did you catch her last name? You know, so we can look her up on the Internet and find out where she lives? Maybe she’s on social media.”
I turn to Zoe with a questioning gaze. “Are you serious?”
She gives me a little shove. “No.”
“Good.” I hold up the token. “Because I think she lives in this thing.”
As soon as I say that, the token dazzles light, sparkling like the sun reflecting off the ocean. It summons the antique elevator doors to the amphitheater stage. The coin slot, with the GET TRUTH sign attached, rises up from the ground.
I sigh. “Guess it’s time to go home.”
Zoe glares at me. “DO NOT SAY THE WORD DROP.”
“What would you like me to say?”
“Say the word . . .” Zoe puts one hand to her chin and sniffs, “shower.”
The trip back is slow. I study the inside of the elevator. “What in the world . . .?”
Zoe tilts her head and her jaw drops open. “Whoa. That’s a beautiful ceiling. It’s never been like this before.”
The ceiling is a huge, gold dome with signs that are way, way up. I squint through my super-strong, long-distance glasses.
“Zoe, can you read the signs?”
Zoe takes off her glasses—which she mostly needs for reading—rises up on her tip-toes, and squints. “No. And it’s really bugging me. I bet they say something profound.”
“Profound?”
“Well, yeah. The words look like they’re carved into the gold. Who would take the time to carve something unimportant into gold?”
I pull my phone out of my pocket. “Maybe I can take a picture and enlarge it.”
“Nope. Phones don’t work in your token world, Arcade. Remember? You should mention that inconvenience to Ruah next time you see her.”
I lower my phone, which is showing me nothing but flashing lights on the screen. “So how am I supposed to see what’s up there?”
“Beats me. Grow taller, I guess.”
“Oh, well you know, that could happen soon, since tomorrow is my bir—”
DING!
The doors opened on their own, and Loopy was right there waiting, panting and slobbering.
Woof!
I turned to Zoe. “That was an interesting trip. I’m glad we didn’t get lost, but something about me feels lost all of a sudden.”
“What do you mean, lost?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe ‘confused’ is a better word. And that boy sure is a mystery.”
“What boy?”
“The boy scrambling over the rocks. He was talking to Ruah, and then he left. Ruah said he was going back to work.”
“Work?”
“Yeah. She told me that he’s the one who made the mold for the Triple T Token!”
Zoe grabbed me by the T-shirt sleeve. “Get over here.” She pulled me over to my desk chair. “Arcade, what did you ask right before you put the token in the slot this time?”
“Uh . . .” I scratched my head and tried to clear the blur from my brain. I looked down at my token, which was once again hanging from the gold chain around my neck. “I asked to know where this thing goes when I put it in the slot.”
“And did you find out?”
“Well, I saw the token. Ruah put it back in my hand after she took it out of the mold.”
“So, if we just ‘Got Truth,’ that would mean . . .”
“That the token goes back to the mold every time?”
“It goes back to its origin. The beginning. That makes sense.”
I stood and paced the room. “No, that doesn’t make sense at all! A mold is just a thing. Why would a token that seems to be alive go back to a dead mold? Why would the mold care?”
Zoe joined me in the pacing. “It wouldn’t. But the maker of the mold might.”
I gasped and grabbed the token. “THAT makes sense!”
Zoe pushed me in the arm. “Now you’re seeing things my way.”
“Zoe, I need to go to the library.”
She rolled her eyes. “So, tell me something new.”
I grabbed my flamingo backpack. “I need to find out about ancient Greece. About metalworkers. And I need to find that boy.”
Zoe grabbed my backpack strap. “Hold up, Skippy.”
“What?”
“It’s dinner time. You’ll have to go tomorrow.”
“Oh, man.” I put my backpack back on the desk. “I guess that’ll work. I’m going with the Tolleys tomorrow anyway.”
“The Tolleys?” Zoe chuckled. “Really, Arcade? Has your life gotten so boring that now you’re choosing to hang out with Kevin and Casey?”
Arcade and the Dazzling Truth Detector Page 2