Arcade and the Dazzling Truth Detector

by Rashad Jennings

  Okay, Elena, I’m ready to see.

  Light prisms swirled just like the snow outside, and soon they all clustered in the middle of the room, forming a large rectangle which solidified into golden elevator doors.

  “Never gets old, man.” Doug stepped forward and placed his hands on the doors. “Where we gonna get truth today?” He pointed to the golden coin slot that jutted out from the middle of the doors. The sign that said GET TRUTH hung in midair right above it.

  “Be careful with your request, Arcade.” Zoe reached out a finger and traced the word TRUTH on the sign.

  “Zoe, by now you should trust me.” I reached for Triple T and pulled gently on it, releasing it from its chain. “I want to go back to the kid. The one who made the mold. I think we’re connected. Please show me how.”

  Then I dropped the token. Into the slot, and . . . into the mold?

  The elevator doors opened at my command. When we stepped in, I noticed something different right away. The gold walls shined brighter than ever! I tilted my head back to gaze at the dome.

  “Zoe! The signs! I can read them!” I squinted. “Well, at least a couple of them.”

  “No way, Arcade. No one can see that far away.”

  “Oh, yeah? Well here’s what that one says.” I pointed up and began to read. “As one lamp lights another, nor grows less, so nobleness enkindleth nobleness.”

  “Are you making that up? Wasn’t that on Miss Gertrude’s birthday card?” Zoe had one hand on her hip.

  “NO! I don’t talk like that, Zoe! ‘Nobleness enkindleth nobleness?’ What does that even mean?”

  “Well, think about the first part. A lamp lights another lamp, but it doesn’t go dim itself, right? It works the same way with a noble person. They encourage others to be noble, and on and on it goes. Everything and everyone become brighter.”

  Doug scratched his head. “Why doesn’t it just say that? And what is nobleness, exactly?”

  “Having or showing qualities of high moral character. Courage, generosity, honor. Stuff like that.”

  “See, Doug, my older sister’s a walking dictionary. She comes in handy sometimes.”

  Zoe gave me a playful shove. “You wouldn’t survive in the world without me and you know it.”

  I ignored her and kept staring. “I don’t get it! I couldn’t read that sign before. And Dr. Castro said my prescription hasn’t changed.”

  “Well, something changed,” Zoe said.

  DING!

  The doors open up to a landscape of green grass and blue sky. A large, lone rock sits in the middle of it all. A boy leans on the rock with his back to us, his shoulders hunched. He looks like he’s praying or something.

  I put my fingers to my lips, and we step out. Doug rubs his arms and whispers, “Are we invisible?”

  I shrug.

  Zoe links her arm in mine. As we inch toward the boy, we step carefully through the grass so we don’t startle him.

  I decide to test things. “Hello?” I say in a quiet voice.

  Nothing.

  “Hello?” I say a little louder. Still no response.

  We keep walking, until we’re within a foot of the rock. By now he should almost feel our breath on his neck. He looks up to the sky and starts talking.

  “I wish I could play and discover what’s out there, beyond the arcades.” He shakes his head. “And while I know that is not my lot, I do wish it for someone . . . whoever receives the coin from this mold. I wish that they will imagine possibilities, that they will experience the best adventures that life has to offer. And that they would share what they learn with others.”

  We stand like statues and watch in awe as a young version of Ruah, wearing a white sweat suit and glittery ballcap, appears before the boy!

  The boy jumps. “Who are you?” He looks left, right. “Where did you come from?”

  Ruah smiles in her mysterious way. “I came from you.”

  “From me?”

  “Yes. I am the spirit of your wish.”

  My mouth drops open. I want to see the boy’s face, but I don’t dare move.

  He stands up from the rock. “I have spent all my childhood years working with my father. But I know there is a world out there full of adventure and learning! I want to know what’s out there! Will I ever know? I have so many questions.” He opens his hands to reveal the mold.

  Ruah reaches out. “Will you trust me with this? I will find someone who has the same heart as you. One who can answer your questions.”

  He hesitates for a moment, but then passes the mold to her. “Really? Is it possible that there is someone out there just like me?”

  Ruah clasps her hands around the mold. “I am certain. It will take much travel, difficult testing, and searching for truth. But I promise, I’ll find him.”

  My head feels light, and I stumble back a few steps.

  “Arcade, are you okay?” Zoe grabs on tight to my elbow.

  I nod, move in closer, and focus my eyes on Ruah. She opens the mold to reveal . . . the Triple T Token!

  The boy gasps. “Where did that come from?”

  Ruah puts her hand on his shoulder. “Pure gold.”

  “Pure? But that’s impossib—”

  “Nothing is impossible with a wish as strong as yours. I will see you again soon, Theo Timon Theros.”

  Ruah turns, walks a few feet, and disappears.

  Theo Timon Theros. Triple T!

  The boy runs forward and waves his hands in the air in front of himself, as if he is searching for the secret door that Ruah has just walked through. He turns in a circle but doesn’t see us.

  But I get to see his face. And it’s glowing.

  Then he runs, with energy in his steps, toward a cluster of homes down the hill. In the distance I spot an amphitheater that looks over a crystal blue ocean.

  I open my mouth to say something to Zoe, but Ruah appears in front of me. She opens the mold. “Arcade, it is time to go home and experience more adventures. For Theo, for your friends, and for you.” She places the token in my shaking hand.

  “So, I’m the one that’s just like him?”

  She places a hand on my heart. “Nobleness enkindleth nobleness.”

  Ruah waves a hand in the air, and huge light beams shoot out from the token. But this time, before the doors and the coin slot show up, a golden plaque appears on the rock.

  Thanks for visiting Arcadia, Greece.

  Come back soon!

  Inside the elevator, my heart races. “Zoe, do you think I’m the one?”

  Zoe doesn’t answer.

  Doug does.

  “Dude, ya think?”

  CHAPTER 26

  The One

  Mr. Dooley has tons of energy, which equals extra volume . . . especially on Monday mornings.

  “WASN’T THAT A GREAT NOR’EASTER? I BET YOU HOPED THEY WOULDN’T GET THE ROADS CLEARED THIS MORNING, YET HERE YOU ARE—EXCITED AND READY TO FINISH YOUR TIME TRAVEL ASSIGNMENTS!”

  My friend Thomas Scranton, who I call Scratchy, turned around in his chair to talk to me in the back row. “You should read my paper, Arcade. It’s RAD!” He scratched the back of his neck. “I wrote it like a what if story. What if we could travel to the future? Could we find out what the best job would be for us?” He whispered to me behind his hand, “I know I did . . .”

  Scratchy had been on a couple of trips with the token. Once we ended up on a pit crew at a NASCAR race, and another time we were stuck in a small plane above New York City—with no pilot!

  Carlos leaned in. “Hey, and what if we could travel to the past?” He nudged me with his elbow. “Some of us would learn to appreciate all we have at that moment. I know I did.”

  Doug chimed in. “And what if time travel could teach us more about our true selves? Like, I’m not even sure I was ever afraid of heights now. I think I’ve been afraid of something else . . .”

  “What, Doug?”

  “MR. LIVINGSTON, YOU HAVE A VISITOR IN THE HALLWAY.”
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  I scooted back in my chair and stood. I looked out the small window in the classroom door to see the top of a brunette head.

  Seriously, Elena?

  I straightened my new glasses and walked toward the door.

  “Five minutes.” Mr. Dooley held out an open hand.

  I walked out.

  Elena Salvador Castro turned around. “Livingston! Hey, just wanted to make sure you got your glasses. With the nor’easter, I wasn’t sure if the delivery would arrive.”

  “How can you just walk around the hallways during school?”

  She laughed. “I’m student body president. It’s my job to check on the wellbeing of students in this school.” She held out a card. “I have a permanent hall pass.” She stepped in close. “So how are those glasses working?”

  “They’re phenomenal. Did you sprinkle them with pixie dust or something?”

  “Pixie dust?”

  “Yeah, it has to be magic. I see things I never saw before.”

  She tilted her head. “That’s what all my dad’s patients say. When you haven’t seen clearly for a while, it seems magical. Kids who get glasses for the first time can’t believe they can see individual leaves on trees.” Elena looked down both sides of the hallway. “I have to get back. But can I ask you something?”

  I just stared at her. “Can I say no?”

  She laughed again. “Do you want to run for student body president for next year? I’ll be moving on to high school, and I want to leave this school better than I found it.”

  “And you think I’d be good to take over? Why?”

  Elena shrugged. “When I was stalking you, I talked to lots of students. They say you’re always helping people. Your uncles even told me what a help you’ve been to them on their school projects.”

  “My uncles?”

  “Oh, come on. I know the Tolleys are your uncles. They showed me where you live the other day.”

  “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, my, that’s a GOOD one!”

  Elena crossed her arms. “WHAT is so funny, Livingston?”

  “I guess you’re not that great a stalker after all! The Tolleys aren’t my uncles. But they do LOVE to mess with people.”

  “What?!?” She walked up to the classroom window and glared in. “I’ll deal with them later. But hey, even Wiley Overton thinks you’re kind of okay, and Wiley’s the meanest kid around.”

  “Maybe he’s the meanest because people have been making fun of him his whole life. -ESTS don’t just happen by accident, you know.”

  “-ESTS?”

  “Never mind. There’s a reason he’s like that, Elena.”

  Elena looked up toward the ceiling and grinned. “You know what, I agree with you. But I still think you’re a funny boy, Livingston.” She fanned herself with her hall pass. “Give it some thought and let me know. The election’s in March. If you’re voted in, you’ll work with me for a couple of months to get ready for the changeover.”

  “With you? I don’t know about that.”

  She pushed me in the chest. “Oh, come on. You do too know.”

  I stepped back. “I’ll give it some thought.”

  She headed down the hallway a few steps, and then turned back.

  “Livingston, I think you’re the one.”

  CHAPTER 27

  -ESTS

  For the next week, I watched for -ESTS at school. Reagan Cooper, the only person I’ve ever seen stand up to Wiley Overton, was the brave-EST girl I knew. Mr. Dooley had the loud-EST voice. CJ Mendoza, my friend who uses a wheelchair, was the tough-EST kid I’d ever met. Scratchy was the handi-EST. That kid could fix anything! And as much as I tried to avoid her, but couldn’t, Elena Salvador Castro had the bright-EST eyes I’ve ever seen. They seemed to flicker with excitement over the most ridiculous things—like me running for student body president.

  “Arcade for President,” I heard a couple of girls say when Doug and I walked by them after school one day. They giggled and ran away.

  “So, I hear you’re running for student body president.” Doug ribbed me as we walked home through the park the next Thursday afternoon. “You got my vote.”

  “Doug, I can’t run.”

  “You can’t run?”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “Why not?”

  “Really? Let’s count the reasons. I have Triple T to figure out. I’ve got Badgers to figure out. Plus, it’s a lot of responsibility to take care of all the students at a middle school. Too much pressure.”

  We took the 86th Street exit, crossed over to the West Side, and headed north toward 88th. Zoe caught up to us at the subway exit.

  “Hey, Zoe, you think Arcade would make a good student body president?” asked Doug.

  She stopped in her tracks. “Uh . . . NO.”

  I turned to face her. “No? What do you mean, no?”

  “Oh, COME ON, Arcade. You? In politics? You’ll confuse everyone with your outside-the-box ideas.”

  “There’s a lot more room to breathe outside the box, Zoe. You should try it sometime.”

  She smirked. “And where would it end? With you running New York City someday? Lord, help us! With you in charge, we’d end up with ten-sided stop signs on all the street corners.”

  “We ALREADY HAVE ten-sided stop signs. How many times do we have to debate that? Eight around the outside, plus the front and the back. TEN!” I traced an octagon in the air and then clapped my hands together in front of her face.

  “Maybe the pressure would be too much, Arcade.” Doug laughed.

  “Pressure?” Zoe tightened her backpack straps. “You guys won’t know real pressure until you get to high school.”

  Doug’s phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Uh-oh. It’s my social worker.”

  We all stopped.

  Doug held his phone up so we could see the screen. “What should I do?”

  “Maybe it’s good news, Doug,” I said. “Answer it.”

  “Hello? Yeah, this is me . . . uh-huh . . . I understand . . . do we have to do it tomorrow? . . . Yeah . . . okay. I’ll be there.”

  He hung up. “Four o’clock tomorrow. Urgent meeting. I think I’m in deep trouble, Arcade.”

  CHAPTER 28

  Deep-EST

  The sidewalk in front of us began to glow, and it wasn’t from the late afternoon sun. I pulled Triple T out from under my layers and the place brightened up even more. A hole opened, revealing an illuminated golden staircase that went down, down, down, further than the subway.

  “After you guys.” I stood back and let Doug and Zoe walk down the stairs in front of me. It took us twenty flights down, but we finally found it. A golden elevator, shaped like a submarine, waited for us at the bottom. It shined so bright we almost couldn’t look at it.

  “I was hoping to go up and test your theory about my fear of heights, Zoe.”

  “I’ve never known a submarine to go up, Doug.” Zoe ran her hand along the smooth, golden sides of the sub. “It’s beautiful.”

  The words GET TRUTH were carved into the front of the submarine. “It looks like a giant soda bottle laying on its side,” I said.

  “Never seen a golden soda bottle,” Doug said.

  “Where’s the coin slot?” Zoe pushed her fingers in all the creases she could find, looking for an opening.

  I followed the pulsing light coming from the token, all the way to the front of the sub. The nose looked like a giant bottle cap. And it had a slit in it that was pumping out light.

  “I think I found it! You guys ready to go deep?”

  “If it will get me out of going to the social worker appointment, sure.”

  “That’s never how it works, friend. But maybe we’ll learn something that will help you.”

  I pulled the token off the chain and dropped it into the coin slot. When I did, even more light came pouring out of the slot and out from the walls of the sub. I walked to the middle and pressed my palms together. “Give us some deep truth. Something we can h
old onto.” I pulled my palms apart, and the sub doors flew open. When we stepped in and the doors closed, the sub tipped!

  “Hold on, guys!” I yelled.

  But there was nothing to hold on to.

  We slid all the way down to the nose of the sub, and we began to drop.

  “Look! It’s the gold dome!” Zoe stared up from where we had slid. “Why would those signs be up there if we can never see them?”

  I tilted my head up and my heart pumped a little harder when I spotted a new plaque I could read!

  I adjusted my glasses. “YOU GUYS. I HAVE ONE.”

  “You have one?” Doug squinted and stood on his tip-toes.

  “Yeah! Clear as if it were in my hand.”

  “Well, what does it say?”

  “It says, ‘The inquiry, knowledge, and belief of truth is the sovereign good of human nature.’”

  Zoe jostled me with her elbow. “There’s NO WAY you can see that, Arcade! You’re messing with us.”

  “Zoe, I’ll say it again. That is not how I talk.”

  “Yeah, Zoe. Arcade would say that inquiry, and all that other stuff . . . is DOPE.”

  “Yeah, Zoe. Inquiry’s DOPE.”

  Zoe chuckled. “Well, you do have inquiry skills. In an annoying sort of way.”

  “You mean he asks lots of questions? Ha! You got that right.”

  “But I don’t do it to be annoying, you guys! I want to find out things for a reason.”

  “What reason?”

  I pushed my glasses up on my nose. “So I can understand everything. So I can understand everyone. So I can help.”

  Zoe looked me straight in the eyes. “Okay, little bro. I believe that to be true about you. But it’s still annoying.”

  The elevator started to ping, and we hit bottom.

  The elevator doors do not open this time. Instead, they turn transparent, and I feel like we’re in a giant test tube. We’re looking out at the darkness, but we’re not in the dark, because light is radiating from that golden dome.

  Zoe leans back against a wall of the tube. “I know where we are. And I don’t like it.”

  I grin. “I know where we are too.”