Arcade and the Dazzling Truth Detector

by Rashad Jennings

  I stepped forward, pulled the token from my chain, and dropped it into the slot. “Someplace where they can discover the truth about themselves.” I made the open-door motion with my hands. The doors opened to a huge room this time. I stepped in and tilted my head back to look at the ceiling. “And I want to find out what this gold dome is all about, once and for all.”

  “Let’s goooooo!” Doug shouted, and he ushered our large group in. Carlos, Scratchy, Amber, Zoe, Kevin and Casey Tolley, Michael Tolley, and . . . oh, no . . . wait a minute . . .

  “LIVINGSTON! Hey! You can run but you can’t hide! Are you going to fill out these papers or . . . WHAT IS THIS??!!??”

  Elena Salvador Castro.

  She slowed, her mouth hanging open as her eyes followed the dazzling lights all over the bridge and in the elevator.

  I sighed. “Did you bring a pen?”

  Elena stared for a few more moments, but then snapped out of it. “Oh. A pen. Of course.” She dug into her backpack and produced a golden pen. “Will this do?” She carefully stepped into the elevator to hand it to me, and her eyes widened.

  “Well. It’s not as nice as Abraham Lincoln’s, but it’ll have to do. You may want to hang on—this thing can get pretty bumpy.”

  She pressed her back against the elevator wall and stared up at the gold dome. “Where are we going?”

  I signed the papers, handed them back to her, and shrugged. “Wherever this dazzling truth detector wants to take us. Oh,” I shook the pen at her, “but you have to promise me one thing.”

  She rolled her eyes. “What is it, Livingston?”

  “No matter how fun, how incredible, how breathtaking an experience we have together today, you HAVE to promise me that you WON’T want to be my girlfriend.”

  Everyone in the elevator laughed. Elena grabbed her stomach and doubled over. “Hahahahahahahahaha!” Then she reached over to give me a high five. “Now that’s a good one. I’m glad you set me straight. I promise!”

  Kenwood Badger stood just outside the elevator door, peering in.

  “You wanna come, Mr. Badger?”

  He put a hand to his heart. “You’d let me come, after everything that’s happened?”

  I pointed to the golden sign. “Do you want to GET TRUTH?”

  Kenwood nodded. “More than anything else.”

  “Then hop in.”

  “Yo, Arcade! I was hoping all this blinding light meant you were coming to get us!”

  No one was more surprised than me to see the elevator doors open right on top of Aunt Weeda’s couch in Virginia, with Derek, Celeste, and Jacey Green waiting to join the party.

  “Check it out! I just bought this gold visor.” Derek pulled his visor off his head, flipped it upside down, and plopped it back on. “Where we goin’, Arcade?”

  Jacey stepped in next to me. “New York City?”

  “I’m ready for anything.” Celeste crowded in next to Doug. “Hey, Dougie.”

  Doug blushed.

  “Who we got in here?” Derek turned around and waved at the confused bunch of travelers I’d picked up on my life’s journey over the last eleven months.

  I smiled. “A bunch of -ESTS.”

  Butterflies flew around my insides as the golden elevator glided up, down, and sideways. Thankfully, no spinning.

  But there was a lot of buzz in the elevator.

  “Where are we going?”

  “What is this dome?”

  “What do all those plaques say?”

  “Is that a person way up there?”

  The questions flew out, one by one.

  And for once, I was at peace not knowing the answers.

  The elevator came to an abrupt halt. The doors slid open to reveal a young man holding a clipboard in what looked like a university building.

  “Aahir?”

  Aahir looked up from his clipboard and his jaw dropped. “Arcade? I pressed the button to go to the library. What is happening?”

  “I wanted to find you, but Zoe said it would be impossible.”

  Aahir smiled. “Well, look at you. Making the impossible happen.”

  “Would you like to come with us? If you need to GET TRUTH, this is the right elevator.”

  Aahir examined the inside of the elevator. He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. “I suppose that is what I’m looking for. Is there room?”

  “Everybody squeeze!” We all pushed back a little, and Aahir stepped in. “This will be cooler than a flying ostrich. You’ll see.”

  The golden elevator rocked a little, then tipped left and right, but we were packed in so tight, we barely moved. The ride finally smoothed, the elevator dropped slightly, and landed with a gentle thump.

  I took a deep breath and blew it out.

  DING!

  Tears fall from my eyes when the doors open and I see what is in front of me.

  Books. Tons of them! Ton and tons AND TONS of them—on shelves, under gold arches, in a gold-toned room—with wooden reading desks and reading lamps . . .

  I step out of the elevator and look up.

  And a golden dome, just like the one in the elevator!

  A young, blonde, college-aged woman approaches our group with a large envelope. “Oh, good, you’re here! Ruah said you were on your way.”

  “Ruah?”

  “Yes. She’s in charge of our special access passes.”

  Zoe comes up next to me. “Special access?”

  The girl opens the envelope. “Yes. Usually you have to be sixteen to get in here. But we managed to get reader passes for all of you. You must be Arcade Livingston,” she says with a smile. She reaches into the envelope and hands me my pass. “Welcome to the Library of Congress—the largest library in the world.”

  CHAPTER 37

  TRUTH

  The woman gives special reader passes to all my friends. I have a hard time swallowing the lump in my throat.

  “The Library of Congress,” Michael Tolley says, shaking his head in amazement. “I’ve always wanted to visit. This is magnificent!”

  “Ruah said you all had specific research to do. She calls you the Triple T Team.”

  “Triple T Team? I like that.”

  “I’d suggest you start with one of our research librarians. They can help you find books on any topic. If you can think of it, we most likely have it.” She looks directly at me. “And if you have a specific question about a place, a person, or an item, we can help you find that too.”

  Doug reaches for his reader pass. “You got cookbooks? Or books on culinary techniques?”

  She smiles. “Over five thousand.”

  Doug’s eyes almost pop out of his head.

  “How about engineering?” Derek takes off his visor so he can look up at the dome.

  “A whole collection. You’ll head in that direction for those.”

  “Where are your travel books? I want to find out about every place I’ve never been.” Jacey beams as she takes off in the direction the woman points out.

  Aahir looks at me. “Well, I was on my way to the library to do research for a microbiology project. This is outstanding, Arcade! I will share with you what I find!” He takes off under one of the golden arches.

  “I want to be President of the United States someday,” Celeste says. “Where do I start?”

  The woman gets particularly excited about that. “Political science. Right this way. I’m a political science major!”

  All my friends, including Kenwood Badger, take off in the area of their interests. Each one a different direction, each one with a smile on their face. Zoe stays right next to me.

  “What, you’re not going to check out France or cockatoo management, or books on how to argue? I’m sure they have them here.”

  “No. I want to see where you go. What will Arcade Livingston choose to research at the largest library in the world?”

  I smile. “That’s easy! Greece. Metalworking. I want to talk with that boy.” I scan the circular room and find a
wooden podium with a sign that says “Reference Assistant.” I walk over to it and wait.

  “Hello, Arcade.” It shouldn’t be a surprise to me that she’s the one to arrive at the podium, but it is. That’s how Ruah rolls.

  “Ruah. You’re young again!”

  The glow from the three Ts on her ball cap shine out and reflect off the gold walls in the reading room. “Your adventures are reviving me, Arcade. And now that you have that token for good, I think this is how I’ll stay.”

  “There’s one more thing, Ruah. I want to talk to the boy.” “Boy?”

  “Yes. Theo Timon Theros. Triple T. That’s what the Ts stand for, right?”

  “Well, yes. That’s one way to look at it. There’s also Travel, Testing, and—”

  “Truth! Yes, I know that now. Get truth and never sell it. Lenwood Badger offered me money for the token, but I didn’t sell it. Kenwood tried to get him to see clearly, but he refused.”

  Ruah frowns. “Yes. Gertrude will be sad about that.”

  “Gertrude? You know her?”

  Ruah nods. “We had a little token exchange. After your birth. We both knew the token needed to be protected, so I kept it safe until you were older and in a different town, away from her grandsons.”

  Whoa! So much truth. But I need more.

  “Ruah, where’s the boy? The maker of the mold?”

  Ruah smiles. “You’ll have to look him up.”

  “Of course! I got this! Let’s see . . . what’s the Dewey number for Metalworking?”

  Ruah shakes her head. “It’s not like that here. Too many volumes. They use a different system.”

  “They do?” I turn to my sister. “A different way of thinking? Right here in the largest library in the world? Imagine that!” I poke her in the ribs.

  Zoe smirks. “So how you gonna find it, Einstein? You know Dewey, but—”

  “The volumes are categorized using the alphabet,” Ruah says. “So where would you like to start?”

  Zoe laughs. “Okay. M, right?”

  “Absolutely not.” I turn and point to Ruah’s hat. “I’d like to go to the Ts, please.”

  She nods. “Great choice.”

  We follow Ruah under one of the archways in the circular reading room. “Ts will be down here.”

  “But I don’t get it!” Zoe says. “How does a T relate to metalworking?”

  “Trust, Zoe!” I laugh. “That’s a T too!”

  She rolls her eyes.

  I gasp when I see the sign. “TECHNOLOGY. Wow.” I run my fingers over the spines on the books until I get to the subset TT. “Handicrafts, Arts and Crafts.” Then I bend down to look at one of the lower shelves. The numbers come into view.

  TT223—METALWORKING

  “Ruah! This is CRAZY! Do you how many times the number twenty-three has popped into my life? My elementary school was PS 23, my middle school is 230, I’ve been on the twenty-third floor a bunch of times, there was that café, Chill 23, and today is . . . February twenty-third!”

  Ruah laughs. “‘Get the truth and never sell it.’ Proverbs 23:23.”

  I start to pull a book out from the shelf when a finger taps me on the shoulder. I straighten . . . and I turn . . .

  And I come face-to-face with the maker of the Triple T mold.

  Theo Timon Theros. And he’s holding the Triple T Token.

  He smiles. “Hello, Arcade Livingston. I hear we have a lot in common.”

  I stand there, frozen, staring at this light-skinned boy with curly brown hair that falls into his eyes.

  He’s been working so hard he hasn’t had time for a haircut.

  “Theo? Hey, man. How’s it goin?” is all I can think to say as I hold out my fist.

  He looks at it, gives a puzzled look, and then acts like he remembers something. “Oh, yes, Ruah told me about this.” He smiles and he gives me a fist bump. “Hello, Zoe.” He holds a fist out to her. “You two have been on some amazing Arcade Adventures. I have loved every minute.”

  “How do you know where we’ve been?” I remember the person that Celeste saw on the top of the dome. “Have you been watching?”

  He shakes his head. “Not in person. I’ve been imagining as Ruah tells me the stories.”

  “She tells you stories? When? Where?”

  He smiles. “At the amphitheater in Arcadia, during my lunch breaks from work! She brings the token, and she tells me where you are and what you’re doing. When I hear the stories, I feel like I’m there with you, laughing, joking, playing, and learning. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. Arcade, you are the fulfillment of the wish I made on my twelfth birthday.”

  “Wait.” Zoe holds a hand up. “How exactly can that happen? You’re from ancient Greece, and we’re from, well . . . now, New York City. And it seems so scattered, so random. The elevators go all over the world, and when we get back, no time has passed. How can our adventures line up with your breaks? It doesn’t make sense.”

  I laugh. “Time travel. Who can understand it? But it makes sense to me.”

  One side of Theo’s mouth turns up in a grin, and he holds up the token. “Do you want to go on an adventure together?”

  “That would be awesome!” Zoe and I follow Theo to the center of the reading room. There’s a golden elevator waiting in the middle, complete with a golden coin slot, and a sign that says GET TRUTH. Theo takes the token and drops it in the slot.

  “What’s next for Arcade Livingston?” Theo asks. “How do you do that hand thing?”

  “What hand thing?”

  “The one that opens the doors.”

  “Oh, that one.” I put my palms together and pull them apart.

  Theo nods. “Oh, yes. That makes sense. Let’s do it together.”

  We stand side by side and motion the doors to open. When they do, all three of us step in. When we do, they turn to glass.

  “Oh, no. This is not good,” Zoe says.

  “Oh, yes, it is! We can finally see clearly where we’re going!”

  The doors close, and the elevator rises. Slowly, so we can take in every inch of the golden dome. Statues of great leaders in history guard the dome. And as we go up further, we get to read the plaques!

  They’re all about wisdom, knowledge, self-discipline, and . . . truth.

  There are two that shine out the brightest. As I read them, my voice catches.

  “As one lamp lights another, nor grows less, so nobleness enkindleth nobleness.”

  And the other . . .

  “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

  Theo smiles. “You are a lamp of nobleness, Arcade. And you have acted justly, mercifully, and humbly with God’s help. You are the b-EST person to own the Triple T Token. Do you believe that?”

  Zoe puts a hand on my shoulder. “Do you believe it?”

  I nod. “I do. It’s the truth.”

  Theo jumps up. “Then let’s GOOOOOOOOO!”

  The elevator cranks up speed and shoots upward, freaking me out as we near the top of the dome! There’s a picture of a woman up there.

  “Don’t be alarmed,” Theo says, “She represents Human Understanding.”

  Of course.

  A hole opens, and our elevator shoots through the top. We go through what looks like golden flames, but if they’re hot, we don’t feel them. The elevator stops for a second, and we look down.

  “The Torch of Knowledge,” Theo says.

  “ZOE! MY BOOKENDS HAVE A TORCH ON THE TOP!”

  “Huh?”

  “The bookends Mom and Dad gave me are a replica of this building! The larg-EST library in the world!”

  Zoe gasps. “They always give the perfect gifts.”

  I suddenly remember something. “Mom’s travel journal! ZOE, MOM LEFT A TRAVEL JOURNAL between the bookends! Do you think it’s all about her Arcade Adventures with Dad?”

  Zoe smiles and puts her hand over her heart. “I guess we have some reading to do when we
get home!”

  The elevator shoots higher and higher—through the clouds and beyond. Soon we are in space, with stars that seem just beyond our reach, and a beautiful, blue planet below.

  “Promise me you’ll keep going on adventures, okay, Arcade? As long as there are no limits to your imagination, there will be no limits for me either,” says Theo.

  “I promise.”

  And right then, something heavy clunks on my chest. I put my hand on my heart. I know just what it is.

  The Golden Travel Guide.

  The Fiery Metal Tester.

  The Dazzling Truth Detector.

  Better known as . . .

  The Triple T Token.

  And I can only think of one thing to say.

  “THAT’S DOOOOOOOOOOOOPE!”

  THE END

  Arcade and the Dazzling Truth Detector Discussion Questions

  1.If you could wish for any experience on your next birthday (and you know it would be granted), what would it be? Why? How could you use that experience to help others? Imagine the possibilities!

  2.Which -est would you most like to explore? Highest? Lowest? Widest? Deepest? Longest? Or some other -est? Why did you pick that one? Take a trip to the library (or to your favorite internet research site, with parent or teacher permission) and make a list of all the places, people, and things, that fit into the category of your favorite -est, then find out all you can about them!

  3.Do you have a person in your life who challenges you to be a better person? Who is it, and what do they do that specifically challenges you? How can you challenge others in this way?

  4.Where do you look to GET TRUTH in your life? Your family, your friends, books, the internet? How might some of these sources mislead you? What is your ultimate source of truth? Arcade’s family’s ultimate source of truth is God’s Word—the Bible. Have you ever looked into that? Why or why not?

  5.Do you have a favorite quote about knowledge, wisdom, or truth? What is it? Who said it or wrote it, and why is what they said meaningful to you?

  6.What does it mean to you to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly? You might have to look those words up in a dictionary!