The Library of Ever

by Zeno Alexander

  The pod dropped her off on the coast. Lenora waved as they spouted their goodbyes, swimming away backward. “Good luck, librarian!” they cried. “May your waters always be filled with salmon!” They dove beneath the waves and were gone.

  What remarkable creatures! thought Lenora. Even if they were a bit arrogant.

  She searched all over Wales. She found lots of places, grassy hills and ruined castles and green fields and stone fences. Sheep were everywhere, some of them curiously painted with colorful spots. (Painted sheep—why? she scribbled in her notes.) But she did not find any names of particular length. She was almost ready to give up and search elsewhere when she came upon an island in the northwest corner of the country. It held a small town with a name so long the letters spilled over into the Irish Sea at both ends:

  LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH

  Underneath this was written in parentheses: (LLAN-VIRE-POOLL-GUIN-GILL-GO-GER-U-QUEERN-DROB-OOLL-LLANDUS-ILIO-GOGO-GOCH). That must be it, Lenora thought, and recorded this in her notebook.

  Satisfied, she put her notebook under her arm. Time to get back to her desk. She looked up at the Cartography section in the sky. Shelves, walkways, walls, desks, and maps were all far away and completely out of reach. And there was no sign of the runaway balloon anywhere. Oh dear, Lenora thought to herself with growing alarm.

  She was trapped.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Lenora Travels the Globe

  Lenora gazed longingly at a walkway in the sky. On the wall of the Cartography room beyond it, there was a world map, though the world on it looked nothing like Earth. The walkway had a railing that kept patrons from falling to their deaths. All the thousands of walkways zigzagging everywhere in the Cartography room had them. If she could only reach one of those railings, perhaps she could pull herself off the globe she was trapped on. But all of them looked to be far beyond her reach as they rotated past. As one walkway came into view, Lenora could see a startled young boy with an ice-cream cone gaping down … up?—she wasn’t sure—at her.

  “No ice cream in the library!” snapped Lenora, wagging her finger. Startled, the boy dropped the ice cream and ran away. Lenora sighed. She supposed she’d have to clean that up, if she could ever get off the globe. If only she were as tall as Malachi …

  She snapped her fingers. Of course! She just needed to get to a higher spot! And everyone knows the highest point on Earth is Mount Everest. Maybe she could reach a walkway railing from there when one of them rotated by. But she was not entirely sure where Mount Everest was. She would just have to look.

  She ran across England until she found herself at a strip of water—ENGLISH CHANNEL, it was labeled. She eyed the coast of France on the other side. Lenora took a few steps back for a running start. With a leap, she was over the channel, almost. At least she didn’t get any water above the ankles.

  France flew by under her feet, then more of Europe. Her parents were sailing around down there somewhere on the real globe, she supposed. Without her. She gave Europe a little stomp and ran on. She ran down the boot-shaped country of Italy and came up short. Here was the Mediterranean Sea, and it was too much for her to leap over. But there was a rowboat conveniently docked on the nearby island of Sicily. She splashed over—her shoes were already wet so it didn’t matter—and rowed away. She steered past the Rock of Gibraltar—which she’d always imagined was just a big rock but turned out to be a massive limestone fortress covered with monkeys—and north along the coast of Portugal with its blue-green waters. She saw mountains here and there, but none of them were Mount Everest.

  On one of the mountains she spotted the balloon.

  It had gotten itself wedged in a rocky outcrop and was fighting desperately to break free. Propellers were whirling, flaps were flapping, and sails were pulling this way and that in the high mountain wind. Lenora paddled closer. Despite her loathing for the balloon, it could offer escape from the globe.

  As she neared the coast, she spotted a dark figure on the other side of the balloon’s basket.

  A young, skinny man wearing a black bowler hat and an overcoat that was much too large for him.

  He had an axe and was chopping away the part of the basket that was stuck in the rocks.

  “Hey!” shouted Lenora, outraged. “That is library property!”

  The man glanced in her direction, then gave a final chop, and the balloon soared free over the mountains, back toward Europe and far away from Lenora.

  The man in the bowler hat hopped over the eastern edge of the mountain and was gone.

  Lenora rowed away furiously, thinking hard about these people in overcoats and black bowler hats. The first had tried to keep that young boy from learning about astrophysics. The second had lied to Bendigeidfran, and she and the robot had almost been lost in time and space. The third had deliberately sabotaged the balloon that might have gotten her off this globe. Whoever these people were and whyever they were doing these things, Lenora had no idea, but she was determined to find out.

  For now, she journeyed onward.

  The air began to get rather cold as she paddled past Ireland and the jagged fjords of Norway. She shivered, realizing the North Pole must be somewhere ahead and the air would only get colder as she approached it. But she felt that she had seen a picture of Mount Everest covered in snow. Perhaps she should keep going. Dodging an iceberg, she noticed a group … pod?… pack?… of rather dismal-looking penguins milling about on an icy coast nearby. While she wanted to stop to admire them, she had a patron waiting for an answer. Steeling herself against the freezing air, she continued across the tossing and ice-strewn Arctic Ocean, looking for tall mountains.

  Suddenly, she dug her oars into the water as a realization hit her. The rowboat bounced and swayed as she ground, or rather watered, to a halt.

  Lenora might not have known much about cartography. But she did know penguins. And everyone who knows about penguins knows they live near the South Pole, not the North. Those dismal-looking penguins were far, far from home. She remembered the words of the Oath: Do you swear to find a path for those who are lost?

  As a librarian, it was her job to help these castaway penguins, even if it meant a delay for another patron. She hauled on the oars until she was back facing the penguins on their little island. Soon she had rowed her way up to the bunch (group? pod? herd?) of confused-looking birds.

  “Hello,” said Lenora. “How may I help you?”

  The penguins looked at her and flapped their wings in distress and made various honks and squeals, but nothing that Lenora could understand.

  “Rats,” said Lenora. She opened her notebook. Penguins can’t speak English, she wrote. Got lucky with the belugas.

  Then she noticed, beside the penguins, a half-opened cardboard box labeled FOR LIBRARIANS ONLY. She pulled open a flap. Inside, nestled amid foam packing peanuts, were several pairs of headphones, each with a mini-microphone. PENGUIN TRANSLATOR 3000 was stamped on each. How convenient, thought Lenora. She put one on.

  “Hello,” said Lenora. “How may I help you?”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Lenora Ascends the Summit

  “Oh, thank heavens,” said one of the penguins to Lenora. “We’ve been hoping a librarian would come by. You see, when the globe was built, we were dropped off in the wrong place. We’re terribly lost.”

  “I think I can help you,” said Lenora. “Climb aboard! By the way, what do you call a, er, gathering of penguins?”

  “We’re known as a colony, a rookery, or a waddle,” said the birds, clambering over the side of the rowboat as it swayed wildly. “But really you can call us whatever you like. Unlike beluga whales, we’re not hypersensitive about it.”

  When all the penguins were in, Lenora pushed away from the island. She was getting rather good with the oars. “I’ll take you south,” she said to her passengers, “though I can’t stay long. I’m in a rush to ascend Mount Everest, but I’ve got to find the thing first.”

>   “Oh, that’s nothing,” honked one of the penguins. “Penguins know all about the mountains of Earth. It’s the first thing we learn in school.” He waddled up to the prow and gestured with one wing. “Onward!”

  Lenora heaved at the oars and the rowboat set off. Her rowing was definitely improving. Now her vessel surged through the waves as though its pilot had been born for the sea. Frozen tundra went by to starboard and she steered hard to the right, squeezing between Alaska and Russia and sliding over the floating letters of the BERING STRAIT. The air got warmer as she passed Japan, from which thousands of cherry blossoms blew into the sea, and near which a million jellyfish glowed in the waters. Navigating the many twisty passages of the South China Sea was tricky, but she managed.

  And then she saw it. Off to the right, on the coast of Thailand:

  KRUNGTHEPMAHANAKHON AMONRATTANAKOSIN MAHINTHARAYUTTHAYA MAHADILOKPHOP NOPPHARATRATCHATHANIBURIROM UDOMRATCHANIWETMAHASATHAN AMONPHIMANAWATANSATHIT SAKKATHATTIYAWITSANUKAMPRASIT

  The name of the city was so long they’d had to arrange the letters in a gigantic spiral. Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit was a much longer name than Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Lenora had almost made a grave error. She got out her notebook and wrote down the longer name, then added: Never make assumptions. Verify the facts.

  Soon they were back in the open ocean.

  “There! There!” squawked the penguins, pointing north. And there was no missing it—across India and Nepal rose the tallest mountain around.

  “Thank you,” said Lenora with delight. She struck out south until they reached the shores of Antarctica. With all the rowing she’d been doing, she hardly felt the cold. “Will you be all right from here?”

  “Oh yes, oh yes, thank you, librarian!” the penguins cried, flopping into the water with joy. “You have saved us! We name you our Honorary Queen!”

  “Why, I’m so flattered,” said Lenora, blushing. She shivered. “I’ll visit again, in warmer clothes!” She rowed away as the penguins cheered.

  She docked at India and set off for Mount Everest. When she reached it at last, it certainly looked like the highest point around—it would have required one Malachi standing on another’s shoulders just to place a book upon the peak. But Lenora, who loved climbing trees or anything else she could find, thought nothing of clambering upward until she reached the very top. There, she stood on tiptoe, reaching up for a nearby railing that was rotating by, tantalizingly close—but she simply couldn’t get hold of it. The tips of her fingers almost brushed the railing, but not quite.

  She waited, but no other railings came anywhere near. Her plan had failed. Feeling defeated, she trudged back down the mountain and rowed south until she reached the penguins, who were happily doing belly slides on an icy shore. “I might be here awhile,” she admitted to them. “I tried to get off the globe by climbing Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, but I still couldn’t reach high enough to get away.”

  “Oh, you never told us you wanted the highest point on Earth!” said a penguin. “Every penguin knows that’s not Mount Everest at all. The highest point on Earth is Mount Chimborazo, in Ecuador.”

  “Oh!” said Lenora. “I never knew.” She got out her notebook. M. Everest not the highest point on Earth. Sometimes the thing everyone thinks is wrong.

  The penguin waved a flipper northwest. “It’s easy to find, too. The equator runs through Ecuador, which means Mount Chimborazo is exactly halfway between the north and south poles.”

  “Why, thank you!” said Lenora, and she wheeled about and set off for Mount Chimborazo. She felt a humming on her badge, and looking down she saw:

  LENORA

  SECOND ASSISTANT APPRENTICE LIBRARIAN

  OFFICIAL COURT LIBRARIAN OF THE KINGDOM OF STARPOINT SEVENTEEN

  HONORARY QUEEN OF THE PENGUINS

  Second Assistant Apprentice! Her heart swelled with a modest pride.

  Soon she arrived on the coast of Ecuador. She gave her little rowboat a pat. “You’re much nicer than that stupid balloon. Goodbye for now, dear rowboat.”

  Sad to abandon her trusty rowboat, but knowing she must do her job, she beached her vessel and headed for the highest mountain in sight. And sure enough, standing at the summit, stretching up on her tiptoes, she was just able to snag a railing. She grabbed on with both hands and gave an enormous pull. As she drew herself up, the library righted itself and she flipped onto her feet on the walkway. She had gotten off at a completely different place from where she had gotten on, and it took a bit of hunting and climbing up and down ladders and stairs until she found the Help Desk at last. And there was her patron waiting patiently. She went straight to him.

  “I thought I had discovered the place with the longest name,” she admitted, pointing to her notes, “in the fine and beautiful country of Wales. But then I found this much longer name in Thailand. I’ve got more research to do.”

  “Thailand?” exclaimed the patron. “Wait a moment … My true love always dreamed of learning to play sepak takraw—it’s like volleyball but played with the feet—and it’s quite popular in Thailand.”

  “That does seem like more than a coincidence,” said Lenora, “but one should be careful with assumptions.”

  “No, I’m sure that’s it!” said the young man, jamming his tricorne hat back onto his head and ignoring Lenora’s warning. “Oh, thank you, librarian. Now I can send a letter to my true love!” And he rushed away.

  A line of anxious questioners waited anxiously. Lenora grinned. “Next!”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Lenora Tackles the Unknown

  Lenora had just finished helping two more patrons, the first a royal lady who desperately needed to know the only country that starts with Q, and the second a banker whose life depended on knowing the only country that ended with it (Lenora suggested the two discuss Qatar and Iraq over lunch together), when Malachi burst onto the scene looking rather disheveled, meaning a wisp of hair had escaped from her bun and her badge was ever so slightly askew.

  “You are making excellent progress, Lenora,” said Malachi. Beneath the Chief Answerer’s cool demeanor, Lenora could detect a trace of urgency. “Fortunately for you, an even more challenging task has arisen. That is, if you are willing. You must decide right away.”

  Lenora’s heart skipped at the prospect of an even greater challenge. But she knew she must not refuse.

  She nodded firmly to Malachi, who led her away despite cries of protest from the long line of patrons. “No! We want her!” they shouted.

  “Sorry!” Lenora cried out to them as she left, feeling terrible at abandoning so many needy patrons.

  “For this task we must travel quite far,” said Malachi. “Many miles, in fact. So it is time for you to receive a key to the Tubes.” She held out a necklace upon which dangled a metal fob the size of a perfectly polished domino.

  From the Chief Answerer’s grave expression, Lenora could tell that great responsibility came with this object. Honored, she slipped it carefully over her head. She could feel the cold metal bouncing next to her badge as they walked.

  Soon they came to an archway, above which had been carved the word TUBES. Inside the room beyond, several librarians waited in a line. When they saw Malachi they stepped aside and bowed. Several glass tubes bound with copper ran through the room in all directions. Each one had a door and a flight of steps leading up to it. Lenora remembered seeing tubes like this before—webs of them winding everywhere—outside the window when she had first entered the library.

  Lenora felt the floor vibrate and then heard a whoosh as something shot through a tube and clunked to a sudden halt at the tube’s door. It was a metal capsule, just large enough to hold one librarian, with several small windows and a door on the side. The door popped open and a librarian emerged.

  Malachi gestured, and L
enora climbed in. Inside she found a single reclining seat with cracked leather upholstery. Surrounding the seat were thousands of small slots covering the walls, each one with a tiny metal tag above it. The tags said ANCIENT EGYPT and SHAKESPEARE and MODERN DANCE and everything else you could think of, including Lenora’s former department of CALENDARS, for which she already felt a deep nostalgia. Then one tag caught her eye because it was illuminated brightly: UNKNOWN. Lenora had a feeling …

  “As you may have guessed,” Malachi said, reaching a long arm through the door (Lenora did not see how a giant like her could ever fit inside a capsule), “this is your destination.” She placed a sharp finger on the illuminated tag. “The Tubes are pneumatic, which means they are powered by compressed air. Simply place your key in the slot for your destination, and you will be fired straight there. Try it.”

  Lenora slid her key into the slot for UNKNOWN. Instantly, the door to her capsule clanked shut. She heard a terrific WHOOSH and was squashed back hard into the soft leather seat. Her hands clenched the sides of her seat as she was pressed farther and farther back.

  Gradually the pressure eased. She could feel she was going at incredible speed. She peered out through one of the windows, but everything was blurring by too fast to be seen until her capsule entered what seemed to be a giant cavern of ice. Her tube was hundreds of feet above the cavern floor, and far below her, Lenora could see librarians skating past with books in their arms. Then that view vanished, too.

  She hoped the tube might whoosh outside for another terrific view, but sadly her seat soon swiveled in place so she was facing the other direction, and then the pressure came back and she was squashed again as the tube slowed. In moments, it came to a shuddering stop.

  The door slid open. Lenora climbed out, feeling a bit dazed. She found herself in front of a large stone door, above which the words SECTION UNKNOWN were flashing in alarm. Standing next to the archway was Malachi.