The Gravity Keeper

by Michael Reisman

  Simon and Owen stared with their mouths open. They turned back to Alysha as she smacked her hands together. She saw their looks and shrugged. “What, didn’t you know? Metal is a great conductor of electricity.”

  They played with their formulas for hours, finding new ways to use them and steadily improving their control. They also practiced fighting in reduced gravity while sliding in low friction, or while being launched by velocity. Alysha found she could drain old car or appliance batteries for energy. She even found a small generator in a toolshed and drained some of its power.

  “That’s so tingly!” Alysha said with a giggle. “I could keep a good charge going for a while with this thing.” She looked around. “We should do it.”

  “Do what?” Simon and Owen asked.

  “Use this place as a battleground,” she said. “Find a way to lure Scare-a-betta and Mermon Sleazy here and take ’em down. There’s a generator and spare batteries, plus all this metal for me to electrify. And there’s plenty of junk for you two to throw or use as shields against attack formulas. We could really kick butt!”

  Simon nodded. “Not a bad idea. And I just got another one. Book, can I handle any more formulas?”

  A glowing answer appeared. “‘Only one until you have more experience and stamina,’” Simon read aloud. “Okay,” he said to his friends. “What do you think of this? We somehow get the bad guys here where we’re hiding so we can ambush them!”

  “Hiding where?” Owen asked. “It’s no good to be behind a pile of junk if Sirabetta is flying overhead.”

  Simon grinned. “No, but what if she can’t see us? Flangelo said it’s easy to become invisible; what if I find a formula that keeps us out of sight?”

  Owen shook his head. “Sounds like a bad idea, being invisible. What if we can’t become visible again? What if we can’t see ourselves? What if we’re crossing the street and a car that can’t see us zooms by and smacks into us?”

  “Relax,” Alysha said. “We could just wait here, sitting comfortably; maybe Simon can friction-slide to lead Mr. and Ms. Evil in. And then, bam! You and I jump out and get them! The perfect plan!”

  “Book,” Simon said, “can you show me what to do to make us invisible?”

  The Book answered, and Simon read it aloud again. “‘There are several ways to do so, mostly through bending of light or shifting of color for camouflage. Each has its own drawbacks and advantages.’”

  “Wait, Sirabetta can become invisible,” Owen said. “What if she can sense when others are, too? Maybe she can see invisible things!”

  “Owen, anyone ever tell you that you worry a lot?” Alysha groaned.

  “Actually,” Simon said, “he makes a good point.”

  “Fine,” Alysha said. “Simon, what about that color-camouflage thing, then?”

  “Book? Can you show me that?” The Book flipped to the chapter dealing with the visible spectrum. “Wow,” Simon said. “There’s a lot of detail here. Maybe I’ll just experiment a bit.”

  Owen gasped. “Not again! Simon, the last time you just experimented, we almost splatted into a big hole! And before that—”

  “I know, I know. But I’ll test it on myself, and I’ll be holding the Book. If something goes wrong, I can just reverse it.” He put his finger on the symbols he planned on using. “You guys stand back. I’m going to blend in with the colors around me, like a chameleon.” He scratched his head. “I think,” he muttered.

  Simon read the words, and there was a bright burst of light. Owen jumped back, and even Alysha flinched away.

  “Did it work?” Simon asked.

  Owen squinted. “I’m really not sure.”

  “Something happened,” Alysha said. “But what?”

  “Is it just me,” Simon asked, “or do things look kind of funny?” He wasn’t even sure if his eyes were open or not. He couldn’t tell anything apart; either everything around him had disappeared, or somehow it all looked the same. “Tell me what you see.”

  “Everything around you is…” Alysha trailed off.

  “Why didn’t you listen to me?” Owen moaned.

  “What he means is…” Alysha began.

  “What?” Simon screamed. “Just tell me what you see!”

  “Banana!” Owen yelled.

  Simon groaned as he realized what Owen meant. Everything around him was a painfully bright shade of yellow. “I can’t even see myself!” Worse, he couldn’t see the Book and thus couldn’t undo the formula. “Are you guys yellow, too?”

  Owen and Alysha stared at the field of yellowness, like a huge blotch of paint had poured out of the sky and splattered that one spot. Owen tiptoed over to the edge of the yellowness and gingerly stuck his hand across the border. As he did so, his fingertips and then his whole hand disappeared.

  His hand wasn’t invisible but rather as yellow as everything around it and thus impossible to distinguish from its surroundings. He yanked his hand back, and it looked normal again. “No, we’re fine unless we get too close to you.”

  Alysha whistled in amazement. “Try just walking out of it,” she suggested.

  Simon followed the sound of her voice. “Keep talking so I can—ouch!”

  “Are-you-okay?” Owen hollered.

  “I’m fine—I’m trying to follow your voice, but I tripped over something.”

  Simon slowly emerged from the field of yellow to the sound of Owen’s steady chatter. Simon reversed the command, returning the junkyard to normal. Then he saw the problem.

  “Oops. I guess I read it right in front of that shed.” It was the same shade of blinding yellow, and he’d accidentally changed the whole area to blend in with it. “Maybe we should forget about camouflage.”

  Alysha and Owen murmured in agreement. Alysha leaned against a dishwasher. “Is anyone else feeling wiped out?”

  Simon and Owen nodded. “It’s from using your formula too much,” Simon said. “Trust me, we just need food and sleep to recharge.”

  Alysha reached into her own book bag and took out a paper sack. “Good thing I brought snacks.”

  They ate sandwiches and chips in silence for a while. Owen took a swig of apple juice and cleared his throat. “You know what the problem with the junkyard plan is? Let’s say we lure the bad guys and beat them. What do we do then? I’m not going to kill anybody!”

  Alysha held up her hands. “Whoa, Speedy! We just have to catch them.”

  “I see what you mean, Owen,” Simon said. “We can’t exactly bring them to the police.”

  “No,” Alysha said, “but we can turn them over to someone from the Order of Physics. They must have their own jails and stuff.”

  They heard a loud chirp and turned in time to see Flangelo change from bird to man behind them. “Bad idea, little spark plug. A very bad idea.”

  Alysha folded her arms. “Were you watching us the whole time?”

  “If you’re not a spy, what do you call that?” Owen demanded.

  “My, aren’t we confrontational,” Flangelo said. “Power trip, hmm? Trust me, mini-motormouth, you’re going to be glad I’ve been flapping those wings around town. Not only did I see your big brawl yesterday”—he clapped a few times—“but I found out some very bad news.”

  Flangelo told them about that morning’s meeting in Dunkerhook Woods. “So you see, you do not want to be chatting with those Physics fellows. I promise you, they will not be warm and cuddly with you. And hiding in a patch of yellow just won’t cut it.”

  Simon frowned. “What can we do?”

  Flangelo looked away, and his voice lost its usual lilt. “I wish I could tell you. I really do. I definitely can’t contact Gilio now. If he came alone, he’d probably get ambushed by the Physics members. If he came with the rest of the Order of Biology, it would lead to a war. Frankly, I’m terrified just flapping around. If they recognize me as a Bio member, they might tear me apart.”

  Owen, distressed, spoke extra quickly. “That-woman-Eldonna-if-we-talk-to-her-she’ll-make-thin
gs-okay-withthe-others!”

  Flangelo just stood and stared for a moment. “I’d swear that was English in fast-forward. Isn’t there a medication for him?”

  “Leave him alone,” Alysha said with a frown. “He’s right. We should explain things to this Eldonna. She might help us.”

  Flangelo shrugged. “That could work. She seemed pretty rough, with her megaphone trick, but you never know. She’s probably at the hospital.”

  “Then let’s go,” Simon said. “Once she knows it’s not Biology’s fault, you’ll be safe, too.”

  Flangelo shook his head. “I wouldn’t go now. The Order members might be visiting or keeping guard. Your best bet is tomorrow, when they’re at work.”

  Owen’s jaw dropped. “The Order members have jobs?”

  Flangelo twitter-laughed. “Of course. How much money do you think there is in stomping around magic woods? They’ve got bills to pay, right? Union members generally stick to educational-type jobs; it goes with their whole help-humanity-progress motif.” He saw their blank looks. “Motif. Theme. Never mind.”

  “So tomorrow we skip school and go to the hospital,” Simon said.

  “No way,” Owen said. “My mom would kill me!”

  “Yeah, same here,” Alysha said. “I do not want to get grounded.”

  “I can go alone,” Simon said.

  “No way!” Owen said. “We’re a team, and we stick together.” Alysha nodded in agreement.

  Simon sighed. “Fine. After school, it’s straight to the hospital. And if we run into Veenie or Sirabetta, we try to lure them here.”

  “Or anywhere with lots of stuff to throw and electricity to drain,” Owen said.

  Alysha clapped Owen and then Simon on the back. “Which is basically everywhere in town. Boys, we are ready!”

  Flangelo was quiet as he watched them leave the junkyard. He didn’t look as confident as they were; in fact, he looked very worried for them.

  I felt the same way.

  CHAPTER 26

  A TIME AND A SPACE FOR EVERYTHING

  Simon got home from the junkyard; though worn out from the long day of practicing, he was exhilarated, too. He walked into his bedroom, tossed the Book on his desk, and sat down on his bed. A good meal, a good night’s sleep, and he’d be ready for anything.

  There was a knock at his door. “Come in.”

  Sylvia Bloom entered. “Ah, you’re home! You’ve been out all day.”

  “Yeah, I was off with some friends. Um, science work.”

  Sylvia smiled. “My boys and their science. Your father’s downstairs in his office, plugging away. I’m glad you’re safe, especially after what I heard.”

  Simon gulped. “What did you hear, Mom?”

  “Some disaster on the other side of Town Plaza yesterday evening; not too far from here, you know. They’re saying it was some ruptured pipes, but I saw photos in a newspaper at the office; that street was a mess. It made me wonder about you, off on your own all day. Are you being careful?”

  “Oh yeah. Taking every precaution.”

  Sylvia rubbed his hair affectionately. “Good. It can be a dangerous world, you know. Terrible, terrible accidents.” She sighed and then brightened. “Okay, I’ve got some more work to do. Thai takeout for dinner?”

  “Yeah,” Simon said. “I’m starving.” But she was already out the door. Simon looked over at the Book and frowned. That fight with Sirabetta had been so destructive. So dangerous. He and his friends would probably have to face her again. They’d have to win this time; they couldn’t keep running. Would all their practice today be enough? Or would he need an extra edge after all?

  Simon searched his room for anything that could be useful in a fight. He stuffed a few items into his backpack, including a paintball gun he’d gotten on his last birthday. I nodded in appreciation, realizing Simon’s plan; even if it didn’t work, those things really sting when they hit.

  Still, Simon suspected he’d need something more. “Book, I need your help.”

  The Book’s clasp popped open, and the cover rose a few inches, waiting for its Keeper’s request.

  “I want to use a third formula, but not camouflage. I need something that might let me beat Sirabetta, something that can get past her tricks. Do you have anything that can do that?”

  The Book responded in writing. Possibly—but it could be dangerous.

  Simon thought of the terrible formulas Sirabetta had at her disposal. “I understand. I’ll take that risk.” The Book turned to a new chapter, and Simon gasped at what he saw.

  He read the text but found it hard to follow. He wished he could just look at Alysha’s Physics for the Doofus book, but he didn’t want Alysha or Owen to know he was learning a third formula. Not until he understood how to use it.

  After a few minutes of clueless reading, Simon muttered, “I told Mom I’d be careful; maybe I should be.” He went downstairs and approached the closed door of his father’s home office, a cluttered room down the hall from the recreation room. He knocked gently. “Dad? Can I come in?”

  There was the sound of shuffling papers and then a voice said, “It’s open.”

  Simon entered and looked around at the shelves crammed with hundreds of serious-looking books and a desk cluttered with more books and folders.

  Steven reached over and clicked off his computer monitor, but not before Simon noticed a series of strange graphs on the screen.

  “I need to ask you something,” Simon said. “It’s kind of important. Urgent.” He added, “For school.”

  Steven tugged on an ear and bit his lip. “I guess I can spare a few minutes.”

  “It’s for science class. About space-time and relativity.”

  Steven’s mouth dropped open. “In sixth grade? School has gotten more advanced since my day.” He scratched his frizzy hair. “Okay, what, specifically?”

  “Uh, what are space-time and relativity? How do they work? Basically?”

  Steven chuckled. “Oh, I was worried you had a tough question.” He cleared his throat. “Sir Isaac Newton said that everyone and everything moves through four dimensions. There are three physical dimensions—length, width, and depth—and a fourth dimension: time. We’re all moving forward in time. If I wanted to describe the exact location of, say, us, I’d have to use the coordinates of where we are and when we are. But Einstein came up with the space-time continuum, which describes all four dimensions together in one system that exists all around us. He said the where and when depend on the observer; time and space aren’t universal.”

  Simon blinked a few times while trying to process that. “Okay.”

  Steven went on. “Einstein had a special and a general theory of relativity. Both deal with space-time. The general theory talks about curved space-time, gravity, and the possibility of black holes. And I’m sure you’ve heard of the special theory’s famous formula, E = mc2? The relationship between energy, mass, and the speed of light?”

  Simon shook his head slowly.

  Steven chewed his lower lip. “What exactly do you want to know?”

  Simon shrugged. “Maybe practical applications of space-time?”

  Steven looked astonished. “Practical? Sorry, pal, they’re only theories, for use in figuring out how the universe works.”

  “I mean, like in the science-fiction stuff I read…”

  Steven frowned. “Oh, Simon, that stuff is trash. Pure nonsense. Pseudofuturistic daydreams. Not to mention all that silly manipulating of the laws of physics however the authors want to, paying no heed to the real world.”

  Simon tried hard not to smile; if his father only knew! “How would space-time work if someone could use it?”

  Steven ran a hand through his frizzy hair. “Let’s see. If you could somehow travel through space-time on Earth, you could instantly go from one place to another in time and/or space. Teleportation or wormholes would be possible, I suppose, because controlling space-time is controlling where and when something is, right? Maybe mastery
of space-time could even let you change the flow of time entirely. Perhaps slow time down, speed it up, even reverse it.”

  Simon felt even wearier now than before. “Got it. Thanks, Dad.”

  “I am impressed that you’ve taken such an interest in science.” Steven seemed to quietly struggle with something, then took a deep breath and asked, “Do you want to see something interesting?”

  Simon nodded.

  “Now, Simon, you have to promise not to tell anybody. Not your mother, not your friends.”

  Simon nodded again, surprised. “I swear.”

  “Then let’s go to the basement.”

  Steven took a set of keys from his desk and one of the folders from the desktop, and then he led Simon into the basement. He stopped at the file cabinet with padlocks on the drawers and unlocked and opened the second drawer from the top. “I’ve been looking into something…odd.”

  He pulled out a folder of photos, notes, and graphs. “There have been strange readings in this town for as long as there’s been a science department at Milnes. Barometric pressure, seismic activity, electrical energy, and more. I usually deal with astrophysics, but lately, I’ve been looking into reports of local disturbances, too. For example, yesterday’s alleged gas main problem, or whatever the papers called it? My instruments at the lab picked up some unique readings. And there’ve been fascinating eyewitness reports; a handful of townspeople claimed they saw someone—or something—fly past their houses yesterday.”

  I gasped as Steven Bloom pulled out a photo of a man I recognized well. A stooped, gray-haired man, wearing a faded overcoat and holding his cane: Ralfagon Wintrofline. Although Simon didn’t recognize him, he felt the Book vibrating gently inside his book bag.

  “This man is a physics professor at Milnes University,” Steven said. “His name is Ralph Winter, but once when we were speaking, he referred to himself as ‘Ralfagon.’ A very odd man. Some say he’s just scatterbrained, some say he’s insane. All agree he’s brilliant. I’ve met with him several times to discuss my theories about this town. I think…I may be on track for major breakthroughs in the field of physics.”