The Crystal Lair (Inventor-in-Training)

by D. M. Darroch

  Angus and Ivy were hiding out in Billy’s yurt. Billy’s mother would be preserving meat all day, and Billy had been thrilled to trade his evening sentry shift for the use of his family’s house. Angus figured if he got the World Jumper working, he’d be long gone before he’d have to fulfill his side of the bargain. He’d give Billy a taste of his own medicine. Angus smiled to himself.

  “We don’t want the adults to find out about the World Jumper. They won’t understand. They’re going to wonder what I’ve been up to all day. I thought while I’m testing the World Jumper, why not make Granny some eyeglasses? It will be a good explanation for what I’ve been doing all day and help Granny see better.”

  “Why does she need to see? She’ll just use that eyesight to kill more innocent animals.”

  “They’re not all innocent, Ivy. She needs to be able to protect the village from predators.”

  “One person’s predator is another person’s family member,” growled Ivy. “But why do you need the sneakers?”

  “I’m going to use the rubber to craft eyeglass frames. I’ll attach the pieces of fluorite to it.”

  “I don’t understand what the fluorite is going to do.”

  “Remember how I told you that scientists in my world use fluorite for microscope optics? They don’t use it for anything larger because the clear, unflawed pieces in my world are very small. The pieces I found are big and clear. Granny’s eyes were magnified when she looked through them. I’ll use the stones for lenses.”

  Angus sorted through the clear crystals and selected several that were of relatively equal size. He held up each to the small torches lighting the hut to check for optical defects within the stone. The first crystal he looked through split the light into a prism of color. He rejected it and selected another. The second one allowed the light to pass straight through.

  He explained to Ivy, “I need to start with the best pieces of fluorite. Color distortion within the stone indicates flaws. Light changes speed as it moves from the air into the stone. The speed change bends the light. If I see many colors within the stone it shows me that there are different angles within the stone. Those will interfere with clear, undistorted vision.”

  He searched through the stones until he found another equally pristine specimen. When he found two of similar size and quality, he checked them outside in the daylight. Finally satisfied that these pieces of crystal were appropriate for Granny’s eyeglasses, he placed them carefully on Billy’s kitchen table and pulled his safety goggles over his eyes.

  He reached into his toolbelt and pulled out a sharp knife he had purloined from the butcher hut.

  Ivy opened her eyes wide when she saw the blade. “What will you do with that?”

  “I’ll cut the rubber soles off the sneakers.”

  Angus rubbed his hands together to warm them. The hut was chilly. The peat fire at Billy’s house was covered and smoldering. Of course, Billy’s mother had expected no one to be at home that day. Angus stoked the fire and replenished the fresh peat. It smoked briefly and then caught fire. The peat burned slowly and steadily.

  Ivy grunted and collapsed by the fireside. She rested her head on her paws and allowed her eyes to fall shut. Soon, the gentle sound of snoring filled the hut.

  Angus poked at the canvas with the knife tip. He had used steak knives and bread knives before but never a knife as sharp and unforgiving as this one. He wasn’t allowed to touch any of the knives in the butcher block at home. On his last birthday, his dad had given him a multi-tool with a small whittling knife, but he’d forgotten it in the pocket of a pair of pants his mother had laundered, and the tiny nuts and bolts had been washed away rendering the tool useless within a week.

  He remembered his dad telling him to cut toward his buddy, not his body. He took a deep breath, and pushed the blade into the canvas. He rocked the knife and pushed it away from him gently. The blade stuck in the tough fabric. He needed to apply more force. He pressed harder until he heard a dull tearing noise. He wiggled the blade again and pushed it forward. A hole was appearing along the rubber rim of the shoe.

  He continued pushing, wiggling, and ripping. He felt a burning sensation on the heel of his hand and knew that a blister was beginning to form. When he was three quarters of the way around the sneaker, he put down the knife and used brute force to rip the rubber off the canvas.

  He held a rubber sole in one hand and the purple rhinestone canvas hi-top in the other. Now what? How was he going to make eyeglasses out of this?

  He placed the stones on top of the rubber sole and looked at them for a moment. He needed to fit the stones into the rubber. He placed the blade tip on the rubber and slowly sliced a straight line about two inches from the sole’s edge. The knife, sharp as it was, only penetrated a few millimeters. Angus traced the small slice in the rubber with the blade a second time making a deeper cut. Again and again he traced the line.

  After twelve cuts, the blade touched the table. Angus pushed his goggles to the top of his head, held up the strip of rubber, wrapped it around his face, and marked the location of each eye with a carpenter pencil from his toolbelt.

  He placed the rubber strip on the table and sliced an X over each pencil mark, tracing and retracing until the knife had cut completely through the rubber. He poked the rocks through each X and held the strip up to his head again. He looked through the crystals and saw an enlarged room. The slumbering dire wolf was even bigger. The bowls on Billy’s table were huge. Angus could even see clods of dirt by the doorway. The glasses were so powerful they were beginning to give him a headache.

  As he removed them from his head, one of the crystals dropped to the floor. That wasn’t going to work. He couldn’t have Granny’s lenses popping out of her glasses all the time.

  Angus picked up the crystal and shoved it back into the rubber frame. He needed to glue the crystals to the rubber somehow. “Ivy!” he called.

  The dire wolf jerked her head up and blinked. “Have you finished?”

  “Almost.” He held up the eyeglasses for her to see.

  “Primitive. Do they work?”

  “They magnify everything. But the lenses keep falling out. I’m thinking we need to make some glue like we did last time.”

  “That took hours! We don’t have that kind of time. You’re supposed to test the World Jumper today, and Billy’s mother will be back by dinnertime.”

  “Do you have another idea? I have to keep the rocks from falling out.”

  Ivy cocked her head to one side and squinted her eyes in thought. The harder she tried to figure out a solution, the more she realized she didn’t have an answer. The greater her realization of her complete inability to help Angus, the more agitated she became. The more agitated she became, the more she twitched her tail. The more she twitched her tail, the closer it came to the fire. And then it was in the fire.

  “Ouch!” she yelped. She darted away from the fireside clear across the room. The tip of her tail smoked.

  “Ivy! That’s it! You’re a genius!” crowed Angus.

  Ivy was trying desperately to regain her composure. “Of course, I am. What exactly did I do?”

  “You reminded me of one time I went camping with my dad. He told me to bring my hiking boots but I didn’t because they were stiff and uncomfortable. I told him that I’d packed them, but I actually brought my hi-tops instead.”

  Angus was crouching by the fire, arranging the rudimentary eyeglasses. He stopped talking as he fiddled with the crystals.

  “Angus, you need to finish your story.”

  “What? Oh, yeah, sorry. So we went hiking on a really muddy trail and when we got back, my feet were wet. I propped my sneakers up against the campfire and they melted.” He stared intently at the eyeglasses.

  Ivy waited, and when it became clear that no other information was forthcoming, she prodded him. “What does that have to do with Granny’s eyeglasses?”

  “Well, it’s obvious. The heat of the fire will soften the rubber a
nd make it sticky. The goo will get on the crystals. When the rubber cools, the lenses will be stuck to the frame, and Granny will have her glasses. I do have to be careful not to melt the rubber or overheat the fluorite. Fluorite can crack when it’s exposed to extreme changes in temperature.”

  He abruptly stopped talking and gasped. He nudged the glasses away from the fire with the end of his screwdriver and gaped at the lenses.

  Ivy jumped to her feet, raised her hackles, and snarled. “Did you see that, Angus?”

  The fluorite lenses were glowing violet.

  “I’ve heard about this,” said Angus. “We talked about thermoluminescence once in my Junior Rock Hounders club. I’ve never seen it before though.”

  “Explain.”

  “When a rock glows after it is heated, that’s called thermoluminescence. What it means is that the rock releases energy it previously absorbed. That energy appears as light.”

  “But that’s the exact same color of light as the large piece of crystal,” began Ivy.

  Angus was already pulling the World Jumper from his waistband and the large crystal from his pocket. He laid them on the floor side by side. The large crystal and Granny’s glasses glowed the same shade of violet.

  “But the large crystal hasn’t been heated. Why is it glowing? And why is it that particular color?”

  Angus stared at the crystals and shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six: Map Coordinates

  Angus ran his fingers through his unruly brown hair. His three cowlicks exploded in different directions. He bounced excitedly on his toes as he paced the room, thinking out loud.

  “The fluorite glows violet. Granny’s glasses release the violet light when they are heated. The chunk glows when it’s near the World Jumper even though it’s not heated. The light is the energy that the rock had absorbed.”

  “Where does the energy come from?”

  “From the location where the rock was. It picks up the surrounding energy.”

  “Why violet?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s the energy in the cave.”

  “Or in this world.”

  Angus stopped abruptly and stared at the dire wolf.

  “What are you saying, Ivy?

  “I followed your heat signature here. What is heat, but energy?”

  Angus’s eyes sparkled. “You think the violet glow is the energy of this world? Its heat signature. What if each world has a distinct energy? A very specific heat signature?”

  Ivy watched him silently. He was on to something and she didn’t want to interrupt.

  Angus began pacing again. “The fluorite would glow a different color in every world. We would know what world we were on. But only if we’d been there before and had a color list. I wonder what color the pirate world is? Or home? What color is home?”

  Ivy nodded toward the World Jumper. She was afraid to touch it with her wet nose. “How does it work?”

  “I squeeze the trigger. A combination of moisture and baking soda activates it.”

  “Yes, I know that part. I mean, there are a lot of buttons on the front and that display screen. What do you do with those?”

  Angus blinked. “I’ve never used those.” He picked up the modified barcode scanner and examined it, carefully avoiding the trigger. The top half of the scanner was a blank display. The bottom half was a keypad of white letter buttons and red number buttons. Several gray buttons had functions assigned to them: Esc, Shift, Alt, Enter, Ctrl, and BkSp.

  “I wonder.”

  “What?” prodded Ivy.

  “The last time I jumped worlds, I tripped.”

  “So does that make you a World Tripper, not a World Jumper?” Ivy joked. “Sorry,” she apologized as she caught Angus’s evil glare. “Keep going.”

  “I grabbed the front of the scanner with my other hand. I probably pushed some buttons. Maybe that caused me to land here.”

  “If so, that combination of buttons could be the code for this world.”

  “Yes, like map coordinates.” He looked at the scanner again, took a deep breath, pointed it at the crystal, and pulled the trigger.

  “Angus, no!” yelled Ivy.

  A red light blazed from the end of the scanner and reflected off the fluorite rock. The display of the barcode scanner lit up with the code 9F48C2. Angus released the trigger and stood dumbfounded.

  When several moments of silence had passed, Ivy could wait no longer. “What? What is it?”

  “I think I just found the coordinates for this world.” He looked at her. “We might be able to find our way home.”

  He looked around Billy’s hut for an object he could use to test his theory. He pulled back a privacy curtain. A pallet and bedroll were crumpled into one corner and a week’s worth of dirty socks lay in the other. He grinned. “Perfect.” He pushed in the coordinates 9F48C2, pushed the Enter button, and pulled the World Jumper’s trigger. Smoke puffed out the end.

  “Careful, Angus! What are you doing?”

  “It’s okay. I’m programming the World Jumper. As long as I punch in the right coordinates and don’t point it at myself, there’s nothing to worry about.”

  The dire wolf poked her head around the curtain. Before she saw them, her keen nose detected the ripe, cheesy odor of sweaty socks. “Yuck! Billy’s an even worse slob than you.”

  “I know. And I just zapped his socks.”

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing. I used the coordinates of this world. They didn’t move.”

  “Maybe your World Jumper’s broken.”

  Angus shook his head. “No. It lit up and smoked. It’s working. I wonder if this thing has a memory.” He turned it and looked straight into the laser window.

  “Careful! You’re going to zap yourself!”

  Uncharacteristically heeding her warning, Angus pointed the World Jumper at the socks again. “I remember a tiny computer chip when I took the scanner apart in my lab. I didn’t get a chance to test it before I zapped myself. I wonder if it would have stored the other locations. And if it did, how do I access the memory?”

  Ivy crept nervously toward him. “Tilt it up a bit so I can see.” Angus complied, carefully moving his hand away from the sensitive trigger.

  “Look at all those buttons!” said Ivy. “Exactly like a computer keyboard. You could type a story on there.”

  “Ivy! Once again, you amaze me! You are brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “I don’t know. I suggest fewer hours playing video games and more hours familiarizing yourself with your computer’s word processing features. Or, maybe you’re not in touch with your writing muse?”

  Angus ignored her sarcastic comments. “See that Ctrl button? What happens on your computer if you push Ctrl-C?”

  “You copy something.”

  “Ctrl-V?”

  “You paste whatever you just copied. But how does that help us? You didn’t copy or paste anything.”

  Angus was bouncing again. Ivy jumped back to avoid the World Jumper he was waving around recklessly in his excitement. “Put the World Jumper down, Angus, before there’s another accident.”

  “Oh. Sorry.” Angus placed the World Jumper gingerly on the floor beside Billy’s pungent socks and tapped his foot impatiently. “What if you type something or delete something and then change your mind? What key combination do you use to get it back?”

  “Ctrl-Z of course.”

  “Exactly!” Angus picked up the World Jumper again, pointed it carefully at the floor, and punched the buttons Ctrl, Z, Enter. The scanner buzzed and the code 1BBFE0 appeared on the screen. Angus tilted the World Jumper so Ivy could see it.

  “If my theory is correct, that should be the exact location of the pirate world.” He grinned mischievously. “Captain Hank and the crew should have just about finished cleaning the Fearsome Flea.”

  He pointed the scanner at Billy’s socks, practically steaming with odor, and pulled the trigger. The World Jumper
buzzed and smoked. The socks had disappeared.

  Far away in a parallel world, a toothless pirate laid aside a mop and wiped the sweat from his brow. He bent backwards, hand supporting his lower back, and stretched his tight muscles.

  “Aaargh. Thank Davey Jones me work’s done,” he sighed. He bent down to retrieve his mop and bucket of water. His toothless gums flapped open and shut with a wet smacking sound as he spotted the rancid woolen socks strewn across the Fearsome Flea’s deck.

  The dire wolf snarled and jumped back. Angus laughed happily.

  “You can’t be sure where those socks went,” said Ivy.

  “No, not unless I follow them. But since I’ve only used the World Jumper twice, it’s a pretty safe bet that Billy’s laundry will be walking the plank soon.”

  “Even if that’s true, you still don’t know the coordinates of your home world. You never programmed them into the scanner, so Ctrl-Z won’t work.”

  “True,” said Angus. He sighed and tucked the World Jumper back into his waistband. “We should leave before Billy’s mother gets home.” He tucked the rubber strips from the dismantled sneakers into his toolbelt. An inventor-in-training worth the title never throws away anything potentially useful.

  He packed away his tools and jammed the large crystal into a compartment in his toolbelt between a tape measure and a ball of steel wool. Granny’s glasses dangled from his fingertips. Ivy gathered the remnants of the purple sneakers in her mouth. The boy’s shoulders slumping and the dire wolf’s tail drooping, the two friends departed the hut.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Target Practice

  Gus leaned on the window sill and gazed out. No monsters to guard against. No sloths to feed or tend. Not allowed to hunt. No forest to explore. No little sister to play with. What was he supposed to do all day? This hallucination was beginning to bore him. Maybe that meant he was getting better and would wake up soon?

  He collapsed back on to the soft mattress. This dream bed was much more comfortable than his real one in the hut. But life in this dream home was terribly boring. What was the point of getting out of this bed?