Book of Knowledge

by Slater, David Michael

  He did notice his sister seemed out of sorts. That was odd, of course, since going back to school for her had to be what it’s like for a fish to get thrown back into water. But he didn’t ask questions. Dex didn’t want to know about the party. He’d made sure to be in his room when she finally came home last night. Daphna could now be the Queen of all Pops for all he cared.

  Neither of the twins spoke until they were putting their dishes into the sink. That’s when the phone rang.

  “Should we get it?” Daphna asked.

  “No,” said Dex. “You can if you want. I don’t think I could talk to her right now.”

  “Me neither. We don’t have time anyway, and besides, it could be Evelyn or the cops. They must think we’re home by now.”

  When the ringing stopped, the twins waited for a few minutes, then each picked up a phone. Daphna keyed in the voicemail code. It was Latty, and her message was brief.

  “Kids, it’s me again. I just want to keep you informed. This is all very strange. I have no idea what it means, but Tarik’s got a whole fleet of trucks out there already, in the mountains. He’s purchased several libraries and is having thousands and thousands of old books hauled out there, though there’ve been some delays because of another small earthquake. Like I said, I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m going to try to get out there and see what’s what.

  “Oh, gosh, speaking of books, today’s the first day of school isn’t it? Maybe you’re already there. I’m so sorry I’m not home to make lunches and see you off! Just keep letting me know you’re okay. I’ll call as soon as I learn more. Love you both.”

  This bit of news wasn’t nearly interesting enough to deflect the twins’ immediate concerns. They grabbed their bags and headed out the door.

  Daphna, as she always did, took the direct route and walked as swiftly as she could.

  Dex, as he always did, veered off to make his journey as long as possible.

  On the first day of both sixth and seventh grade, Daphna walked to school brimming with excitement, wondering about what her teachers would be like and what she’d be learning.

  This year, such thoughts were furthermost from her mind. She brimmed only with anxiety. Lots of other neighborhood kids walked to school too, and all Daphna could think about as she fell in among a crowd was that everyone was watching her. She paced forward with her head down so she wouldn’t know one way or the other.

  Of course when she checked, no one was looking at her, but maybe that meant something worse. None of the Pops were there—they didn’t walk—but everyone knew how fast gossip flew among the kids at her school.

  For all Daphna knew, everyone had heard something about what happened by then. She had no idea how she was going to play it when someone confronted her. Cool? Smug and superior? Confused and amazed?

  Half a block to go. The ugly, low-slung school building was in sight. Daphna pressed on, trying to force herself to focus on ordinary thoughts. She’d go in, pick up her schedule, find her homeroom and head right there. Simple.

  But a group of kids was just behind her now as she approached the school’s front steps. Daphna tried not to look back. They were chatting about this and that, something about vacation being a rip off because it was way too short.

  “What’d you do all summer?” one of them asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “What’d you do?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Eighth grade, man. We’re gonna clean—”

  Daphna, halfway up the steps by then, wheeled around with eyes ablaze. The group—it was five kids, all in her grade—stopped in their tracks and nearly fell back down the steps.

  “What did you say?” Daphna hissed, leaning down at them. No one responded at first.

  “What did you say!” Daphna demanded.

  The boy who’d last spoken looked around nervously. Then he shrugged and said, “I said—I was saying, we’re eighth graders now, so we’re gonna clean up around here.”

  “Oh. Ahh—right, then. Sorry.”

  “What’s your damage?” sneered a girl in the group. Suddenly they were all glaring up at her.

  Daphna, flushing with embarrassment, had no choice. She couldn’t start off this way. She spoke the necessary Word and told all five kids to forget the whole conversation.

  Then, noting how quickly and totally the glaze came over their eyes, Daphna added, “By the way, the Pops are out this year. They’re totally un-cool.” Then she turned and rushed up the steps and into the school.

  She knew exactly how she was going to play things now.

  Being tardy to school was imperative for Dex because latecomers weren’t allowed into their homerooms once Silent Sustained Reading started. Instead, stragglers were herded into the cafeteria where, since most of them didn’t have their novels with them, they wound up doing homework. It was much easier to doodle on worksheets than it was to sit and stare cross-eyed at squirming words for forty minutes. Walking out of his way also let him avoid all the other kids who walked.

  When he reached campus, Dex veered around the main pathway and cut through the staff parking lot. Halfway across, he came to an abrupt halt. He was being ridiculous. What was the point of wasting another year of his life? He still couldn’t read normal books, and nothing he’d learned so far in the Book of Nonsense could change that. It would make much more sense to keep searching it for something that would just get rid of the problem once and for all. Dex turned to sneak away.

  “Dexter Wax?”

  Dex froze. Someone had called his name through the passenger window of a slowly moving car, a police car, which stopped beside him. “Are you Dexter Wax?” It was Officer Richards.

  “Ah, yeah. How did you know?”

  “We were just looking at pictures of you and your sister in the office.”

  “Oh,” Dex said, afraid to learn what this meant. “My dad said we’d probably be hearing from you,” he said, “but I’m gonna be tardy, so—”

  “We came to take statements from you kids this morning,” said Madden, “but we just got a few tips about where the redhead might be. We’ll be back later to—What’s that? I didn’t quite hear what you said.”

  “Why don’t I get in the car so we can talk?”

  “Why don’t you get in the car so we can talk?” both officers suggested at the same time.

  Dex got into the back seat. “My father has decided not to press charges,” he said. “You can let Antin go.”

  Officer Richards turned to Officer Madden. “His father isn’t pressing charges,” he said. “Captain’s gonna freak.”

  “Nah, he’ll go forward anyway,” answered Richards. “The gang’s going to pieces at McLaren, which is why we’re starting to get leads out of them.”

  “Let’s go talk to the Captain,” said Dex. “And let’s have the gang brought up to the station—top speed, okay? That way we can all have a talk.”

  “Let’s go talk to the Captain,” said Richards.

  “I’ll call and have the gang brought up to the station—top speed,” said Madden. “That way we can all have a talk.” He put the car in gear and pulled out of the lot.

  Dex ducked down so some kids coming in late didn’t see him in the back of a cop car, smiling.

  Daphna walked straight to the office avoiding eye contact with everyone in the jostling halls. She listened as best as she could to all the conversations percolating around her but didn’t hear the slightest mention of the party. She didn’t know what to expect, but she expected something, and right away. It should’ve been front page news.

  Standing in line in the office, still trying to puzzle things out, Daphna realized two Pops were waiting directly in front of her. She wished she could be invisible, but it turned out not to be necessary. The girls were looking forward, oblivious of her presence. Of course, it was always as if they couldn’t see non-Pops, anyway, unless they needed to use one, that is.

  “When will they be back?” one of them whispered. Her na
me was Robin.

  “Not sure,” whispered the other girl, Jarita. “They both broke out in hives head-t0-toe. You saw it; they looked like a couple of swollen beets! But we better just shut up about the whole thing before somebody—What? Daphna? Ah—did you say something?”

  “What happened at the party?” Daphna asked, looking into the two sets of suddenly fogged-over eyes.

  Robin blinked at Daphna, then said, “Wren and Teal and Bran—the stain remover stuff fell on them instead of you. You were right there, but no one knows what happened. You said something, or you whispered something. Some people said you just mouthed something, and then Bran came out, and then you went backstage, and then it fell.”

  “And everyone laughed,” Daphna said.

  “Yeah, everyone laughed,” Jarita confirmed. “It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

  “Those three finally got what they deserved,” said Robin. “It was a thing of beauty.”

  “Really?” Daphna said, “But, then, why aren’t you telling people about it? Why isn’t everyone talking about it?”

  “’Cause after it happened,” Jarita explained, “Wren talked to us. She was all red and everyone was pointing and laughing. But she said if this gets out, it’s a stain on all of us. It’s a stain on being a Pop, and when one of us gets humiliated, all of us get humiliated.”

  “She said Pops are Pops only because everyone who isn’t a Pop thinks so,” Robin continued, “and if people find out that some loser like you can take some of us down, then everyone will think they can. It’d be like dominoes. It didn’t seem so funny after that. So no one’s gonna breathe a word about it.”

  “What about me?” Daphna asked. “What’s to stop me from telling the whole world?”

  “Mud,” said Jarita.

  “What?”

  “Teal said you covered her in soap, but we’re gonna cover you in mud. You know, ruin your reputation so no one will believe anything you ever say for the rest of your life.”

  “Is that so?” Daphna snapped. “Turn around now and forget we had this conversation. Oh, one more thing. You’re not Pops anymore. The Pops are out. Totally uncool.”

  “I just hope they don’t try to talk to us,” Robin said when she and Jarita turned back around. “I’m done with them. I’m so done with the whole Pop thing.”

  “Totally,” Jarita agreed. “It’s so last year.”

  “Captain, this is Dexter Wax. He wants to talk to you.”

  “What’s that, young man?”

  “I said my father won’t be pressing charges against Antin or his gang. You can forget all about them. I think I can straighten them out myself.”

  “Right then. But I’ve got cops out there hauling him in. Found him at the bus station.”

  “That radio, on your desk. Can I talk to those cops?”

  “Sure. You can talk to every cop out there.”

  “Really? Great. Can you set it up?—Thanks—Okay—”

  “What’s that, Captain? Didn’t read that clearly.”

  “To the cops who got Antin, let him go. Forget about him totally. Go about your business. All the other cops out there who know anything about this, forget about it. Get rid of all the paperwork on this case. Ten-Four.”

  A woman stuck her head into the office just then. “Captain—those boys you wanted are here,” she said. “They’re in the holding tank.”

  “We’ll be right there,” said Dex.

  There were still a few minutes before the late bell, so Daphna got to as many kids as she could. She was as efficient as possible. A touch on the shoulder, the whisper of a Word. Daphna felt like an avenging angel, alighting here and there, making a Pop-free world. The only problem was there were too many kids at her school. It would be nearly impossible to get to everyone. Just as the bell rang, Daphna slipped into her homeroom. She’d never come that close to being tardy before.

  The annoying signal that morning announcements were about to begin blared from the intercom next to the door. Daphna sat back and let the atmosphere soak into her at last. Being in school was the next best thing to being in a bookstore.

  “Good morning students and staff, this is Principal Francisco Isidoro. Hola and welcome back one and all!

  “Here is this year’s first Daily Dose of Wisdom: In the Jewish tradition, there is a story that describes how a man offered to become Jewish only if the famous Rabbi Hillel could teach him everything he needed to know about the religion in the time he could stand on one foot. Instead of sending the man away for this absurd request, Rabbi Hillel said this: ‘What you find hateful do not do to another. Everything else is commentary.’ This is, of course, the Golden Rule. Treat others as you would have them treat you.

  “This year we will be studying all kinds of subjects from Geography to Biology to Poetry to Art to Technology—and so much more. But keep this in mind: all you learn will be meaningless if it does not make you a better person. I hope you use today well. I hope you use this year well. Just remember, what you do is always up to you.”

  Daphna normally paid close attention to the Daily Doses, but she hadn’t been able to listen closely to this one with so much on her mind. She’d heard the last line, though, probably because it was always the last line. Just remember, what you do is always up to you.

  Not always, Daphna thought. Her hand shot into the air.

  “Yes, Daphna? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that?”

  “I know it’s SSR, but I think they need me down at the office.”

  “I know it’s SSR, dear, but I think they need you down at the office.”

  “Ah, hello? Is it on? Okay. Um, hola everyone, this is Daphna Wax. Please pardon the interruption, but we are going to have an extra Daily Dose of Wisdom.”

  Daphna cleared her throat and clearly pronounced her Word. Then she plowed ahead.

  “This year, everyone will treat everyone as an equal. No one will care how expensive each other’s clothes are or where each other lives. No one will pick on anyone or call anyone ugly or nerdy. No one will cheat. We will all smile at each other. Those of you in sixth grade, and you seventh graders who are still twelve, well, I hope you’re listening too, but I guess it really will be up to you.

  “Oh yeah, Dexter, sorry about this. I’ll un-do you later. And I’ll explain. Okay, Bye.”

  “Well, Dexter, the gang’s all here.”

  Dex hadn’t known what a “holding tank” was. He’d half expected to find the boys in an empty aquarium, but it was just a cell, although seeing one in real life made his pulse race for a few moments. The sullen boys, slouching on benches, leaning against walls and sitting on the floor, looked up at him apathetically when he came in. But when they realized who he was, every one of them leapt to their feet and rushed to the bars. Dex backed away, but he wasn’t under attack.

  “Tell ’em! Tell ’em Antin made us do it!” everyone pleaded all at once. “Tell ’em we didn’t even want to come into your house! Tell ’em!”

  “Quiet!” Dex called out, but his voice was lost in the shouting.

  “Tell ’em it was Antin!”

  “Tell ’em we don’t know where he is!”

  “Tell ’em!”

  “I said QUIET!” Dex roared. “I’m here to help you!” This, finally, got everyone’s undivided attention.

  “Sheesh,” Dex sighed. Then, before they could start up again, he spoke his Word. All eyes misted over.

  “Okay,” he said, “you are all free to go. You will all quit being followers and jerks. You will all go back to your families, or find somewhere you can be safe. You will all go back to school and do the best you can not to screw up the rest of your lives.”

  Nods all around. Dex turned to the Captain, who opened the cell. The boys filed out, and Dex followed them into the lobby of the station. The crowd drew highly concerned looks of surprise from the officers there. Dex realized this was all more complicated than it seemed at first. People dealt with other people—if you got to one,
you needed to get to them all. Then he saw the answer on the main secretary’s desk.

  “Is that a p.a. system, Captain?”

  “Sure is.”

  “I’ll need to use that for a second. In the meantime, can you go get me all the money you confiscated from the gang? Then I’ll need to talk to the people down in Salem.”

  “Will do.”

  CHAPTER 23

  seventh period

  Why not? Dex thought. He was letting Officer Richards drive him back to school. Maybe it was going to spoil the most spectacular morning of his life, but he doubted it. What was there to be afraid of now? Granted, it wasn’t like him to go back willingly when there was no more reason to, but if he could handle school, Dex thought his confidence would be complete.

  Who knows, he might even be ready to take on Adem Tarik, not that he was in a hurry even to think about that. If nothing else, he should find Daphna. She’d go ape if she realized he wasn’t there. He ought to tell her what he’d done.

  Dex was ecstatic. An entire station of cops, totally bent to his will! An entire gang of delinquents changed their lives in a heartbeat! They would be good kids now, and Dex had a pretty good feeling the change would last. The more he thought about it all, the more excited he became. His muscles were actually twitching. His eyes felt like they were vibrating, making the traffic through the police cruiser’s windshield almost seem to shimmer. The power he possessed was nearly inconceivable.

  Dex changed his mind. Daphna could wait. They almost never saw each other during the day, anyway. He had an idea, so he leaned over and shared it with Officer Richards, who was, of course, fully agreeable.

  Richards made a U-turn just a few blocks from school, and within fifteen minutes, they were touring the Portland underworld. Dexter wanted to meet the worst criminals who weren’t in jail.