“Beers on me!” Frank shouted, clashing his cup against
Hallie’s with an audible chink.
“What do you think, Hallie? A wheat farm and now a
distillery ten years ahead of schedule! Am I the best project director or am I
the best project director?”
“The distillery wasn’t on the schedule. We don’t need beer
to colonize a planet” She chided, grinning despite herself.
“We work like slaves, the people need a little treat to keep
them going. It boosts moral, and therefore production. At this rate we can
start evacuating in forty years at the most!” He said loudly, and the people
around him cheered. He stood up on his chair. “Drink up, you lot! Tomorrow is a
holiday. After that, I expect you bright and early working even harder! Viva la
Tierra!”
“Viva la Tierra!” the room echoed, and he chuckled. He
winked at Hallie and she scowled, though without the ferocity she had when they
first met. If she was a bit more flushed with alcohol, she might have even
smiled.
***
Tom didn’t
understand a lot of things he heard in class. He didn’t understand how “Global Warming” caused harsher, stormier
winters. He didn’t understand why 14 times 14 mattered at all, or why it was
really good that he could pick out patterns. Tommy would have loved to
understand more, but the teacher herself didn’t know so he had no one to ask. The
ten year old could only remember what she said and spit it back out later. Supposedly
that made him smart… the same way that supposedly pigs built a castle on the
moon.
Today Tommy was
lingering in the old town. The town had been abandoned when the smog was too
much for the dense population to handle. The population quickly became zero. People
lived almost exclusively in villages after that, and since the air quality of
Old London had improved significantly. Now London had an occasional population
of one. Tommy spent most of his time exploring it, pretending that he was on a
dangerous mission to save the queen. He ran up and down Downing Street. He
explored old apartment buildings and houses. Sometimes he found a forgotten
photograph. He would pick it up and turn it over to see Samantha Goff, Fred Baker, Matthew Yu, 2183. They were standing
under a blue sky, surrounded by green trees and a clear lake. They were in
front of a boat, but one smaller than any of the shipping boats that existed
now. They looked happy and young. Tommy wished he’s known that Earth.
Tom would pocket
the photo and take it home. It would go in a box under his bed with all the
rest of the trinkets long abandoned. But first, there was something he wanted
to see. He made his way South, scrunching up his nose as he tries to see the
names of the rusted over street signs. It took him just under 15 minutes to
find it: the Library. Tommy’s sister had told him about it often in her bedtime
stories. Passed down from grandma, her stories all involved London as it’s
vibrant and beautiful self- full of intrigue and romance. He had almost
forgotten about it, until he found Joe Atkins, M.D.’s library card. The card
had an address on the back. The giant building loomed high in the sky, with modernistic
glass windows coating it like a shell. The windows were dirty and
non-functional, but none were broken and the building was a work of art. Tommy
couldn’t believe that this entire thing could ever have been filled with books.
More importantly, are the books still
here? He wondered.
It seemed to take an eternity for him to reach
the front door and pull it open. He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and
walked inside.
They were there:
every last one of them. Books on books on books. Each was old, yellow, and
faded. Tommy doubted that any had been touched in over a hundred years. Tommy
looked up at a plaque on the wall: “Library of London. Born: 1841- Died: 2476.
A shiver ran through Tommy. The library wasn’t dead. It was empty, it was
forgotten, but it couldn’t die. As long as one person read its books, it was
alive. And so Tommy pulled out a piece of paper from a desk nearby and a pencil
covered in dust I’m writing with a
hundred year old pencil. He thought excitedly. He wrote the word “present”
as neatly as he could on the paper, and then stuck it to the plaque with
hundred-year-old tape. It now read “Library of London. Born: 1841-Present.” He
smiled to himself for a second and then remembering the time, ran off.
Maggie, his older
sister, was furious at him for being late again. She gave him extra chores to
do, so that he didn’t have a chance to go back to the library for another three
days. He thought about it the entire time. After that he read every day. He put
all other expeditions on hold to read about anything and everything. He read
non-fiction and fiction, anything that looked interesting. He started to
understand all of the things his teacher could never tell him. He even
corrected her once or twice in class.
It was a Thursday
many months later when Tommy discovered that London had an occasional
population of not one, but two. He was absorbed with a book called Lillith when he heard it: a girl
singing. He fell out of his seat with a loud crash when he heard it, and
immediately the singing broke off. He
heard footsteps quietly making their way over, and he silently dashed behind a
bookcase. No one lives in London. He
thought. Who else was crazy enough to visit it but him? No one was supposed to
come to the city. It was ‘dangerous’ or so they said. Tommy couldn’t really
find anything wrong with it, but “keep out” means “Keep Out”, and if he got
caught, well then he couldn’t take the test. If he couldn’t take the test, he
couldn’t leave for paradise. He still didn’t know if he’d want to go, but he
didn’t want to stay here forever either. The footstep drew nearer and he poked
his head out to look. A girl stood there, his own height, with long red hair
pulled back in a sloppy bun. She was holding a book over her head like a
weapon. It looked like a good weapon too: The
Unabridged Oxford Dictionary of English. Tommy stepped out of his hiding
place. “Why, you’re just a little girl.” He announced. She jumped and whirled
around, almost hitting him with the book in the process. He leaned back out of
the way.
“You ought to know
better than to scare a girl like that.” She said, smiling. She dropped the book
on a table with a loud bang. “I was wondering who changed the sign. It was you,
right?” Tommy nodded. “That was quite clever. I liked it. I always hated the person
who put it up. Who gets so morbid about a library? Anyway what was your name?”
She asked absentmindedly, strolling over to a nearby shelf and scanning the
titles.
“Uh, I’m Tommy.”
He said, still a bit dumbfounded.
“Nice to meet you
Tommy. AHA! I’ve found it. Pride and
Prejudice By Jane Austen. This book really never gets old. Anyway, I’ve got
to go. See you around Tommy.” She smiled and bounded off. He stood staring
after her. He truly didn’t know what to think.
The next day Tommy
rushed back to the library yet again. He went fast as his little legs would
carry him, curious to see the girl again. But she wasn’t there. He came back
again and again, day after day, but for three weeks straight she didn’t show
her face.
Then, suddenly she
appeared one afternoon. Tommy had gone back to his usual studying, but wasn’t
so engrossed in his book that he failed to hear her enter this time. He rushed
down to the bottom floor to greet her.
“Oh, it’s you
again” She said as she appeared. “Do you come here everyday or something?”
“Yeah, I do. Why
don’t you?” He asked.
“The point of a
library isn’t to come to the books, it’s to bring them to you. I check out the
ones I want and bring them back when I’m done.” She said, matter-of-factly.
“My sister would
never let me bring books home without asking where they came from, and I’m not
really allowed to be here. Besides, this place is so magnificent, why wouldn’t
you want to spend all of your time here?” He said it confidently, but still
felt as though He was on the defensive. He took this moment to study the girl
whose name he did not know. She was prettier than he had thought last time they
met, or maybe she just looked better now that she wasn’t trying to kill him
with a big book. Her hair was a dark black, but when she stepped into the light
he could see undertones of blue and purple. He couldn’t imagine that they were
natural, but then again where would a 9 year old find hair dye now-a-days?
“I guess it’s a
good thing I haven’t got a sister then.” She remarked absently. “You must not
get out much. There are plenty of places more beautiful than this. I could show
you if you want.” She smiled a bit mischievously.
“What would you do
that for?”
“Because we’re
friends, you and me. From now on you’re my friend and I’m yours” She said.
“Yes?” She looked at him to agree.
“Okay, why not?”
He said, going along with her direct attitude. There was something amazing and
special about this girl. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight. Suddenly
she was on him like a lion, even baring her teeth viciously. What could he
possibly have done to make her angry now? He stared at her, wondering just what
kind of a girl she was. Scratch girl. What kind of a person was she? She was
absolutely insane.
“No, this isn’t a
‘why not’ type of commitment.” She hissed “If we’re going to be friends, that
makes us allies. You and me against the world, if it comes to it. You have to
have my back no matter what, and I’ll have yours.” He wriggled under her
surprisingly strong grasp.
“Care to let me
up?” He asked, narrowing his eyes. She loosened her grip and he slipped free.
“All right, you
and me allies against the world.” He spat in his hand and offered it out to
her. She nodded once in understanding, and then spat in her hand as well. They
shook on it.
She smiled now,
and he wondered what odd mood might take her next. It seemed to be
recklessness, but she might always change her mind. “Meet me back here tonight,
as soon as it’s dark. Bring a flashlight if you must, but don’t let anyone see
you.” She said. “I’ve got something to show you.” Tommy hesitated. He didn’t
even know this girls name! Raiders and monsters were supposed to inhabit the
ghost towns at night. Not to mention, Tommy decided, some actual ghosts too.
“I don’t know…” He
said. And before he could explain himself, she announced.
“You’ll come.” And
walked off to grab the next book on her mental list. “See you tonight.” She
called as she left. And Tommy knew that she would.
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