The Light Brigade - Chapter 3
He could go back home and forget all about this; he could go on with his normal life. Or, he could walk through the gate, and who knows what fresh craziness might await him.
This is an installment of my new serialized middle grade novel - The Light Brigade. When new kid in town Will finds himself in the midst of a sea of brainwashed middle schoolers, he has to join the Light Brigade, an unlikely group of heroes, to save them. Can he trust the Man Upstairs who guides them with fortune cookie directions? Will he find his place in the Brigade? Will he be able to stop the shadowy New Moon Group from forcing his classmates to collect acorns for a cartoon squirrel until they all collapse? Subscribed? Get caught up here.
The rest of the day passed in a tedious drone of tapping, every class filled with teachers and students absorbed in their phones, attempting compulsively to save their squirrels from starvation. Every passing period brought a fresh wave of creeps as his classmates moved in sync, as though they were very unimaginative robots. By dismissal time, Will had quite a headache, but at least he had been able to finish his book. He was ready to get out of there and find some answers.
When the final bell rang, though, everyone seemed to just snap out of it. Will was heading for the door when he realized that people around the room were slowing putting their phones down with confused looks on their faces. Those who kept playing had lost the penetrating stares they had worn before and were instead steadily becoming more and more bored as well as bemused, as though they couldn’t quite figure out why they were playing such an awful game.
Will hurried out into the hall, looking around for Sydney to see if she too had woken up. He found her by her locker, rubbing her eyes as she filled her backpack.
“Hey!” said Will, “Are you ok?”
“Sure, why wouldn’t I be?” asked Sydney.
Will hesitated. Did she not remember? “I just mean, you look kinda tired….”
“Oh, sure, just a long day at school. Plus I have this massive test to study for after my equestrian lessons.” For a moment, a confused look crossed Sydney’s face. “Yeah, that’s right, I’m just tired from all my work. I’d better get going. See you later!”
Will watched as Sydney disappeared into the crowded hallway. She was not ok, but for some reason she didn’t want to admit it, or didn’t realize it? At least she just seems like she’s tired. Once we solve the problem, she’ll be ok. I hope, Will thought.
He hurried to his locker to get his things before heading to Main Street to meet up with the Light Brigade. On the way, he hurriedly texted his parents to let them know where he would be. He decided not to mention the part about how the entire school turned into a bunch of zombie phone addicts – no need to worry them when he was fine.
A short walk later and he was on Main Street. He had been past this old Victorian house half a dozen times, but he hadn’t really given it much thought. It was quite beautiful with a stained glass front door, a tall turret on one corner, and lush old oaks and maples creating a canopy over the vast yard. The windows all had curved tops and many of them had flower boxes filled to bursting with late summer blooms. Looking now, Will also noticed that all the windows on the third floor had their blinds pulled down.
There was one aspect of the house that caught everyone’s attention – the yard care robots. Every day, rain or shine, half a dozen robots shaped like sea turtles would make their methodical way through the house’s grounds. In summer, they would munch the grass short; in winter, they apparently ate snow, instead. This time of year, the turtles were hard at work pulling crunchy leaves into their shells with their giant flippers.
Will paused for a moment at the gate. He could go back home and forget all about this; he could go on with his normal life. Or, he could walk through the gate, and who knows what fresh craziness might await him. Did he really want to choose this world? It sorta feels like this world has already chosen me, he thought as he lifted the latch and headed up the path.
As soon as Will reached the top of the stairs, what appeared to be a metallic blue sea urchin spread open its tentacles, revealing a red light. The light swept down Will’s body, leaving him feeling like he was being judged.
“Welcome to the Queen Anne, Will Sanders. Please make yourself at home,” came a calm female voice. The door swung open with a creak.
Will stepped inside, and his heart skipped a beat. He was in a tall entryway that looked like the glorious mashup of a greenhouse, a mad inventor’s lab, and your Uncle Stu’s fossil collection. Everywhere that Will looked was covered with the strange and bizarre but absolutely fascinating. Up in one corner, a spider-shaped robot was removing a real spider’s web. Ivy covered the banister of the staircase. There were shelves of rocks and fossils, old documents and grave rubbings. To top it all off, the entire ceiling was covered with a fish tank with little engineer gobies poking their heads out from rocks as neon tetras zoomed over their heads. Even through his now pounding headache, he couldn’t help but be amazed: this place was beyond anything he had ever imagined.
There were several pairs of shoes on a retro NASA rug, and jackets hung from jackalopes on the wall. Will decided to hold onto his things for now; he didn’t want to lose his stuff if he needed to leave in a hurry.
He wasn’t sure where to go, so he decided to try the hallway. One whole wall was covered with a long tapestry that seemed to depict the history of science; it was filled with atom models and diagrams of the Earth’s structure that looked like they had been embroidered by a medieval nun.
Will tried the first door that he came to on his right. He stepped into the turret room with its curved walls that rose three stories before being topped with a glass dome. Around the edge of the ceiling were dozens of types of hanging vines, some of which reached nearly to the floor.
The center of the room was dominated by a beautifully polished grand piano, but the real attractions of this room were the shelves. Built into the curve of the wall and interrupted only by windows, the shelves were laden with the most fantastical specimens: the skeleton of a two-headed turtle, a gyroscope that seemed to be in perpetual motion, a stuffed Tasmanian tiger, an old phonograph, an ichthyosaur fossil, a pyramid of coprolites, a metal ball that rolled randomly around on its shelf without falling like it had a mind of its own (Will wondered if that was the Betz sphere), and so, so much more. Will could have explored the room for hours, but he tore himself away. He needed to find someone in this house.
He went back out to the hallway and tried the next door. This one lead to the kitchen, although not like any kitchen he had ever seen before. Huge baskets of fruit and snacks hung from the ceiling, and gas station-sized coolers lined the wall, filled with drinks and ice cream. One wall was dominated by a fire place that in most houses would have been a decorative relic from the time before the house had electricity; this one had an actual, honest-to-goodness, real-life cauldron simmering over a crackling fire. Along another wall, the counter was dominated by a mad scientist’s dream chemistry set, complete with bubbling flasks and one beaker that was periodically emitting colored puffs of smoke.
“Will, you came!” Lily said as she set down the cookies she had just taken from the oven. Will jumped – the marvel of the room had made him miss the four people already in it.
“We were beginning to think that you weren’t coming.” She perched herself on a stool at the center island with the others. “This is Gabriella and Austin, and Tamara said that she already met you at lunch.” Lily gestured at a girl with dark, curly hair and laughing eyes wearing a Les Miserables t-shirt and a boy with dark hair just visible under his beanie. Gabriella gave a smile and a wave, but Austin just grunted while reaching for a a cookie. I’ll want to keep an eye on that one, Will thought.
Before they could go any further, a man walked in through the door at the other end of the room. He had fly-away gray hair that was only rivaled by his eyebrows. His shirt was a bright yellow plaid that clashed horribly with his green pants held up by red suspenders. He had a monocle in one eye and was inspecting something with a jeweler’s lens in the other. “I believe I have found a doubled die penny! Who wants to have a look?” he said, holding out the jeweler’s lens. Seeing Will, he gave a little jump. “Oh, I see Will has found us at last. I thought perhaps the house had eaten you.”
Will was really getting irritated at random people knowing who he was but decided he should probably just ignore it. “Sorry,” he said, “I did get a little lost. This place is really amazing. Is this your house?”
The man stuck his thumbs in his suspender straps. “Why yes it is! I’m Jedediah Phileas Turner, but people around here call me Mr. Turner.” Everything about him from his voice to his clothes was loud, and all of it grated on Will’s quickly fraying nerves and pounding headache. This house was intriguing and beautiful, but all this mystery was not his cup of tea.
“You’re the Man Upstairs?” Will asked.
“Oh no! I’m just his faithful servant,” replied Mr. Turner with a broad smile.
“Is he around? Can I meet him?”
“Of course not,” Mr. Turner said, the smile never wavering. He seemed so calm and assured.
“Why not?” Will demanded, his voice rising. This man is absolutely infuriating, he thought. Austin rolled his eyes and kept munching on his cookie.
Lily laid a hand on Will’s arm and said softly, “I really think you should have a cookie – I bet it will make you feel better.”
“I’m fine,” Will snapped, “I just want to know what is going on here!”
“Dude calm down,” said Austin, “None of us have met him. We can’t.”