The Island of Dr. Libris (10 page)

The other musketeers’ swords clinked, plinked, and clanked on the cobblestones. They all (except Billy and Walter) slumped to their knees, toppled forward, and fell fast asleep.

The Junior Wizard smiled, bowed, and disappeared.

“Wow,” said Billy. “That’s a pretty incredible card.”

“Yeah,” said Walter. “I am
so
glad I traded for it.”

“Any idea how long they’ll be asleep?”

“Don’t worry. It’s a level-four spell.”

Billy nodded as if he understood what that meant. “You know what I’m thinking?”

“Yeah,” said Walter. “Me too.”

“Let’s get out of here!”

Neither Billy nor Walter said anything for a very long time as they rowed back to the mainland.

And then Walter exploded.

“Okay—what was all that? The three musketeers, Hercules, Robin Hood, Maid Marian,
and
the Junior Wizard? Did I miss anybody?”

“D’Artagnan,” said Billy. “He was there, too.”

“Right. The
fourth
musketeer.”

“And yesterday Hercules was wrestling a rock man, Poseidon was swimming around the island, and Mother Earth talked to me through a sinkhole.”

“There was a rock man?”

“Yeah.”

“Billy?”

“Yeah?”

“This is ridiculous.”

“Tell me about it. But since we could both see and hear it once we were on the island, I think it’s real.”

“Wait a second. Could you see and hear stuff
before
we stepped under the dome?”

“If I am in Dr. Libris’s study, I can hear things. If I’m out on the back porch, I can see things, too. I thought it was all somehow coming from the books in Dr. Libris’s special bookcase.”

“But the Junior Wizard didn’t come from one of Dr. Libris’s special books. He came from my deck of Magical Battical cards.”

“I know. It doesn’t make sense.”

Billy kept working the oars. The boat kept sliding across the lake. The two boys kept quietly trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

“Wait a second,” said Walter. “Dr. Libris is a professor, right?”

Billy nodded. “At the college where my mom works. It’s how come we were able to rent his cabin. Of course, we had to go to his office to meet him first. Actually, my mom is the only one who
met
Dr. Libris. I just had to take a test.”

“A college test?”

“It was just a bunch of ink blots. To keep me busy while Mom talked to Dr. Libris, they showed me these black blobs and I had to write down what I saw. One sort of reminded me of a dinosaur juggling spaghetti. Another one I said was a bunny rabbit playing linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

“But why did Dr. Libris give you a test?”

“I think he was really testing to see if I would chuck the ink blots and start messing up his waiting room. He probably wanted to see if I was the kind of kid who’d trash his cabin if he rented it to my mom. So, since the camera was watching, I played along. Wrote up descriptions for a dozen different squiggles.”

“There was a camera?”

“Yup. Dr. Libris loves security cameras. Has them all over his cabin, too.”

“Well,
maybe
,” said Walter, “Dr. Libris is doing some kind of research project for the college’s English department to encourage kids to read. So he uses all those cameras in the cabin to see what book you’re reading, and then someone tells the actors out on the island what costumes they need to put on to make the story come to life for you.”

“But the Junior Wizard showed up like two seconds after you read his card. And don’t forget: Yesterday, I was ten feet away from a monster made out of mud and rocks. They’re not actors, Walter. I thought the same thing at first. Now I think it’s like that Escher print hanging on the wall in Dr. Libris’s cabin, the one with the sideways staircases. It seems impossible, it looks impossible, and it probably should be impossible, but somehow it just isn’t.”

Walter and Billy thought about that for a few minutes
as they drifted across the lake. The sun was starting to set.

“I guess it could be a parallel universe,” mumbled Billy.

Walter nodded. “I’ve heard about those.”

“My mom’s writing her dissertation about ’em. She told me that in a parallel universe, things turn out differently than they do here. Animals that are extinct in our world might still be alive in a parallel world.”

“Like dinosaurs?”

“It’s possible.”

“Awesome. Tell your mom I can’t wait to read her dissertation. Especially the part about the dinosaurs.”

“Will do,” said Billy as he tugged on the oars.

“I have another idea, too,” said Walter.

“What?”

“This is all a dream and we’re both asleep right now.”

That made Billy laugh.

“So,” said Walter, “do you want to go home and pretend none of this ever happened?”

“Really?”

“It’s an option. I’m just putting it out there.”

Billy looked at Walter with a mischievous grin. “Quit now? And pass up a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go on adventures with the greatest characters of all time?”

“Well, when you say it like that …”

Billy decided it was time to let Walter in on his other big secret.

“Besides, we may need their help,” he said cryptically.

“Help? For what?”

Billy showed Walter the crinkled message from the bobbing green bottle.

On this island, you shall find great treasure.

“Okay,” said Walter as he dragged a shovel into Billy’s yard the next morning. “I figured it out.”

“You did?” said Billy.

“Yuh-huh. It’s a black hole.”

“Like in space?”

“Exactly. Only this is the first one ever discovered on the planet Earth.”

“I don’t know, Walter.”

“Think about it, Billy. Black holes are portals to parallel universes like in your mom’s dissertation. Plus, a parallel universe would be the perfect place to hide treasure, because no one could find it unless they found your black hole first.”

“But black holes have so much gravity, nothing, not even light, can escape. We wouldn’t be able to go in and come out the same way.”

“Oh,” said Walter. “Right. Forgot about that. Guess I’m not very good at astronomy, either. Okay, skip the black hole. Let’s go find that treasure.”

Billy grinned. “Come inside. I think I found us the perfect treasure-hunting partner.”

Billy led Walter into Dr. Libris’s study.

“Hey, Billy, you ever notice that the ceiling tiles in here are made out of metal?”

“Yeah. Tin. The same kind are on the ceiling over the back porch, too.”

“My dad says tin is a good conductor of electricity,” said Walter.

“Huh,” said Billy. “And have you noticed—there’s a satellite dish in the backyard but no TV in the cabin?”

“So
maybe
 … the tin ceiling picks up your electronic brain signals when you read a book and transmits them to the satellite dish, which beams them up to space, where they hit a satellite with a bunch of digital movie projectors that send holographic images down to the island or directly to the underwater cable my dad’s construction crew ran out there a couple years ago.”

“Whoa,” said Billy. “Wait a second. They ran a cable out to the island?”

“Yuh-huh. They spooled it off the back of a big boat. My dad said it was for the bird sanctuary’s telecommunications and Internet system. I asked him if birds use landline
phones and Web browsers. He told me that information was classified.”

Billy thought about his encounter with Poseidon. Walter’s underwater cable might explain that.

“Uh-oh,” said Walter, studying the books lined up in the case. “Stay away from that one.” He was pointing at
The Time Machine
by H. G. Wells. “We have enough weirdness already. You definitely don’t want to mess with the space-time continuum, too.”

“Good point.”

“You should pick
Treasure Island.
Get it? Island? Treasure?
Treasure Island!
”

“I had the same idea,” said Billy. “But there’s no
Treasure Island
on any of the shelves.”

“No
Treasure Island
?” Walter sounded bummed.

“Nope. So I started thinking about other books with treasure or treasure hunters in them.”

Walter snapped his fingers. “
National Treasure Two: Book of Secrets
!
Raiders of the Lost Ark
!”

“Those are movies, Walter.”

“Weren’t they books first?”

“Nope. Sorry.” Billy opened up the bookcase and took out a midnight-blue clothbound edition of
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain. “But Tom Sawyer goes treasure hunting all the time. He’s an expert. He can tell us where to start digging.”

“So we don’t waste a lot of time digging random holes like in that other book!”

“Holes,”
said Billy.

“Yeah. That one.”

Billy sat down in the comfy chair, flipped open
Tom Sawyer
, and started reading.

In the distance, Billy heard a clock tolling ten times.

“Did you hear that?” he asked Walter in an anxious whisper.

“Nope.”

Same as the day before. Billy heard stuff in the study; Walter didn’t.

“Okay,” he said. “Here come the meows.”

“Is there a cat in the book?” asked Walter.

“Nope. It’s Tom Sawyer calling out to his friends because he’s ready to go treasure hunting. And you know what? So am I!”

Billy ran out the door first.

“I’m right behind you!” cried Walter.

Billy manned the oars, and fifteen minutes later they reached the island.

Walter tied off their docking line with another messy shambles of a knot. Then the two boys toted their shovels up the mulched path, ready to strike it rich.

“Let’s hope all those characters from yesterday are still asleep,” said Walter.

“Well, you said it was a level-four spell. That ought to keep them conked out. Right?”

Walter nodded. “Definitely. I think.”

Billy held open the dome flap so Walter could step in ahead of him.

“Walter?” said Billy.

“Yeah?”

Billy pointed at Walter’s butt. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“The rectangle jammed down the back of your pants.”

“Oh,” said Walter nervously. “Nothing. I just grabbed some fresh reading material.”

“What?”

“It’s a book from the bookcase.”

Billy was confused. “But I brought
Tom Sawyer.
”

“I know,” said Walter. “But seeing the Junior Wizard come to life was so cool I wanted to try it again.”

“But …”

“Don’t worry, Billy. I picked something totally safe.” Walter pulled out the book and showed it to Billy. “It’s called
Pollyanna: The Glad Book.
Judging from her picture, I don’t think this Pollyanna girl will be armed or dangerous like all those people yesterday.”

On the cover of the new book, Billy saw a happy girl in a straw hat and pigtails toting a basket of flowers.