Louis in the Land of Tetra Read online

  “Louis must have some sort of powers or something,” said one of the kids.

  “Yeah, maybe he isn’t human. . .” said another.

  The children started to draw back.

  “How did you do that?” asked the bewildered bully.

  The crowd parted and a familiar figure walked through.

  “Okay, what’s going on here? Break it up,” said Mr. Rodgers, the teacher in charge of yard duty.

  “We weren’t doing anything, Mr. Rodgers. We were just talking.”

  “You don’t lie very well, Gus. I saw the fight from across the yard. Louis, are you all right?”

  “Yes Sir. Nothing happened. I’m okay.”

  “I want everyone to go back to lunch and forget about this. If I catch either one of you fighting again, I’ll send the both of you to the principal’s office for detention. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, Mr. Rodgers.”

  “Yes Sir,” said Gus.

  But Gus wasn’t about to leave things alone. As soon as Mr. Rodgers was far away enough, Gus reached over, grabbed Louis’s sweater and threw it into a garbage can nearby.

  “There, that will teach you not to mess with me again,” he said as he stomped away.

  Louis was amazed that he had come out of the incident without a scratch. He didn’t understand why.

  “Must be my lucky day,” he said to no one in particular.

  Louis went to retrieve his sweater from the trash can. As he approached the can, it began to shake and rattle. He lifted the cover and a sudden flash of light went off inside. Puzzled, Louis reached in for his sweater. He was about to grab it when the sweater suddenly disappeared right before his eyes.

  He jumped back in surprise. “What the. . .!” Louis said in amazement. “I don’t believe it! What’s going on? Where did it go?”

  He reached in again.

  “It’s got to be down there somewhere!”

  He was about to climb into the can when the school bell signaled the end of lunch period. The children assembled in the yard, ready to go back to their classes.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” shouted Mr. Rodgers as he walked toward Louis.

  “I lost something in there, Mr. Rodgers.”

  Mr. Rodgers peeked inside. “The can is empty. I don’t know what you were thinking, but it’s filthy in there. Come on. You have to go to class now.”

  Louis would have to investigate after school.

  “I promised to take care of that sweater and I’ll get it back no matter what it takes,” Louis thought to himself.

  This typical day was turning into the most untypical day for Louis. He would later learn that it would be a day he would never forget.

  CHAPTER 2

  AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH

  Louis returned from lunch and found it even more difficult than usual to pay attention in class. So many strange things were happening. What was going on?

  What was that flash of light in the garbage can? What happened to his sweater? Why wasn’t he hurt when Gus attacked him? Did the sweater really disappear or was it just his imagination? There were so many questions and a total lack of answers. He was deep in thought when he suddenly heard Mrs. Applebee’s voice break through to his consciousness.

  “Louis, did you hear what I asked you?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I said, what is the largest planet in this solar system?” Mrs. Applebee said, quite annoyed the second time.

  “Oh, that would be Jupiter, Mrs. Applebee. Saturn would be considered bigger if you included the rings, but if you are just talking about the circumference of the planet surface, it would definitely be Jupiter.”

  With the correct answer given, Louis returned to more important issues at hand, namely his missing sweater.

  “Thank you, Louis. I thought you were daydreaming again.”

  “What? Did you say something to me, Mrs. Applebee?”

  The class broke out in laughter.

  Mrs. Applebee did not appreciate the commotion. She insisted on order in her class, and anything or anyone disturbing this order required instant correction.

  “That will be enough!” Mrs. Applebee commanded. “I think that Louis needs to stay after school to learn what it means to pay attention in class.”

  The rest of the boys and girls giggled and made faces at Louis because he was in trouble again. Everyone thought it was funny except for one person.

  “Louis, I know you weren’t being bad. I guess you had more important things to think about, didn’t you?” whispered Crystal from the seat behind him.

  “Yes, I was. But I guess I should have been paying attention in class,” he whispered back sadly. “I hope she doesn’t send me home with a note to my parents.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you after school. In fact, I’ll go buy an ice cream to help you feel better too,” she said.

  “Thanks, Crystal, but I don’t think I’ll be in any mood for ice cream afterwards.”

  “I’ll still wait for you. That’s what best friends do, right?” she smiled.

  “Right!” he said, encouraged by her words.

  #

  Louis first met Crystal Overstreet three years ago when she and her family moved to Marystown from Tennessee. The Overstreet’s new home was located next to Louis’s house.

  He remembered that day very clearly. . .

  “Come on Louis, let’s go visit the new neighbors. Dan, you come along too!” Louis’s mother urged.

  “But I’m right in the middle of watching a football game on TV. It’s the playoffs and I don’t want to miss any of it,” his father pleaded.

  “You can miss a few minutes. We’ll be back in no time. Don’t you want to be a good neighbor, Dan?”

  “No.”

  “Well, you’re coming along anyway,” she said as she walked over and turned off the television set.

  He resigned himself to his fate and said, “You know, I think I’ll go over to say hello to the new neighbors.”

  “Now, why didn’t I think of that?” she laughed.

  As it turned out, the Lees and the Overstreets became best friends with each another.

  Crystal’s dad was also a football fanatic and the two dads would often go out to ball games as often as they could without getting their wives upset at them.

  “Hey, Dan, you up for a game this Saturday?” Crystal’s father would usually ask.

  “No George. We went out last weekend. My wife will kill me if I sneak off again.”

  “Wimp!”

  “Oh yeah? Then why don’t you go by yourself, tough guy?”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “My wife will kill me.”

  The fathers were also both good at building and fixing things. They constantly visited each other’s garage to borrow tools. It got to the point where there were so many tools passing back and forth between them, they couldn’t tell who owned what. They decided that it was easier to just forget about returning anything.

  Louis’s mom, Laura, became a close friend of Crystal’s mom, Jennifer, because they both loved to knit. The two of them would show off their latest knitted creations and admire each other’s skill.

  “Laura, your husband, Dan, must have enough sweaters to last a lifetime!”

  “I guess I can’t stop myself from knitting. Maybe I need to see a doctor about this, Jennifer. I think I’m addicted,” Louis’s mother joked.

  “Well, if you go, I need to go too. I think I’ve knitted George at least ten or fifteen scarves.”

  “You did? I think you need more help than I do!” she laughed.

  Louis’s first encounter with Crystal was a memorable one. She was crying that day.

  Crystal’s room wasn’t filled with the typical stuffed animals like most girls her age, but was crammed, instead, with live animals and critters.

  Her table, desk, bookcases, and shelves were adorned with every imaginable type of fish tank, terrarium, shoe box, glass jar, and
plastic container. Within each container were small creatures and insects in a wide variety of sizes, colors, and shapes.

  Of course, having such a large collection of creatures had its pitfalls. One of them was the problem of escapees.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” Louis asked as he walked into her room.

  “One of my fire-bellied toads escaped from my terrarium. If I don’t find him soon, he’s going to dry up and die!”

  “Your toad will probably look for a safe place to hide. Let’s start by looking under your bed and behind your desk, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said sniffling.

  They searched thoroughly but still couldn’t find the missing toad anywhere. Crystal sat on her bed and felt terrible. She loved her pets so much that the idea of any of them dying was unbearable.

  She was very thirsty from searching all over her room. Crystal poured herself a glass of water from the pitcher sitting next to the terrarium. The water tasted cool and refreshing.

  “Hey! Look at that!” shouted Louis.

  “Look at what?”

  “Look inside the pitcher of water.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s your toad! He must have hopped in. You just drank from the water he was swimming in!”

  “Yuck! I need to do something right away!” she said.

  “What?”

  “Brush my teeth and gargle for a few hours!”

  They laughed so loud that her parents came in to see what was going on. Crystal explained what happened and they started to laugh too.

  “Hey, let’s all go to the kitchen and eat some ice cream and celebrate your toad’s return,” said Crystal’s mom.

  They sat at a big kitchen table with huge dishes of chocolate ice cream. Crystal leaned over to Louis and said, “Thanks for not laughing at me.”

  “Why would I do that? You lost your toad and you needed help.”

  “Not everyone understands why I get so emotional with my pets. I really love them a lot. Some of my friends think I’m a little strange,” Crystal said in earnest.

  “You’re not strange. You just happen to like animals.”

  She was slightly taken aback by his comment. Besides her parents, Louis was the only person she could think of who didn’t criticize her hobby. Most of her “friends” thought it was more normal to collect stuffed animals.

  Crystal was impressed by Louis’s open-mindedness and understanding.

  “Hey, can I ask you something, Louis?”

  “Sure. What?”

  “I was thinking, you’d make a pretty good friend. What do you think about us being good buddies?”

  “Sure, why not? A girl who likes toads can’t be all bad,” he smiled.

  “And a boy who will be friends with a girl can’t be all bad either,” she giggled back.

  On that day, a very deep and unique friendship was formed between a boy who loved to read and gaze at the sky and a girl who loved small creatures and animals.

  It was a friendship that was most loyal and pure.

  #

  Louis stayed after school and wrote a five hundred word composition on the reasons why he should pay attention in class. Mrs. Applebee decided that this would be an appropriate punishment for Louis, daydreaming during school time.

  This made no sense to Louis at all. Why did teachers use writing as punishment? Weren’t they trying to teach students to enjoy it? It just wasn’t logical. If anything, it taught kids to hate writing instead. Louis made up his mind that if he ever chose to become a teacher, he would never punish kids that way. He had to laugh at the dumbness of it all.

  The detention hour after school dragged by slowly. Each minute felt like ten, and every ten felt like an hour.

  Louis felt isolated, alone and totally punished.

  “Mrs. Applebee, I’ve finished my composition,” Louis said.

  His teacher read it quickly and seemed to be quite impressed with it.

  “What do you have to say for yourself, Louis?”

  “I’ll try to pay closer attention in class from now on. I’m sorry.”

  “Louis, you must understand that daydreaming in class is not an acceptable behavior. I was prepared to send you home with a note to your parents, but I have decided to be lenient and give you another opportunity. You are a bright individual, Louis, although your actions sometimes contradict my observations. I expect you to improve your concentration in class from now on,” she said.

  “I’m sorry. I promise to try harder.”

  “In that case, you are dismissed. I will see you tomorrow.”

  Louis gathered his books and rushed outside to the schoolyard. He wanted to find out what had happened to his sweater. He located the garbage can where Gus threw it in, opened the lid and looked inside. It was empty.

  He recalled that a bright light flashed just before his sweater disappeared. Did the light have anything to do with what happened?

  He stared into the garbage can intently, trying to come up with a plausible explanation to what he witnessed earlier.

  Maybe I just imagined what I saw, he thought.

  “Hey, Louis. What are you doing?”

  “Hi, Crystal. I’m not doing anything.”

  “You can’t fool me. I’m your best friend and I know when something is going on with you. What’s so interesting about that garbage can?”

  Louis hesitated in telling her but realized she was probably the only one he could confide in without being thought of as crazy.

  “If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone. This is very strange and I’m not even sure if it really happened. So, do you promise?”

  “I promise,” Crystal said excitedly.

  He described everything in detail to her. Her response was not one of derision. She offered a helpful suggestion.

  “If you think it had something to do with the flash of light, why don’t we throw something else in and see what happens?” Crystal said.

  “That’s what I was planning to do before you came along. How about I throw in my lunch bag?”

  “That’s a good idea. You didn’t finish your lunch anyway, and who wants to eat an old sandwich? Yuck.”

  Crystal lifted the lid and Louis threw the pack in.

  Within a few seconds, the can started to rattle and shake.

  “Wow, that’s exactly what happened before my sweater disappeared,” said Louis.

  They watched in amazement. Louis approached the can and reached in for the sandwich. Another flash of light appeared and his lunch vanished.

  “What happened? What happened?” Crystal screamed.

  “Take a look inside and you’ll see,” he said.

  “It’s gone! Where did it go?”

  “I don’t know. This is getting weirder by the minute.”

  “What are you going to do now?” asked Crystal.

  “I’m going to jump inside the garbage can and find out where everything went!”

  “You can’t do that! What happens if you jump in and can’t come back or, even worse, get hurt? It’s too dangerous. Please don’t do it!”

  “I guess you’re right. But I have to find out what happened! I have an idea that’s maybe safer. I’m going home to get some things. You wait in the school library and meet me back out here in about half an hour, okay?”

  “You can count on it,” Crystal replied.

  He ran home as if his life depended on it. His heart pounded with so much adrenalin, he thought it would literally jump out of his chest and run along side him.

  He had a plan that could quite possibly put him in danger. But considering the excitement of launching an adventure into the unknown, the risk was more than worth it. This was something he had wished for, for a long time.

  An old proverb says people should be careful of what they wish for because they might get it. In Louis’s case, this would prove to be more accurate than he could ever have imagined.

  CHAPTER 3

  THE SPECTACULAR STRATEGY

  Louis ra
n the entire eight blocks home in record time. He rushed up the stairs, unlocked the front door and zipped up to his room.

  “Louis, is that you?” his mother called out from the living room.

  “Yes, Mom. It’s me.”

  “Honey, can you come downstairs please? I really need your help.”

  “But Mom,” he pleaded. “I’m really busy and have to do something very important!”

  “Louis, whatever it is, it can’t be more important than this. Please come downstairs now.”

  Louis could tell from her tone of voice that she was very concerned about something. Louis’s Mom was naturally cheerful, but not this time.

  He wanted, needed, to leave and go back to the schoolyard, but he had to make sure his mom was all right first.

  “I’ll be right down, Mom.”

  Louis grabbed a paper bag and hopped down the stairs, three at a time. He saw his mother on her knees, looking under the sofa with a flashlight.

  “Mom, what are you doing down there?”

  “I’ve been searching for my favorite ring. I can’t find it anywhere! I’ve been looking all day for it. That ring is very special because Grandma gave it to me when I was a little girl. I’ll feel terrible if I’ve lost it!”

  “What does it look like?”

  “You remember. It’s the ruby ring with two hearts. It’s actually one ruby, but it has the shape of two hearts, one right next to the other. The ring has always been a little bit big for me and it must have fallen off. I probably didn’t even notice it slipping off my finger.”

  “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m sure it’s around here somewhere.” Louis began looking under the tables, the chairs, and behind the television set. He looked under the carpet and behind the bookshelves.

  He tried to think like a ring. “Where would I be if I fell off?”

  They spent a good thirty minutes searching together but it was apparent they weren’t going to find it, at least not today.

  “Thanks for looking, Louis. I guess it must have disappeared through a crack or something because I can’t find it anywhere,” she said sadly.

  Louis suddenly remembered that he had to go and meet Crystal.

  “Mom, I’ve got to go back to school to do something. I’ll be right back.”