Louis in the Land of Tetra Read online

  “Okay, but don’t stay too long.”

  “Okay, Mom. By the way, do you know if we have any rope around the house?”

  “Rope? What kind of rope?” his mother asked.

  “You know, the kind of rope like we use for drying our clothes outside.”

  “You mean a clothesline? I think we have one in the garage. Why do you need it?”

  “I lost something too and I need the rope to get it back.”

  His mother was about to ask what he lost, but before she could get the words out, Louis was already out the door and rummaging in the garage.

  Behind a large stack of old newspapers and comic books, he found an old clothesline. The rope was dusty and dirty, but it wasn’t torn or broken.

  “Yeah! This is just what I was looking for!”

  He glanced up at the clock on the wall and saw it was almost 4:30 PM. He ran out of the garage and back to school. He was late but hoped Crystal was still waiting for him.

  #

  He made it back to school in less than five minutes. He ran past the gate and into the schoolyard. Crystal was nowhere to be seen.

  “Oh, no. I came back too late. Now my plan won’t work!”

  He started to leave the school grounds but stopped when he heard a voice yell, “Wait up! Louis, wait up!” He turned around and saw Crystal running toward him.

  “Hey, I thought you already left. Where were you?”

  “Well, I didn’t see you in the yard, so I figured that you were late. I went to get some ice cream. I’ve got strawberry and this one is for you — your favorite, orange sherbet. I told you I’d buy you some ice cream to help you feel better, remember?” she smiled.

  “Thanks, Crystal. I forgot all about it. How much was the ice cream?”

  “My treat. You can buy me an ice cream next time.”

  Louis always admired her generosity and caring attitude toward others. She never thought twice about helping someone in trouble. He felt very lucky to have such a good friend like Crystal.

  They were both enjoying their ice cream when Gus walked up to them and said, “What do you two think you’re doing?”

  “We’re eating our ice cream. What are you doing here so late after school?” Crystal asked him.

  “I got sent to the principal’s office for detention. A teacher saw me hitting one of the fourth graders during recess. The principal made me write an essay about why it isn’t nice to hit people. I have to get this note signed by my parents. I’m in really big trouble now.”

  “Why are you so mean to everyone, Gus? Why do you always have to pick on the kids at school?” Louis asked. He wasn’t afraid of Gus and didn’t hesitate to confront him with the question.

  In an extremely rare instance of honest reflection, Gus replied, “Well, I guess I feel important when I pick or bully someone. I feel powerful and strong when I do it.”

  “But don’t you feel bad about that? Don’t you feel bad that you make others feel bad?” Crystal continued.

  “I guess I used to, but the more I did it, the less I felt bad about it. Anyway, why are you asking so many questions? Maybe I should hit you for being so nosy,” he snarled at Crystal.

  Louis quickly stood between the two of them and said menacingly, “Not while I’m here! I don’t like to fight, but I’m not going to stand here and let you beat up my friend.”

  Gus remembered what happened earlier that day in the schoolyard with Louis. In an odd twist of circumstances, it was Gus who was now afraid.

  “Hey, wait a minute. I wasn’t really going to hit her. I was just joking. Well, since I’ve got you here, I want to ask you a question,” he changed the subject quickly.

  “What happened today? When I hit you, it felt like I was hitting a brick wall. I was lucky that I didn’t break any bones. How did you do that?”

  Louis didn’t know the answer but took the occasion to have some fun with Gus by making up a story.

  “Oh, that,” Louis grinned. “Didn’t you know that my magic sweater protected me? It’s a good thing that you stopped because you would have been turned into a frog.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Gus asked nervously.

  “Do I look like I’m kidding?”

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think I’ll be hitting you anymore,” Gus said cautiously.

  “I have a question for you too. What did you do with my sweater after the fight today?” Louis asked.

  “What are you talking about? You saw what I did. I threw it into the garbage can. I guess that was a pretty bad thing to do. Sorry if it got dirty.”

  “It’s gone now.”

  “Gone?”

  “Yes. Gone.”

  “You think I stole your sweater?”

  “All I know is it vanished when I reached for it. Maybe you’re playing a trick on me?”

  “Do I look like a magician to you? I don’t know what happened. If your sweater is missing, I don’t know anything about it. I may be a bully and a lot of other mean things, but one thing is for sure — I never steal from other people.”

  Gus looked hurt at the accusation brought against him. This surprised Louis and Crystal. Here was a side of Gus they never saw before.

  Gus turned gruffly on his heel and stomped off.

  “Well, at least we know that it wasn’t Gus. But if Gus didn’t do it, then it means the sweater really did disappear!” Louis said.

  “Maybe someone else is tricking you. Sweaters just don’t evaporate all by themselves,” Crystal said logically.

  “Maybe not, but I know what I saw.”

  “But what are you planning to do now?” she asked.

  Louis reached into the paper bag he brought along.

  “See this rope? I’m going to tie one end around my waist while you hold on to the other end, okay?”

  “Why do you want me to do that? Are we going to play tug-of-war?” she asked playfully.

  “No. What I am going to do is to jump down into that garbage can to see where my sweater went. You hold on to the other end of the rope and, if you feel me yanking on it, you pull me out as quickly as you can.”

  “What? You can’t be serious about this! You don’t even know where you will end up!” Crystal almost screamed.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going in all at once. I’ll put my feet and legs in first. If everything is okay, I’ll go in a little deeper.”

  “Well, I guess that will be okay. But you have to come out as soon as you think anything dangerous is happening. Promise me!” she said.

  “I promise and don’t worry.”

  Crystal tied the other end of the rope to her waist. Louis stepped up on the bench. The garbage can started to shake and rattle like before. He slowly lowered himself in. When his feet reached the bottom of the can, they went right through as though the floor wasn’t there.

  He was so shocked he immediately pulled his feet back up.

  “What happened?” Crystal shouted.

  “My feet went right through the bottom of the can!” he said in shock.

  “I don’t like this,” Crystal said to him. “I don’t think you should do that again.”

  “Maybe you’re right. I have another idea, though. It’s getting late. Let’s meet here tomorrow after school, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  They left the schoolyard and didn’t notice Gus hiding behind a tree. He had been watching them the whole time.

  “I wonder what those two are up to?” he wondered. He decided that he would keep an eye on them tomorrow.

  “This is getting interesting,” he said to himself.

  #

  The next day of school was the longest one Louis ever experienced. Louis intently watched the hands of the clock throughout the day, but they seemed to move in slow motion. All he wanted to do was get out of school and investigate the odd disappearance of his sweater.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the school day finally came to an end. Louis and Crystal darted out of the classroom.


  “Say, do you have an alarm clock I could borrow?” asked Louis.

  “Sure. I have two in my room. I can go home and bring one of them.”

  “Great. I need to get some things from home too. I’ll see you back here in half an hour.”

  Louis and Crystal met promptly back in the schoolyard. He was carrying a shopping bag with him.

  “Did you bring the alarm clock?”

  “Here it is. It has a pretty loud alarm.”

  “That will be perfect.”

  “What’s in the bag, Louis?”

  “Some rope, some tape, and some of my special friends,” he said.

  “Special friends?”

  He reached in the bag and pulled out a jar full of water.

  “Look inside the jar, Crystal.”

  She peered inside and saw five small fish swimming back and forth.

  “What are they?”

  “They’re neon tetras. I’m going to use them in my experiment.”

  She wondered what Louis could possibly want with an alarm clock and a jar of fish.

  They walked over to the garbage can. Louis took the clock and set the alarm. He tied the alarm clock and the jar of fish to the rope.

  “This alarm clock will go off in about five minutes. What I’m going to do is lower the clock and the fish deep into the can. After the alarm goes off, I’ll pull the rope back up.”

  “Why do you want to do that?” she asked.

  “We’ll be able to find out two things. The first thing is whether or not we can hear the alarm clock ring from wherever it goes. The second thing we’ll find out is whether my fish will still be okay when I pull them back out. If they look okay, I’ll take my turn next and jump in.”

  “But even if it looks safe, aren’t you afraid? We still don’t know what will happen if you jump in. I’m worried about all of this,” she said.

  “I’ll be okay. I’m not planning to stay down there too long. I just want to see if I can go through the bottom like yesterday. I’ll just take a quick look around to see what’s down there. If I see my sweater, I’ll bring it back up.”

  Louis lowered the end of the rope slowly. As the items approached the bottom, the can began to shake like before. There was a flash of light and the end of the rope disappeared.

  “Look at that! We still have this end of the rope but the other end of it is gone!” Louis said excitedly.

  “What happened to the clock and fish?” Crystal asked.

  “I don’t know, but now we wait for the alarm clock to go off.”

  They waited impatiently.

  “Hey, it’s been way over five minutes now. I didn’t hear it go off, did you?”

  “No. I didn’t hear it either. You said that alarm clock was loud, right?”

  “It’s real loud. That’s why I don’t use it anymore. It was so loud it would scare me out of bed.”

  Crystal realized what Louis was trying to learn by his experiment and said, “If you go down there and disappear, I won’t be able to hear you from wherever you are.”

  “Pretty good guess, Crystal.”

  “That wasn’t a guess. I’m just naturally smart.”

  They pulled the rope out and were relieved to see everything undamaged and still intact.

  They inspected the alarm clock first.

  “Well, it’s still ticking,” Louis said.

  He reset the alarm to see if it sounded.

  “Buzz, buzz, buzz!”

  “You weren’t kidding about the alarm. It hurts my ears.”

  “I told you it was loud. But there’s something different about that clock now,” Crystal said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know, but something is different about it than before.”

  Louis looked at the clock closely but didn’t find anything unusual. “Let’s see, it’s the same size, shape, and color, so nothing has changed there.”

  “Hey, wait a minute. What time is it, Crystal?”

  Crystal showed him her wristwatch.

  “That’s it! Look at the time on your watch and compare it to the alarm clock’s time.”

  The clock had the same time as when they lowered it fifteen minutes before.

  “Well, we’ve found out one thing — time isn’t the same down there.”

  Louis inspected his pet fish. They appeared alive and healthy. . .almost too healthy.

  “Don’t they look different to you, Crystal?”

  “Not that I can tell. Let’s see, you had five fish in the jar. Let me count them. One, two, three, four, five. They’re all there.”

  “Wait, I know what’s different about them now. Look at them more closely.”

  “I still don’t see anything.”

  “The fish are just slightly bigger than they were before we lowered them down.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I look at my fish everyday. I named all of them and can tell each one apart. Believe me, they are definitely bigger!”

  Crystal immediately knew what was on Louis’s mind and said, “Louis, do you think what happened to your fish will happen to you too?”

  “I don’t know. But there’s one way to find out. I’m going in!”

  Louis was her best friend and she didn’t want him to do anything that would put him in danger. She decided it was too hazardous for him to attempt.

  “Please don’t go in,” she pleaded. “You don’t really know what will happen down there. Why don’t we just forget this and go home?”

  “Hey, don’t worry, Crystal. I’m going to tie this rope around my waist. You’ll be holding onto the other end. You can pull me out if I run into any trouble. I won’t be down there for more than a few seconds. We’ve come this far already. We can’t turn back now. My fish came back safe and sound and so will I. Besides, I’ve got to get my sweater.”

  In spite of Louis’s assurances, Crystal was still deeply concerned about his safety. If she could just keep an eye on him, it would take all the worry out of the equation. After some thought, she came up with the perfect solution.

  “I have an idea. Let’s both go in together! That way, I’ll be able to make sure you are okay.”

  “But we can’t do that. Who will be left here to pull us out?”

  “That’s easy. No one will pull us out. We’ll pull ourselves out. All we have to do is tie one end of the rope to the handle of this garbage can. We both climb down and, when we are ready, all we have to do is climb back up!”

  “But what if it doesn’t work? We’ll be stuck on the other end and we won’t be able to come back!” he said.

  “As long as the rope is tied to the garbage can, we’ll be fine,” she said with confidence.

  Louis thought this over and concluded having Crystal along would be better than going alone. After all, she was his best friend and best friends always do things together.

  “Okay, let’s go!” he said with renewed enthusiasm.

  Louis untied the alarm clock and jar from the rope and hid them behind the trash can. He tied one end of the rope really tight around one of the handles of the can and, with the other loose end, he tied both his and Crystal’s wrist together.

  “Are you ready?” he said.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be!”

  They went down the trash can and into deep darkness. The bottom of the can seemed to melt away as they continued down through the floor. The container began to shake and rattle.

  There was a bright flash of light and they were gone.

  CHAPTER 4

  A QUESTIONABLE QUANDARY

  Louis and Crystal tumbled wildly to the ground, but it wasn’t the familiar schoolyard they found themselves in. They were sprawled out on the thickest grass they had ever seen. But, there was something very different about this grass. The color of it was a very intense orange.

  “What kind of grass is this?”

  “I don’t know but I have a feeling we’re not in Marystown anymore,” said Louis.

  They looked up a
nd saw bright green and blue stars blinking in a crimson-colored sky. The clouds were purple. Something else was very strange. High above their heads, a large black hole floated. There was something familiar about the object. Upon closer examination, they saw a rope dangling from the hole.

  “Look! That’s the rope we climbed down from! Our wrists are still tied and connected to it. That sure is a relief. That means we can climb back up and get out of here,” Louis said.

  “That hole must be where we dropped through. But this doesn’t make sense. It’s just a flat black hole hanging in the air,” Crystal said puzzled. “What happened to the garbage can?”

  “I don’t have the answer to that question, but one thing I do know, this place sure is pretty.”

  They decided to do a little exploring before going back up the rope. It was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and they didn’t want to miss it. They had no idea where they were, but they wanted to see more of it before they leave.

  “I can’t believe how fantastic it is here. Everything is so colorful and bright. It’s the most gorgeous place ever!” Crystal said with enthusiasm.

  Surrounding them were gently sloping hills and unusual colored trees in shades of purple, blue, and yellow. Some trees were marked with patterns of stripes and triangles. Nothing about this extraordinary land was “typical” compared to back home.

  Even the common rocks were amazingly different. Instead of being the usual drab gray color, they were a very deep blue. Some of them emitted a soft bright glow. Their surfaces were smooth and shiny like glass.

  Crystal had an idea. “Let’s untie the rope from our wrists. I want to make a tall pile of rocks underneath the floating hole.”

  “Why would you want to do that?” asked Louis.

  “We need a beacon, that’s why.”

  “A beacon? I don’t understand.”

  “You will. Just pile the glowing rocks together.”

  There were lots of them, so the task was not very hard to do. What was hard was to keep from being distracted by all the amazing sights around them. Building the rock pile took longer than it should have, but they didn’t seem to mind.

  The more rocks they gathered together, the brighter the combined glow of the rocks became. After gathering enough rocks to make a fairly tall heap, the rocks were bright enough to be seen even at a great distance.