It’s Basically a Portal

At the start of third period, Connor and Brady met in the computer lab at a desk tucked into the corner of the room. Connor had arrived first and scoped out the location, where it was difficult for anyone to see what was on the screen. He opened a web browser and sat staring at the search field. Brady soon found him there.

“What should I put in?” Connor asked.

“I don’t know, maybe just try ‘Apollo’.”

Connor typed in the query and hit the enter key. He scanned down the results list. “All of these are about a Greek god.” He scrolled further and clicked to the second page of results.

“Oh! Um, try ‘Oobly Apollo’,” suggested Brady.

Connor typed in the query and hit enter. It had ignored “Oobly” and once again brought back results about the Greek god. Connor groaned. “This is hopeless, we’re never going to figure this out.”

“What do you mean? We just started!” Brady asked. “Maybe we need to be more specific.”

After a dozen more searches, they weren’t any closer to finding out what the letter had meant. They were becoming fairly informed about the healing powers of Apollo, however.

Connor plunked his elbows down on the desk, rested his face in his palm, and sighed. After a moment, he poked his face through his hands and said, “I’m going back to thinking that this whole letter was a stupid prank. Surprisingly well-written, but a prank. Someone who is really into Greek gods. I bet one of those idiots slipped it into my bag at school.” He thought about which of their bullies would be the likeliest candidate.

“Or maybe they don’t want to be so easily found.” Brady wasn’t ready to give up hope yet, and considered how else they might find out what this was all about. “Maybe we’re supposed to go on a hunt of sorts.”

“That seems like a lot of work for a couple of high schoolers.”

Brady mocked offense. “Okay, fine. I’ll just figure it out and go by myself.”

“No! I’ll help. I just—ugh. Where would we even look next?”

“I have an idea. We have to wait until after school though.”

---

In the lunch room, Connor and Brady went through the food line, got the slop of the day, and took their seats at a table in the back of the room. It was an old table, so the seats weren’t securely attached anymore. They had to be careful not to lean too far in any one direction.

As Brady opened his chocolate milk carton, he sighed. “I have a math test later, but it’s so hard to focus on school right now. I just want to figure this Apollo thing out.”

“Yeah, honestly, if this letter turns out to be true, and we’re about to get out of here for good, forget all this.” Connor took a bite of his food.

As Brady was about to reply, a green bean landed on his lunch tray. He jumped, then looked for where it had come from. Connor looked too, and it didn’t take long for them to find a the table where a group of students were snickering.

When Connor and Brady looked back to their trays, another green bean was launched, this one hitting Connor in the face. He looked down, trying not to give them the attention they wanted.

“I hate those guys,” Connor grumbled.

“Just ignore them. I swear, why are they so obsessed with us?” At this, another green bean sailed between them and landed on the table past Connor and Brady.

Connor smirked. “Don’t they know they’re going to miss out on all the vitamin K.”

“I’m pretty sure they have no idea what that is. I’m not even sure I know what that is.” Brady scooped up some of his own green beans.

“It’s for your bones, duh. So are you going to tell me what your idea is? If it’s so great, why not spoil it?” Connor asked.

Brady thought for a moment, swallowed, and said, “Okay, fine. I think we should go to the Steamtown Library.”

“That old dingy place? Really? Uck, I don’t want to go back there.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, but don’t you remember the lobby? It has planets hanging from the ceiling.” Brady looked satisfied with himself.

Connor’s face scrunched up. “Okay, yeah, and that’s cool, but it’s still gross there.”

“But what if there’s a clue there? We’re looking for a planet, it could be connected. See what I mean?”

“Those are just the planets that we know about already. Well, and Pluto. Mainly because that library hasn’t been updated in decades.”

“Come on, what do we have to lose?”

“Alright fine. We’ll go to the creepy dingy library. But we’re getting ice cream after.”

---

At the library, Connor and Brady put their bikes into the bike rack and headed inside. The rush of air conditioning hit their faces, immediately cooling them off from the sweaty bike ride over.

In the lobby, Brady realized that he hadn’t thought out how they were going to approach this. He noticed Connor looking up at the ceiling, and followed him as he walked around the outside of the room, taking it all in.

Connor continued to circle the room. He wanted to talk to Brady about what he was seeing, but he didn’t want the librarian to overhear. He decided to play dumb. “Yep, looks like they are all here.”

Brady gave Connor a look. “Yeah… even Pluto.”

At this, the librarian glanced over at them, but immediately looked back down.

Brady continued, sounding artificial, “Should we go look for that book you wanted?”

Connor nodded, and they headed off into the stacks. Out of the hearing range of the librarian, they spoke normally again.

“We are so weird. So, I’m assuming that we’re starting with space books?” Connor asked.

Brady smiled and nodded. “Bingo.”

“Don’t say ‘bingo,’ nobody says ‘bingo’.”

“I say bingo!”

“Yeah, and it’s really weird.”

“Oh, fiddlesticks.”

Connor stared blankly at Brady, then turned to face forward again. Soon, they were at the space section. They each took their backpacks off and left them at a table next to the bookcases.

“Okay, where do we even start?” Connor asked.

“Well, we know the name of the planet.” Brady was conscious of the fact that someone could overhear them, and kept the details thin. He wasn’t sure how openly to speak of what they had learned.

Connor noticed this, and followed his lead. “True. And the name of the planet is associated with Greek mythology. So maybe we start looking there?”

Brady pointed at Connor in agreement. “Okay, yeah, that’s good.”

They started to search through the books, looking for anything close to Greek. They found books on the solar system, whole books on single planets, books on space travel, even books about science fiction in space.

Brady came across a book about constellations. He pulled out the book and examined the cover.

Connor looked over. “Wait, constellations!” He whispered excitedly. “Greek mythology!”

Brady looked at Connor, a look of wonder on his face.

They took the book to the table, sat down next to each other, and flipped it open. Brady turned to the table of contents and searched for Apollo.

“It’s not here.” Brady sighed.

Connor scooted the book a little closer to himself and flipped to the very end. “Maybe there’s an appendix. Yeah, here it is. Maybe it’s back here.” He searched through the A’s.

Brady sat forward and looked over Connor’s arm. It was then that they saw it. Apollo, 297.

Connor quickly flipped the pages until he landed on a page about Corvus. They scanned through the page, looking for any clues.

“There’s nothing. It’s not even mentioned.” Connor finally admitted.

Brady thought for a moment then said, “Maybe this is the clue. Maybe Corvus is the clue. Maybe we were meant to find this page.”

“Okay, sure, but then what do we do with it?”

“Ask the librarian?”

“Like, just ask them if they know anything about Corvus? That’s it?”

“Worth a shot, isn’t it?” Brady seemed hopeful on the outside, but he wasn’t sure that they were on the right track at all. He was starting to worry that this had all been a big distraction.

Connor closed the book and returned it to the shelf. They gathered their backpacks and headed back to the front of the library.

At the front desk, Connor stumbled over his words a bit as he asked, “Hi. Um, do you know, well, anything about… Corvus?”

The librarian looked alarmed, but nodded. “Of course, just follow me.”

Connor and Brady looked at each other. It seemed like they were on to something. They followed the librarian, going down a short hallway, then onto an elevator, down a level, and through a door into a restricted area.

There, amidst huge old books, the librarian approached a wall of small drawers. Taking out a set of keys from their pocket, they unlocked a drawer on the left side, and pulled out a flash drive.

The librarian turned to them, and handed over the drive. “Everything you need to know is on here. Make sure that no one else gets access to this, the information on here is very sensitive.”

Connor and Brady were speechless. Connor took the drive and looked at it in his hands.

Brady finally spoke. “Thank you.”

“Of course. Have a safe journey.” At this, the librarian motioned for them to head out of the room. They took them back to the lobby and waved at them as they left.

Outside, Connor and Brady returned to their bikes, and before unlocking them, they stopped and stared at each other.

“What just happened?!” Connor asked.

“Dude, I have no idea.” Brady looked incredulous.

“We have to get home right now.”

“Um. Yeah.”

Hands shaking, they unlocked their bikes, jumped on, and raced off towards home.