The air split open and the whole building began to shake.
As Eric grabbed the bookcase so he wouldn’t fall down, he could hear yelps of surprise from the other side.
Then, when the shaking reached its height, a book shot out from the rip in the air.
The moment it landed on the ground at Eric’s feet, the gurgly suck stopped.
2
“Everyone, please remain calm,” Mrs. Kim called out. “It was just a small earthquake. Please return to what you were doing and keep your voices down. This is still a library.”
A small earthquake? It had felt pretty big to Eric.
He looked around, expecting to see books covering the floor, but the only book on the ground was the one that had popped out of the air.
The rip it had come through was gone now and everything looked normal again, like nothing had ever happened. Cautiously, he waved his hand through the area where the bubble had been.
Nothing. Just your average, everyday air.
He knelt down next to the book. It was one of those old-fashioned phone books nobody he knew used any more. Thick, with yellow-colored pages.
When it hit the floor, it had fallen open to the “T” section — Trailers in the upper left, and Trucking in the lower right. In the middle of the right-hand page was an ad surrounded by a thick red border. Though he knew it was impossible, the ad seemed to be glowing.
ARE YOU FORGETTING THINGS?
LOSING THINGS?
ARE PEOPLE YOU KNOW ACTING STRANGE?
IS SOMEONE CLOSE TO YOU MISSING???
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THINGS ARE BEYOND YOUR CONTROL?
ARE YOU IN…TROUBLE?
Help Is Standing By
Call 678768253
This is a Free Call. In fact, you won’t pay a cent for anything. EVER.
TFS
TROUBLE FAMILY SERVICES
THE TROUBLESHOOTING EXPERTS
Eric stared at the page. It was like the ad had been written especially for him. Yes, he’d been forgetting things. Yes, some of his stuff had gone missing. Yes, there were plenty of people around him acting strange. Yes, even if his father said his mom was on a business trip, it felt to Eric like she was missing. And, yes, yes, yes, he felt like his life had suddenly spun out of his control.
How could it know?
Maybe this was the final proof that his mind was slipping. He’d obviously been hearing things no one else heard. Couldn’t he just as easily be seeing things?
Slowly, he extended his index finger and lowered it toward the book. He’d all but convinced himself it wasn’t really there and that his finger wouldn’t stop until it hit the carpet.
But he touched paper, not carpet. Thin, phone-book-type paper.
It’s real, he thought.
Curious now, he flipped back several pages and stopped. He was still in the Ts. In fact, he was still on the same Trailers-to-Trucking pages he’d been on, complete with the same glowing ad. He looked through some more. Same. Same. Same. The whole thick directory just a repeat of the Trailers-to-Trucking page. And the ad.
As his hand rested on the open book, he felt the page beneath his palm start to rip. He was alarmed for a moment until he realized the page was meant to be removed.
Carefully, he tore the rest of it out.
Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Gurgly.
The book started vibrating, then the carpet sucked it into the floor like it was being flushed down a high-powered toilet. And like that, it was gone.
Eric was left kneeling in the otherwise empty aisle, staring at an empty spot on the carpet, the torn page in his hand.
“There you are.”
He looked over his shoulder. Maggie was standing at the far end of the aisle, but she wasn’t alone. Peter Garr was lurking right behind her.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Had she seen the book disappear?
He was about to ask her when she said, “Did the earthquake knock you down?”
“Uh…no. I was looking at…at the bottom shelf. So you felt it?”
She shrugged. “Kind of. At first I thought it was just a big car driving by.”
“Just a car?” he said. It most definitely didn’t feel like a car to him.
“Why are you even back here?” she asked.
“Just…uh…checking some books,” he said.
Her gaze dropped down to the paper in his hand. “What’s that?”
“What? This?” He held up the paper. She’d seen it. She’d actually seen it. It wasn’t something that only he could see. “I…” He paused. What was he going to say? That he ripped it out of a book that then disappeared? “It’s, um, trash. Someone left it back here. Thought I’d throw it away.”
“Well, whatever you’re trying to find, hurry up. We still have a lot of work to do.” She turned and walked away.
Peter, on the other hand, took a few steps toward Eric, tilted his head, and began sniffing the air.
Eric stood up, keeping his eyes on the bigger boy.
Sniff. Sniff.
Peter continued down the aisle, his head swiveling back and forth, his nostrils flaring with each breath.
Sniff. Sniff.
As he neared, Eric moved back until he bumped into the bookcase and could retreat no more.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Sniff. Sniff.
Peter stopped a few feet away and sampled the air again. Sniff. He leaned forward, his nose hovering next to Eric’s shoulder. Sniff. Then the other shoulder. Sniff. Then down his arm. Sniff. Sniff. And then, when he reached the hand that was still holding the page out of the phone book, his nose went into overdrive. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff.
“Hey, uh, that’s kind of weird,” Eric said.
The bully looked up at Eric, his eyes wide. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. He reached out to grab the page from Eric’s hand, but Eric yanked it back just in time. He then twisted out from between Peter and the bookcase.
Eric took a big step backward. “I’ve got to…get back to my friend,” he said, then turned and ran the rest of the way down the aisle.
When he reached the end, he looked back. Peter had dropped to his hands and knees and was sniffing the area where the book had been before it vanished.
Not sure if he was more creeped out or confused, Eric made his way back to the study table. His plan was to grab his books and get out of there. He thought if he left now, he could probably get most of the way home before Peter even realized he was gone.
“Oh, no,” Maggie said as he started shoving his notebook in his backpack. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I gotta get home.”
She pushed her glasses all the way up her nose. “Eric Morrison, you’re going to sit down and help me work on this report. You promised me.”
“I’m sorry, Maggie. Maybe…maybe we can get together tonight and finish it after dinner.”
“We’re already going to do that, remember? We need to work on it now and tonight.”
Eric sensed something move behind him. As he looked over his shoulder, he realized he’d lost his chance. Peter was back.
“Eric?” Maggie said.
He took a breath then put his backpack down. “Fine.”
“I thought you were going to throw that away,” she said.
“What?”
She pointed at the piece of paper — the page from the phonebook — he’d set on the table when he started packing up.
“Oh, right,” he said.
He picked it up, intending to take it to the trash, but glanced at the ad again. Should I? Really, it was kind of ridiculous. A company that helped people in trouble? He’d never heard of anything like that before. It was probably just a joke.