The four students entered the library and closed the door behind them. Gavin was still a bit overwhelmed at what he'd just done, the implications were incredible, but he tried to focus on the task at hand. Now that they were in the library after hours, they had to find the attic. And the key.
"Mr. Bigglesbee said he kept it with him at all times, day or night, right?" asked Jupiter as they stood on the first floor and looked around. Gavin lifted his face to look up through levels two through four to the large, overhead glass skylight that topped the room and gave it what little light it generally had. At the moment, the glow of a thin, pale moon filtered through the clouds to bask the entire room in an ethereal greyness that made everyone look as though they were ghosts intruding into a world in which they did not belong.
"That's right," answered Harriet. "I assume that means he sleeps with it."
"OK, that's weird," said Jud.
"Maybe it's on a chain or something," offered Gavin.
"Or maybe he clutches it in his cold, dead hands," suggested Jud.
Harriet jumped in to argue. "He's not dead!"
Jud just snickered.
"Focus, people," said Jupiter, taking control. "Where are his quarters? He said he lives here, in the library, right?"
Gavin frowned, suddenly worried. "Actually, he wasn't specific."
"So we broke in here for nothing?" asked Jud.
"No!" Gavin instantly shot back. "No, he's here. He has to be. If he wants us to take the key, then he has to be here. Somewhere."
Jud walked over to one of the tables and sat on the edge. "That's assuming your little theory is right. But if it is, why didn't he just come out and say it? Or better yet, just give you guys the key and point the way?"
"It doesn't work like that," explained Gavin. "I think... I think he needs it to look like he wasn't involved. So he doesn't get into trouble."
"Only we get in trouble, is that it?"
Gavin shrugged.
Harriet moved behind the circulation desk, looking around. "I've never been back here before." She ran a hand across the counter. "It's really clean."
Gavin chuckled and shook his head. "You sound surprised."
"I don't know. I guess I always think of libraries as dusty old places. Where the knowledge of eons sits quietly, waiting to be rediscovered."
"The school does have a cleaning crew," said Jupiter. Harriet's cheeks flushed red and she turned away, embarrassed.
"I think this has all been for nothing," said Jud, swinging his legs from the table. "Mr. Bigglesbee doesn't live here. Who wants to live in a library?"
"I would in a heartbeat," answered Harriet.
"I might be up to give it a try," offered Gavin. Harriet smiled.
"Well then if you lived here, where would you live?" asked Jupiter. "It isn't a very big place. Just four ovals stacked on top of one another.
"Plus an attic at the top," said Gavin.
"IF there's an attic up there," said Jud. He swung his legs out one more time and jumped to the ground. "A very big if."
"I wouldn't live on the ground floor," said Harriet, coming out from behind the circulation desk. "Not if I worked here. I'd want my home to be elsewhere."
"Where, elsewhere?" asked Jupiter.
Harriet looked up. "As far away from here as I could get."
***
Gavin led the way up the three flights of stairs to the fourth floor. Stepping off the stairs, he was surprised to find this level thoroughly cluttered. It occurred to him that he'd never been up here. A quick survey discovered that none of them had. Any book any of them had ever needed had always been found on floors one through three.
"So what's up here?" asked Gavin, looking around in the moonlight. Closer to the skylight, it was a bit brighter up here, but still quite dim. Whatever cleaning crew worked at St. Hibbard's, they obviously didn't make it to this level.
The others climbed up onto the floor and looked around in wonder. Harriet walked over to a small side table on top of which a great number of books were precariously stacked. She picked up the top one, blew dust off the spine, and read the title. "Amalgamation of 13th Century Alchemy and 17th Century Witchcraft." She set it down and grabbed the next. "An Analytical Glimpse Into the Cranial Cavity."
Jupiter grabbed a book off the shelves. "Electromagnetism and Audio Sensory Input."
"I've got three here that are all about ESP," said Jud, running his fingers along a section of the bookshelf against the curved wall.
Harriet put down a third book and looked up, exasperated. "This makes no sense. Witchcraft? The Brain? There's one on the musculature of mammals. This must be where books go when they can't be shelved anywhere."
"There's a whole section on ESP on the second flor," argued Jupiter.
"Maybe these books are all rejects?" suggested Jud. He grabbed another off the shelf and read the title. "Elasticity of Human Flesh: Volume Six. There are six volumes on the elasticity of human flesh?"
The others chuckled at his remark, but Gavin shook his head, an idea forming. "No. No, these aren't random."
"What do you mean?" Harriet furrowed her brow. "They sure seem random."
"Superpowers," he responded. "These books are all about superpowers. Heck, my own ability is worth a seventh volume on the elasticity of human flesh, don't you think?"
The truth dawned on the others rapidly, and they began rummaging around for different books, amazed at what they found. Jupiter grabbed a book about combustion, Jud found one on reattaching severed limbs, Harriet picked up a volume on echo-location.
"You're right," she said. She raised her echo-location book. "There's a kid at Thumbledown's that uses sound to see in the dark! Jud's volume could be about little Lincoln and how he takes off his fingers! And there are plenty of kids over there who can manipulate fire. This is like a studyguide on kids with superpowers or abilities!"
The implication of their find made the students uneasy. Were they all being studied? By whom? The staff here at St. Hibbard's? Mr. Bigglesbee? Or someone else?
"As interesting and slightly unnerving as this all is," said Jud. "We came here for a reason. And I'm pretty sure the reason is that way." He pointed to an aisle that had been cleared through the clutter which led around the oval to a single, wooden door.
Everybody put their books down and proceeded through the well-trodden path through the forest of knowledge to stand in front of what they all assumed was Mr. Bigglesbee's front door.
After a pause, Gavin (who for some reason was in the front) turned around quizzically. "Do we knock?" he asked.
"No, you don't knock," said Jupiter. "Haven't you ever broken into anywhere before?"
"Well... no."
She waved him away from the door and carefully tried the knob.
It turned.
Everyone held their breath as she slowly pushed the door open, expecting a loud and attention-getting squeak at any moment. When none came, she turned back to Gavin.
"Maybe you were right about Mr. Bigglesbee wanting us to come in and get the key after all," she said.
"Unless he doesn't bother to lock his door," said Jud. "He's already behind the locked library door, isn't he?"
"One way to find out," said Gavin. Jupiter stepped aside and let him take the lead. He walked slowly into the room, looking around in wonder.
It was a small, single room with a kitchen area on one side and a bed on the other. In between was a small desk and a single chair. There was no television, no electronics of any kind. Only books. Lots and lots of books.
On the single bed in the back, the children could make out a small figure lying down, his stomach slowly rising and falling with his breath.
"Is he asleep?" whispered Harriet.
Gavin took a step forward, causing the floor to creak. He froze, holding his breath. The fact that he didn't hear anything behind him told him his friends were frozen as well. After a few moments, however, he relaxed. There had been no movement from Mr. Bigglesbee. He was most certainly asleep. Gavin took another step forward, then a third. The room was small enough that after three steps, he was half-way to the bed. There was a window just over the headboard that allowed a shaft of moonlight to fall onto Mr. Bigglesbee's hands, which rested comfortably on his stomach. He lay on his back, face up toward the ceiling. Another step from Gavin and he could see that the eyes were closed.
Finally, he twisted back around and gave the thumbs up.
"OK," whispered Jupiter. "He's asleep. Get the key and let's get out of here."
"We still don't know where the attic is," reminded Jud.
"Somewhere above us," hissed Jupiter, shutting him up.
Gavin let them argue with each other and concentrated instead on the inert form of the librarian. He took another step and was now almost right next to the sleeping individual. A cursory look up and down the man's body showed no sign of a key, and there didn't seem to be a chain around his neck from which a key could hang. He began to wonder if he'd taken the librarian too literally. Maybe the key wasn't on him, but was just nearby?
Still, he couldn't chance it, and so he took a final step until he leered over the man and brought his head down close to look for a key. He was trying to see if the fingers were grasping anything when the tiniest of throat clearings caught his attention. He shot up, ready to flee, but held back. Then, without opening his eyes, without showing any other signs of life, Mr. Bigglesbee slowly lifted a single finger and emphatically pointed past Gavin. The boy's eyes widened, but he slowly turned and saw a side table next to the bed. A key sat on the table.
His breath caught in his throat, he picked it up, careful not to make a sound. He wasn't sure if this was a coincidence or if Mr. Bigglesbee was actually awake but pretending to be asleep for appearances sake, but he wasn't taking any chances. Once he had the key, he backed out of the room.
"Did you get it?" asked Harriet.
"Was it around his neck?" asked Jupiter.
Gavin waved them quiet until they were all out and the door was closed behind them. Once he heard the soft click of the door, he held up the key.
"Great job!" cheered Harriet quietly. "And you didn't wake him?"
Gavin had no idea how to respond to that, so he just shook his head. Jupiter grabbed the key out of his hand and held it up to the moonlight. It was a large, skeleton key, made of thick iron and quite rusty.
"Now this is a key," she said.
"Agreed," said Gavin, swiping it back. "Let's go use it."