Table of Contents
A.J.’s mind returned to the present when he tried the door and found it locked, Just as the man said it would be.
So, he headed to the reference desk.
The kindly Librarian's smile quickly turned to concern when A.J. asked what was in the Archive room and if he could have the key.
“Well,” she fidgeted, choosing her words carefully, “hardly anyone goes in there now. None of the books can be checked out, they must be read or studied in that room only.”
She continued, “Most of the books present dangerous ideas that are outdated and no longer deemed suitable or safe for public consumption.”
A.J. wondered who it was that made that determination. “What sort of ideas?”, he asked.
“You ask too many questions, young man”, the librarian replied. “Why don't you leave well enough alone?
“The last person who went in there was a man probably twice your age. How could I forget – he signed himself in daily for almost two years.
“Then one day he came in and signed with another name. Said the 'Gracious King' had given him this new name, whoever that is.
“He said the things he read in the Archive room awakened a long-forgotten dream he had when he was younger.
“He got the fool notion that he could do things that nobody in Conformity had ever done. I declare, some people never learn.
“I don’t know why we even keep those books any longer.”
A.J. became excited. He recalled once again what the man had told him about the lady at the reference desk trying to dissuade him.
“What was his name, Ma'am?”
“Well, at first he signed in as Regular Jones, sometimes R.J.
“The new name he used was Noble. I asked him 'Noble what?', but he said that was it. Just Noble. See, it's right here.”
A.J. looked at the signatures and dates. Sure enough, the change in signatures was about a year before he met Noble on the road back to Conformity.
His mind instantly flooded with the mental adventures of his younger days, when he forayed into forbidden territory, conquering the monster and returning victoriously to Conformity to vast crowds of cheering citizens.
His Dream! It was coming back.
The librarian's voice brought him back to the present.
“Young man - You have that same look in your eye as that last one, R.J., or Noble, or whatever he calls himself now.
“What is it with you people? It's like you don't even live here in Conformity.”
A.J. ignored her sarcasm and replied with a simple question, “May I please just have the key to the Archive room?”
She shook her head with pity and disbelief. “Why is it that some always want to 'buck the system'? Why do you think you can change things that have been forever? What makes you think you are so special?”
More determined now than ever, he stared at her and asked again, “Ma'am, may I please just have the key to the Archive room?”
She, like almost all of the citizens of Conformity, did not like confrontation.
With a sigh of resignation, she opened the middle drawer in the left pedestal of her desk, withdrew a small box, and opened it.
As she fished out the key, she warned, “Library policy states that we must comply with requests to enter the Archive room.
“But I also want to make it abundantly clear that we will not be responsible for the emotional or mental well-being of those who study the books and documents in there. Please sign the register.”
A.J. was surprised and elated at once.
As he viewed the register, he noticed that the last person to sign in, just a few days before was Noble.
A.J. was somewhat puzzled.
Noble claimed to have made it to Beautiful City and met the King, yet he still came to the Archive Room regularly.
Why?
After he signed for the key and turned toward the door, the Librarian said, “And one last thing, make sure nothing is left out. It's your responsibility to see that everything is returned to its proper place.”
“Funny,” he thought to himself, “she never did say exactly what I would find in there. Mentioned something about books and documents. Maybe she doesn't know. Or maybe she was purposely not telling me, hoping that I would just go away.”
He opened the door and stepped through.
The immediate sense was how long it had been closed up like this.
There was kind of a musty odor that signified long periods of neglect.
As he got his bearings, he noticed that it wasn't a large room.
He could tell the room was against the back wall of the library.
There were a couple of small windows high up that allowed some natural light. The door itself had kind of an opaque window, allowing some light, but not letting anyone see into the room.
He surveyed the room.
A standard-size library table with four chairs was just inside the door.
There was an overhead light and two lamps, one at each end of the table.
Beyond that were ten rows of shelving units, each seven shelves in height. The shelves were wide enough for books to be stocked on both sides, back to back.
He also noticed that there was no stool or ladder to reach the top shelf. He would have to use one of the chairs or ask the reference librarian for a stool.
When he approached the rows of shelves, he noticed a sign which read -
ATTENTION! ARCHIVE PATRONS: YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR REPLACING MATERIALS IN THEIR PROPER PLACE BEFORE LEAVING.
Apparently, the library staff did not (or were not allowed to) come in here.
He was excited that the shelves were practically full. This room would keep him occupied for quite some time.
The arrangement of books appeared to be alphabetical.
The first five rows were various genres of Non-fiction, arranged in categories similar to that in the main part of the library.
Here, though, he noticed some categories not found outside of the room: “Spiritual”, “Adventure”, “Self-help” and “How To”.
The next five rows appeared to be divided between biography and fiction categories.
Although he did not know for sure, he was fairly certain that the books in these categories were completely different than the ones in the same categories in the main library.
As A.J. got his bearings in the Archive room, his excitement grew. A whole new world seemed to open up before him.
Many questions came to mind.
First of all, who determined which books were put in the Archive? Was this it, or did other books occasionally find their way in? Who actually put them here?
Then his mind turned to more practical questions like, where would he start?
How could he go about reading through all these books without being overwhelmed?
Where would he find the key he needed to finally get past the monster and reach Transformatia and the Beautiful City?
He felt like his mind was going to explode.
Then, he thought of Noble’s last words, “If you need me, I will be near”.
What treasures will A.J. find in the Archive Room?
How will he know when he has the key to victory?
Would Noble really help if he needed it?