• Chapter 4 – Torque’s Idea

    By the time Bree had caught up, Rob and Torque were once more in an argument.

    “I really don’t understand you at all!” said Rob. “You hardly show your face when the Writer was here, then she disappears and you see fit to wander around, bothering everyone. Say what you have to say if you must!”

    “What happened?” Bree asked Gar, who was watching the scene.

    “Torque caught a book about cities in Portugal and kept trying to tell it some nonsense or another,” Gar whispered. “The book got annoyed and began screaming at him in Spanish.”

    “Oh,” Bree whispered back. Then, “That doesn’t sound like a Philo…like the kind of book I met before. What is it doing on the second floor?”

    “We’re not on the second floor anymore,” explained Gar. “We came out on the ninth.”

    “How did that happen?” asked Bree, very confused.

    “Sometimes, the Library likes to move doors around.”

    Meanwhile, Torque and Rob were still arguing. “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said!” snapped Torque.

    “Stop speaking in riddles!” cried Rob.

    “He’s not speaking in riddles,” pointed out Gar. “He’s –”

    “I don’t care what he’s speaking in, it’s annoying!” said Rob. He rounded to Torque. “Isn’t there some way for you to talk normally?”

    “What is this all about?” asked Bree softly.

    Rob sighed. “Besides Gar, Torque, and myself, there is one other member of the Staff and she is the head of us all. She is the Writer and it is she who writes every book in existence.”

    “Every book?” asked Bree in surprise. “She must be very busy!”

    “Yes, she’s very talented,” said Gar.

    “Unfortunately, she’s also very missing,” added Rob. “She’s always been fairly reclusive (space and quiet are needed for her to work of course), but still she would be seen from time to time. Her presence could still be felt. Then one day, she just disappeared.”

    “Did she leave the Library?”

    “No, not that,” said Gar. “She must be…shut up somewhere in the Library, unable to leave. He,” Gar jerked her heads towards Torque “saw the Writer constantly, so he should know where she is. But when he started showing up, all he did was blather on, like it’s some sort of a game.”

    Torque had been looking from Rob to Gar in frustration for most of the conversation. At the word “game” however, he suddenly narrowed his eyes as if he were thinking hard. “Life is the game that must be played!” he cried out, causing the other three to jump.

    “What was that?” asked a shaken Rob.

    “'Tis all a chequer board of nights and days, where destiny with men for pieces plays; hither and thither, and mates, and slays,” Torque replied in a sing-song voice.

    “Board?” murmured Gar.

    “Game…” muttered Rob. “Game…Board… Aha! The board game! Of course!”

    “Which board game?” asked Bree. She had played several before of course, but she had a feeling that the ones in the Library would be very different.

    “A very clever one!” said Rob happily. “One of adventure and searching. There’s always a prize at the end, and in this case, it will finding the Writer!”

    “You think we should try a board game?” asked Gar incredulously. “But that’s silly!”

    “What’s so silly about it?” asked Rob. “It’s as good a way as any to try. I’m surprised no one’s thought of it sooner.”

    “Rob, you know perfectly well that those games are only used as a last resort, when no other entertainment is available. Why else would it be called a bored game?” asked Gar.

    “I thought it was called a board game because it used a board to play the game,” interrupted Bree.

    “Here,” said Gar scornfully, “one plays a board game with boredom and not with a board.”

    “That’s not true,” pointed out Rob. “It was not so long ago that the board games were the best entertainment the library had to offer. There were long lines of people waiting to watch the games. The games were named because one never got bored when they were played.”

    “But Rob,” protested Gar, “Even if the board game did work, how would we play it? Are there enough pieces?”

    “Three of the teams are full,” said Rob.

    “And the fourth?”

    “Has only one player,” admitted Rob.

    “There you have it! Each team needs four players and four teams are needed.”

    “I’ll be a player as well!” said Bree. Gar and Rob looked at her in amazement. “I can, can’t I?” she added uncertainly. “I’d love to help find the Writer and the game sounds like it will be a lot of fun.”

    “By Poe’s pen, I’m sure you can,” said Rob. “I don’t see why you can’t.”

    “But then the final team’s still two players short,” said Gar.

    “Gettin' good players is easy.  Gettin' 'em to play together is the hard part,” commented Torque.

    “Excuse me?”

    “I believe that what Torque means is that we must find two more players on our own,” said Rob.

    There was a moment’s silence as Bree, Rob, and Gar mulled over this. Finally, “We shall be the final two players!” said Rob.

    “What? Us? You and I?” gasped Gar. “Would that be allowed, I mean are Staff members allowed to play?”

    “Why not?” asked Rob. “We’re residents of the Library after all. And if little Reeb can play, we certainly can as well. Besides, Reeb hasn’t learned everything about the library yet and I have a hunch that she’ll need our assistance to win the game.”

    “Oh, I don’t know…” sighed Gar.

    “Oh please!” begged Bree, who did not like the idea of going through the Library with strangers.

    “Very well,” said Gar. “I suppose we shall start the game immediately?”

    “Of course,” said Rob. “And we must also explain the game to Reeb along the way.”

    “Oh, thank you both,” said Bree with relief.

    “Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered!” called Torque (his way of wishing “Good Luck!” Bree supposed) as they set off.