The Island of Dr. Libris (20 page)

“Hello, Billy. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dr. Xiang Libris. Welcome to my island. I hope you and your mother have been enjoying your stay at my cabin?”

“It’s okay,” said Billy. “It could use a TV.”

“But you had all those books,” said Dr. Libris, staring at Billy as if he were an interesting blob of bacteria on a microscope slide. “And, of course, you had my island, where you could enjoy all sorts of adventures.”

“We didn’t break anything, sir,” said Walter.

“I know everything you boys have done out here.” He gestured toward a nearby tree, where one of the miniature security cameras sat, blinking its tiny red light.

“You were spying on us?” said Billy.

“I wouldn’t call it spying. Let’s just say I was recording data for a very important scientific study.”

“So what happened to the Junior Wizard?” asked Walter.

“He’s gone. They’re all gone.” Dr. Libris pointed to the wire mesh dome suspended over their heads. “I deactivated the Theta Wave Receptor Grid.”

“The what?” said Billy.

“It’s all rather complicated. Even your mother would have difficulty comprehending the full scope of the mathematical theorems governing the operation of my invention.”

“Try me.”

“Very well.” Dr. Libris smiled at Billy as if he were an infant. “The brain’s theta waves operate in the borderland between the conscious and subconscious worlds. While in the theta state, your mind is capable of deep creative thought. An abundance of theta waves in a person’s brain wave pattern, such as evidenced by the remote EEG I was able to run on Billy’s brain—”

“What?”

“The pillow. In your bed. It’s lined with sensors.”

So that’s why it felt so lumpy
, thought Billy.

“Billy, your EEG readout indicates that you have what we term a ‘magical mind.’ ”

“He’s got a gift, right?” said Walter.

“Oh, yes. Billy’s brain generates more theta waves than any subject I have ever measured. I believe this is why you were able to project the figments of your imagination well beyond the limits of the dome. I found the beanstalk reaching up into the clouds to be particularly impressive.”

“My sister and I helped on that one,” said Walter.

Dr. Libris ignored Walter. “Billy, I knew you had
incredible imaginative powers the instant I saw your answers to my ink blot test.”

“And once you had me up here,” said Billy, “you captured whatever pictures the books put in my brain with the tin ceilings or the metal mesh in the dome. You made my imagination come to life?”

“Precisely. We needed a magical mind like yours for the Theta Project to reach its full potential. Other children can read things here on the island and the net will catch even their feeble theta waves. Only you, Billy, could send your literary imaginings clear across the lake.”

“Why didn’t you just do it yourself?” demanded Billy.

“I’m afraid we adults lose our capacity for imaginative flights of fancy as we age. That’s why you and your mind are such treasures, Billy. Treasures we will soon exploit to our mutual advantage. If you could so easily conjure up Hercules, why not an aircraft carrier? If you could build a time machine, why not a fleet of luxury automobiles that run on nothing but tap water? This is why I sent you that message in the bottle, Billy.”

“You mean ‘On this island, you shall find great treasure’?”

“Yes, Billy.
Treasure.
Because you and I are going to be rich. Very, very rich!”

Billy’s brain felt scrambled.

“Wait a second. What about my parents?”

“Oh, they’re far too old to be of any practical use to us. Your father shows signs of minimal creativity and your mother is familiar with the mathematical theories of parallel universes, but—”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” said Billy, trying to block out the loud thumping noise coming from somewhere over the horizon. “Me and my stupid theta waves just put my mom and dad into a make-believe time machine and sent them fifteen years into the past.”

“Yes,” said Dr. Libris, straining to be heard over the
whump-whump-whump
s. “A brilliantly plotted plan. Kudos on that.”

“How do I get them back?”

“Excuse me?”

“How do I bring my mom and dad back from the past?”

Dr. Libris’s smile slid into a wolfish grin. “You don’t have to stay stuck with those two, Billy. Frankly, you could do much, much better than William and Kimberly Gillfoyle. Why, you could have Mary Poppins for your mother and King Arthur for your father. Better yet—Glinda the good witch and Atticus Finch. Choose the right books and your mother and father will be everything you ever wanted them to be.”

“I don’t want perfect parents. I want mine. How do I get them back?”

“Not sure,” Dr. Libris hollered as the throbbing noise grew closer. “Use your imagination.”

“But I need the dome!”

“Pardon?”

“The dome! You need to turn it back on!”

“Impossible. The neural net must remain down for routine maintenance while I fly off to meet with my investors.”

Suddenly, the trees started swaying and scattering their leaves as a whirlwind swept across the clearing.

Billy looked up.

A sleek black helicopter with the words “Theta Project” painted on its sides descended into the field.

Dr. Libris crouched down and dashed toward the passenger-side door.

“But my mom and dad!” shouted Billy.

Dr. Libris just waved, as if he couldn’t hear.

“Turn the dome back on! Dr. Libris? Dr. Libris!”

The scientist hopped into the helicopter and pulled the door shut.

The chopper lifted off and sailed away through a wide opening in the center of the dome—the dome that wasn’t catching Billy’s “magical” brain waves anymore.

“This is bad,” muttered Billy. “Really bad.”

Instead of losing one parent in a divorce, he’d lost both of them in a time warp.

“We need to find the control booth. If Dr. Libris could turn the whole thing off, there has to be a way to turn it all back on.”

“He popped out of the shadows over that way,” said Walter.

“That cinder-block building behind the electrified fence! It had a satellite dish on the roof, remember?”

“That’s the control center!” they said together.

Billy ran.

“Wait for me!” Walter ran after him.

They followed the trail until they returned to the chain-link fence.

Billy reached out with his hand.

“Don’t!” shouted Walter.

Billy closed his eyes and grabbed a fistful of wire.

Nothing happened.

“Dr. Libris must’ve shut off
all
the power,” he said. “Try the gate.”

It swung open with an eerie creak.

And even though they had both just seen the crazy professor fly away in a helicopter, Billy and Walter crept as quietly as they could up to what had to be the mad scientist’s secret lab.

Billy flipped on his flashlight app and shone it through the building’s tinted windows.

Inside, he saw banks of dead computer screens and video monitors. Not a single LED flickered on any console.

“There must be a generator somewhere,” said Walter. “Maybe back on the mainland.”

“That cable your dad’s company laid under the lake was probably the power line,” said Billy.

“So the generator must be—”

Billy motioned for Walter to be quiet.

Somebody was coming.

The two boys peered into the darkness.

Billy saw a silhouette slinking through the shadows.

It was someone, maybe a boy, carrying a fishing pole over his shoulder.

Billy couldn’t believe his eyes.

It was Tom Sawyer!

“You’re still here?”

“I reckon I is,” said Tom, coming into the clearing behind the building. “You boys find you any treasure?”

“But the Junior Wizard disappeared,” Billy mumbled.

“So I heard tell,” said Tom. “Me and Robin Hood was just talkin’ ’bout that.”

“Robin’s here, too? How? The dome is off.”

Walter nudged Billy. “I dreamt up the Junior Wizard.
You
imagined all the others. Maybe Dr. Libris was right. You have a magical mind!”

Billy didn’t know what to think.

“Don’t mean to interrupt your ponderin’, Billy,” said Tom. “But me and Robin was kind of curious—can you crack open a fresh book and read us up some fish?”

“But there aren’t any fish—except prehistoric ones—in
The Time Machine
, and that’s the only book I brought with me tonight.”

“So use your magical mind,” said Walter. “Just think about fish.”

“We’d appreciate it considerable,” said Tom. “Haven’t had nary a nibble all night.”

“Do it, Billy,” urged Walter.

Billy sighed and closed his eyes.

This is ridiculous
, he thought.

But he gave it a shot.

He tried his best to think about fish instead of his mom and dad.

After a while, a familiar Dr. Seuss rhyme ran through his brain:
“One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish …”

“By all the saints in Paradise!” Billy heard Robin Hood cry. “Come, Tom, and marvel upon these most magnificent fish! Why, one is red, the other blue! Ah-ha-ha-ha!”

Tom winked at Billy. “Thank you kindly.”

And off he dashed through the trees to help Robin Hood haul in their colorful catch.

“Don’t you see?” Walter insisted as they hiked back to the meadow near the gate. “With you, it isn’t just the island or the books from the bookcase or even the dome!”

“I don’t know if I—”

Walter tossed up his arms. “Would you
please
, before your mom and dad are marooned forever on the space-time continuum, stop doubting yourself? You sound like me before I met you. Did I mention how fast I canoed across the lake tonight?”

Billy smiled at Walter. Then he looked up, straight through the gaping hole in the middle of the wire mesh theta wave dome. If he tried this crazy thing, he’d be working without a net. Literally.

Okay
, he thought,
it’s time to crank it up a notch. Because if I want a happy ending, I need to write it myself.

Billy closed his eyes and concentrated.

Until Walter nudged him again.

“Ooh! I have an idea!”

“What is it?”

“When you bring your parents back, make sure you say that they’ll be all lovey-dovey forever—like we were going to do with the love potion. That way, they’ll never even
think
about splitting up!”

“No,” said Billy. “I’m kind of glad the Junior Wizard disappeared. Maybe Mom and Dad have to do that part on their own, to
choose
to stick together. Maybe they get to write their own story, too. All I can do is try to bring them back with a couple good memories so they have a chance for a happier ending.”

Walter nodded. “You’re right. It’s up to them.”

“Okay,” Billy said when he’d finished composing his story in his head. “Stand back.”

“Will there be another explosion?”

“I hope not. But maybe we should hide over there so they don’t see us right away.”

Billy and Walter ran to the edge of the forest and ducked behind some thick underbrush.