فصل یازدهم

chapter-11

“Come on,” Kyle called to his mom at seven-thirty on Friday night. “I don’t want to be late!” All week long, Kyle had been dreaming about winning Mr. Lemoncello’s exclusive, board-members-only board-game-without-a-board. His mom drove him downtown to the library, where he joined twenty-four other Library Olympians under the Wonder Dome at eight o’clock sharp (when the library closed early for the special event).

“Text me when you need to be picked up,” said Kyle’s mom.

“Will do! Thanks for the ride.”

He hurried up the front steps, raced across the lobby, and skidded into the Rotunda Reading Room, where he met up with his friends.

“Check out the statues,” said Miguel, nodding toward the recessed nooks between the rotunda’s ten arched windows.

It was a good thing that the holographic sculptures stood on top of glowing pedestals where their names were inscribed, because Kyle only recognized a few: Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, and Galileo Galilei. He had no idea who the others were: Dian Fossey, Jacobus Arminius, Jane Goodall, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, and Nicolaus Copernicus.

“They’re all famous researchers,” said Akimi, whose dad was an engineer. Akimi knew science the way Sierra knew books.

Suddenly, the Wonder Dome blossomed into a swirling, animated version of the cover to the Beatles’ famous Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. A bouncy version of “With a Little Help from My Friends” filled the rotunda.

Mr. Lemoncello appeared in a spotlight on the second-floor balcony. He was dressed in a shiny blue marching-band uniform with tassels and boards on the shoulders—just like Paul McCartney in the famous album cover photo.

“Cheerio and greetings to you all!” Mr. Lemoncello decreed from his lofty perch. “I’m delighted that so many of you chose to act like books and have returned to the library! For this elimination round, you will need the higher power of lucky plus a little help from your friends. So please—pair up!” Akimi and Kyle immediately locked eyes.

“Team?” they said simultaneously.

“Team!” They shook on it.

“If it’s science junk…,” said Kyle.

“I’ll take the lead,” said Akimi. “And, Kyle? We just call it science. Not science junk.” “Right. Gotcha.”

As Mr. Lemoncello drifted down a spiral staircase, his shimmering boots, complete with tall accordion heels, played along with the bouncy bass line of the Beatles tune.

“Tonight’s elimination-round game,” he announced when he reached the floor and the music stopped, “is titled Who or What in the World Are We?” He twirled in place (which made his accordion shoes wheeze like a deflating bagpipe sack) and faced Ms. Waintraub, the holographic research librarian, who had just appeared behind her desk.

“Adrienne?” said Mr. Lemoncello, doing his best to sound like a game show host. “Tell them how we play!” “Tonight’s category will be ‘famous foursomes,’ ” she said in her bored computer voice.

“Wow,” mumbled Miguel, who had teamed up with Abia Sulayman, “she’s a load of laughs.” “She is serious because research is a serious proposition,” said Abia.

“Does it have to be that serious?” joked Kyle.

“Yes, Kyle Keeley. Research requires due diligence and proper perseverance.” “You see why I teamed up with her?” said Miguel with a grin. “We’re gonna rock this round!” “The Beatles, of course, were a famous foursome,” continued the research librarian.

“In fact,” added Mr. Lemoncello, “when I was your age, we called the Beatles the Fab Four, because they were fabulous and there were four of them—not because they resembled a multipack of laundry detergent.” “You will each be given a different foursome to identify,” droned Ms. Waintraub. “Each clue card will lead you to one of the four items in your grouping. When you correctly identify your first item, you will be given a clue to help you find the second. At any point in the clue-giving-and-taking process, you can guess what the four persons, places, or things have in common. However, should you guess incorrectly, you will be eliminated from the competition.” “And that,” exclaimed Mr. Lemoncello, “is precisely why we call this the elimination round! Please step forward and receive your first clues.” The twelve teams stepped up one at a time, and each took a bright yellow envelope from Mr. Lemoncello.

“Do not open your envelopes until I say when. Of course, I don’t know when I might say when. Oh, dear. I just did. Twice!” All the teams ripped open their envelopes. Kyle and Akimi read what was written on theirs: The past tense of “921 is”

“What?” said Kyle. “How can a number have a past tense?” “It’s a riddle, not a question,” said Akimi. “If it was a question, there’d be a question mark!” “Okay. The past tense of nine-two-one is nine-two-lost.” “Kyle, there is no past tense for the number one.” “Sure, if you want to get technical about it…”

“This is research. We have to—”

Akimi was cut off by Angus, who’d just slammed his palm down on the reference desk. Hard.

“Our famous foursome is card suits,” he said.

“Can you show us your work?” asked Ms. Waintraub.

“No problem. Our clue was a math problem. The answer was 616.21.” “That, of course,” said his teammate, Katherine, referring to notes she must’ve written down in her little black book, “is also the Dewey decimal classification for books about cardiology, the study of hearts.” “And,” explained Angus, “since this is a Lemoncello game, we figured ‘cardiology’ could also be a pun referring to the study of, you know, cards. Hearts is one of four suits in every deck.” “The others are clubs, spades, and diamonds,” added Katherine.

“Congratulicitations!” cried Mr. Lemoncello. “We have our first team of data diggers! Since there will be only five new exhibits, there are only four slots remaining! Work your clues, super sleuths! Work them with voracious rapidity!” “Come on,” said Akimi.

“Where are we going?” asked Kyle.

“Upstairs. Our clue is a Dewey decimal number, too!”