Part V: Mystery

What is the difference

Between absent and lost?

Knowing how

To find

 

I wait for Renee

to give

Arkn

my letter

But the next day

she doesn’t mention him

 

go home

after work

with Grace

Saturday

went on

Facebook

Renee is on

Hi.

 

Hi

she types

 

Did you give Arkn

my letter?

 

Well…

 

I stare at

the screen

No answer

Renee?

 

no answer

 

I minimize the box

go to flair

maybe she’d logged off

 

He wasn’t there

Renee’s words

pop up

He wasn’t in

the memory room.

 

What?

You got in

without help?

My eyebrows raise

 

I image

Renee blushing

wait…

I’ll tell you

 

I glance at the wall

Or rather

through it

Glass

and

a memory room

with foreign posters

on the walls

I lunge at it

nearly knocking

Renee over

 

“Sorry,”

we say

in unison

 

I stare

as my posters

reappear

“Telporting?”

 

“Tel-la—“

Renee repeats

accent thick

“Never mind

Cool!”

I log off

“So, what about Arkn?”

 

“He told me

to visit the memory room

Thursday night,

see if I could enter

alone

He wasn’t there”

Renee blinks

“I tried again

every chance I had

yesterday

Nothing

it was

empty”

 

My writer’s mind

has already woven

half a dozen stories

“Have you told

the others?”

 

“No,

I’ll go get them,”

She disappears

 

I pull out my notebook

stare at the stories

Arkn had told

Where could he be?

 

Evan

Grace

Mandy

step into my room

with Renee

 

Grace rubs her head

“Still not used to that

feels like

a Jello wall”

 

“So, I assume

Renee filled you in,”

I say

 

Evan shrugs

“Her accent gets thicker

when she’s excited”

 

Renee takes a deep breath

“Arken is not in the memory room

It is empty, plain

not even a note.”

 

“I noticed last night,

but I thought

I had made a mistake,”

Mandy comments

 

“He’s playing a joke?”

Renee asks

but her tone contradicts

 

“Something is wrong”

Grace states

“But what?’

 

“Maybe he was captured,”

Mandy suggests.

 

“But who?

Renee demands

“Who would kidnap him?

How?

Why?”

 

“Let’s think

like a game of Clue,”

I pull out a pen

“Who, what

where, why,

how”

 

“Miss Peacock

in the library

with the candlestick,”

Evan shrugs

“I have no clue”

 

“Let’s pretend

this is a story

Arkn may be

an archetype,

but he’s our archetype

And we’ll find him”

 

“Where to look?’

Mandy asks

“I’ve only seen him

in the memory room

--well, at lunch once.

But the memory room

would be the place to start”

 

“But we don’t know

 where he’s from

--or if he’s even human”

Grace covers her mouth

 

“Is that an insult?”

Renee demands

 

“Gandalf isn’t human

Even Galadriel isn’t human

she’s an elf

human-ness is overrated”

I retorted

 

“But they had bodies,”

Evan says

 

“Arkn touched my face!”

 

 

“Calm down!”

Grace shouts

“Arkn needs our help”

 

“We don’t know—“

Evan begins

 

Grace shakes her head

twists her arms

into the trust fall

“I know,

And we need

to find him.”

Grace stares at us

“We can do this

He made us a team

for a reason.

Maybe this is why”

 

I twist my arms

mirroring Grace

“I agree.”

 

Renee, Evan and Mandy

echo our cry

“For Arkn!”

 

I’ve never had

a battle cry

to fight for

Now I understand

the power of memories

to spur a battle