ARLEM'S GLOBE TROTTERS
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It was dead calm silent and hauntingly still. The high-pitched 'whirr'
of the computer's fan competed with the low buzz of the florescent lights.
Moments before the halls and classrooms clanged, clattered, shrieked and
laughed in a din of excitement and confusion. The students had just been
released from their final class and they were escaping to the world of
other activities beyond the double doors. Everyone was gone except four.
Felicity, Viki, Rafe and Keaton stood at the door of the empty class and
starred out into the empty hall.
"Didn't Mr. Arlem tell us to meet him here?" asked Keaton with
an edge of impatience in his voice.
"Yes," said Viki. "I'm sure he'll be back in a second."
"One-thousand-and-one! Is he back yet? Cuz that was a second,"
chuckled Rafe as he gave a high-five to Keaton.
"You can leave if you want," said Felicity. "Viki and I
will explain how full your schedules are and how you couldn't wait for
the instructions for your first group assignment."
"He said he had a special project in mind for our group," said
Viki. "Except he forgot the booklet in the staffroom."
"Hey, it's no big deal," shrugged Keaton. "We'll just sit
in the classroom and wait."
The group moved into the class and began to look around. They had had
their first class with Mr. Arlem earlier that afternoon. This was an old
and very familiar room to the students. Each of the group members had
been going to this school for years. It was Mr. Arlem that was new. It
was Mr. Arlem's new stuff that blanketed the old familiar stuff from previous
years. Mr. Arlem was still locating, sorting and settling. The room seemed
over-run with books, boxes and odd objects all precariously stacked and
balanced atop of one another. It didn't take the students long to find
old texts and booklets from two and three years back.
"Don't pull anything out," suggested Rafe. "The whole mountain
of stuff will topple down on us."
"It looks like Mr. Arlem has done some traveling," piped Keaton.
"There are weird things from all over the world."
"Hey!" shouted Felicity. "Check out this huge ancient globe."
Viki, Keaton and Rafe hurried to the back corner of the classroom. Hidden
behind a tall mound of old books and beat-up cardboard boxes was a humongous
old globe. It was almost black with dust and time. It looked like it was
constructed from different woods, paint, parchment and brass. The craftsmanship
was superb.
"Wow! This thing must be hundreds of years old," realized Keaton.
"Check this out," said Rafe. "It has two rings and it can
be turned horizontally and vertically."
"Do you mean up-and-down and sideways?" Keaton.
"No, Rafe means it has a longitudinal and latitudinal rotation,"
volunteered Felicity.
"Well, let's give this thing a spin," said Keaton.
"I don't know," said Viki. "It looks awfully old."
"It's built like a rock!" declared Rafe.
"Just to make sure we don't bust it, you two girls can take the first
whack at it," suggested Keaton.
Felicity and Viki agreed and carefully approached the globe. Each girl
placed her hand on a different ring and pushed. It took more effort then
either girl was expecting. The gigantic globe groaned and moaned before
it surrendered to the force from Viki and Felicity. Then it was as if
the sphere took on its own power. The girls released their grip before
the momentum pulled them along. The spinning slowly increased. A rhythmic
hum came from the ancient mechanism as it cleared away a century of dust.
"Now what?" asked Keaton.
"I don't know," said Felicity.
"Just a sec," said Viki with surprise. "A small lever popped
out of the base."
"Hey another one popped out on this side," declared Rafe.
"I think they might be brakes," said Keaton.
"Why don't you slowly apply pressure and see what happens?"
offered Felicity.
Viki and Rafe began to push down on the two levers. The globe resisted
the pressure. The kids pushed harder and harder. Then suddenly a white
object shot out of the top of the world. Rafe caught it. It looked like
a small baseball.
"Check it out!" exclaimed Rafe. "I think it's an old fashioned
carving made of ivory. It's a carving of an elephant's head. This is really
neat! The ears and trunk pull out from the shape of the ball."
"It looks so real," said Viki.
"That globe is still going crazy," said Keaton.
"Wait!, There's something written on the back of this carving,"
said Rafe.
"What's it say?" asked Felicity.
"Touch the tip of the trunk to the surface of the spinning globe,"
read Rafe.
"Do it!" said Keaton. "We've got to stop that thing."
Rafe took the carving and plunged it towards the globe. The second that
the elephant's trunk touched the surface the two rings stopped moving,
the levers locked and the globe ground to a halt. The same second that
everything stopped the four kids vanished into thin air. They felt like
they were squished into a tiny elevator. It was extremely dark and very
tight. There was an awful lot of shaking and bumping. A door opened. It
was too bright to see anything. Then without warning the four kids were
dumped on the ground. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust and to
finally see where they were. . .
Faded green and brown trees dotted the landscape. A scorching hot sun
began to burn their faces a beet red colour. The hard, dusty ground under
their feet scraped at their suddenly bare feet. Bitter tasting smoke felt
like it went right through their noses and into their lungs. The group
of children soon realized that their eyes stung at the sight of a river
polluted with jagged, rotting elephant bones. Long grass itched and tickled
at the legs they now realized were no longer covered in pants, but instead
covered by dirty and grimy rags.
"This place reeks like elephant manure!" gasped Rafe.
Vikki replied, "I think I know why…"
All three children's eyes followed Vikki's. Instantly, they noticed something
they hadn't seen before. Up in the grey, polluted sky, Mr. Arlem appeared
on a giant, gliding robotic elephant.
In front of him, spread out by the hundreds, flew red winged elephants.
These elephants appeared terrified and under the control of Mr. Arlem's
electrical whip.
Felicity stated the obvious, "Guys, I think we are in Africa. But,
is this the future???"
Felicity's comment went ignored. The other three children instead kept
their eyes open for more clues to answer Felicity's question.
Buzzing, screeching noises from above suddenly interrupted their search.
The wings of the flying elephants appeared RUSTY!?! The only thing that
rusts is metal! One by one robotic elephants began to fall from the sky
like heavy, hail-like rain drops. Most elephants seemed to land on their
trunks and flip then onto their metallic gray backs. The earth shook as
if an earthquake had hit the mysterious country.
The students could only guess that the wings' bolts weren't holding up
anymore. This thinking was verified when no elephants attempted to roll
over and simply lumber freely away from Mr. Arlem's approaching skin-cracking
electrical whip.
"Are you CRYING?!?" sneered Keaton to Vicki.
Vicki replied in a heartbroken manner, "Oh, those POOR elephants!"
Rafe broke in with his two cents. Trying to lighten the mood, he snickered,
"Hey, it could be worse… at least it's not YOU falling from
the sky."
Rafe's chuckle ended abruptly as the group noticed … Felicity was
no where to be seen…
From somewhere high above their heads came a bloodcurdling scream, "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"
There above, was Felicity…curled up in the hard, cold tusks of an elephant. But wait! This was not just any elephant…Felicity was screeching from the elephant Mr. Arlem was standing dangerously and fearlessly on top of.
Vicki cried in a freaked out manner, "We have to do something!!!!"
"Who do you think we are…SUPER HEROES??!! Do you see a cape under my rags?" wondered Rafe.
"I don't think we're going to need to do anything guys…look at what's headed our way!" advised Keaton in a matter of fact way.
A loud thump came from only a few metres away.
"Drop her, Awhoba," demanded Mr. Arlem, "Hi children, glad you could make it. How are you enjoying Africa in the year 3001?"
Unable to speak, their mouths simply dropped in shock and astonishment. Felicity staggered back toward her friends in a dizzy, airsick tumble.
"Not to worry, she'll get her land legs back up to their normal strength soon," explained Mr. Arlem, "I'm guessing you are here to accept my life-changing quest…"
"Wha………??" was the choral response as Felicity shrugged her shoulders, and Vicky just stood there in paralyzed amazement. Rafe's eyes began twitching like an out of control grasshopper. Keaton had a far away glazed expression on his face, looking like he was about to fall over.
"I'm assuming you may need a few more details and instructions," exclaimed Mr. Arlem.
Out of nowhere, Awhoba began beeping like a microwave that had just finished heating up macaroni. He had succeeded in getting everyone's attention. Then…..a flash of light shot out of the very tip of Awhoba's trunk.
The tubular snout began twisting upwards, uncoiling to put itself into a projectile movie position.
Rafe joked, "It's like the big flat screen TV of my dreams! Who brought popcorn?"
"This is NOT funny, can't you be serious for once!" Felicity lectured.
On the mossy body of a nearby mahogany tree, a faint picture came alive in an eruption of fast paced photos.
The kids couldn't help but notice that the futuristic warriors being
shown to them looked like exact clones of themselves…
"Is this movie supposed to be answering our questions?" asked
Keaton.
"I hoped it would help to explain," said Mr. Arlem.
"I'm very confused," said Felicity.
"Why are we watching ourselves march, row on row?" asked Rafe.
"I needed a defense force that I could trust to work hard and follow my directions," answered Mr. Arlem. "You guys were my best students."
"How did you clone us?" asked Vicky.
"Why did you do it?" asked Rafe.
"How did you move us to the future?" asked Felicity.
"We don't have that much time," said Mr. Arlem. "Watch the rest of the movie footage and I'll try to answer your questions."
Without warning the faint image began to shake and speed up.
"Quick!" shouted Mr. Arlem. "Awhoba senses danger. We
must relocate immediately! Follow me!"
"Climb on kids! Awhoba's got room for all of us!" Mr. Arlem
explained.
Buzzzzzz Bzzzzz……CLANK! All of a sudden five chairs grew up out of Awhoba's back like a budding mushroom. Awhoba was rising through the polluted sky in a horizontal motion toward the Northeast.
Out of nowhere, Rafe sang out loud, "I BELIEVE I CAN FLLLLLLYYYYYYY……"
"Sssssshhhhhhhh Rafe, you are going to draw attention to us … weren't you listening to Mr. Arlem? We are in the middle World War III, or IV or V….I don't know," Keaton scolded.
Mr. Arlem quickly began tapping colourful, blinking square buttons. Awhoba responded by raising his trunk and blasting red hot laser beams at a tiny figure stalking the group from behind.
Every hyper-beam blast missed its target, allowing the stealth figure to advance closer. A round black ball was shot out ahead of the mysterious follower. It appeared to be a smoke bomb that temporarily allowed them to move beside Awhoba's passengers without detection.
One glance was all it took to realize that Mr. Arlem's clones had turned
against him and were declaring battle RIGHT NOW…….
Dzzzzhhhhh…… a gun black rocket launcher slowly accelerated
from the left side of Awhoba's wing, exposing a rusted, beaten down platform.
Without hesitation, Rafe dove headfirst toward the tail end of Awhoba, sliding superman style to the platform.
Keaton blurted, "DUDE, what do you think you are doing?"
"Trying to win the battle … Rafe style. Plug your noses!!!" Rafe exclaimed.
Just out of his reach, the rocket teased him. With his other hand, he fumbled through his cluttered backpack. In what appeared to be slow motion, Rafe removed a mini Coke bottle looking object with a green liquid center and he clicked open the lid of the rocket canister and loaded the heat seeking missile with his mysterious bottle.
In true football style, Rafe extended his quarterback arm and rifled the new and improved weapon until it spiraled to its new destination, shattering the front window.
The enemy's ship shook like an earthquake had hit it and green smoke showered the fuselage. The clones began coughing and wheezing, plugging their noses, and … hurdling themselves out the broken glass!!!???
"Victory is ours!! Mr. Arlem, move Awhoba over and CLIMB ON BOARD!" ordered Rafe.
"What do you mean, climb onto the enemy's ship?" shrieked Vicky.
"Do you honestly think that Rafe is going to make us jump onto a death trap, alien-looking ship?" questioned Felicity.
The three children glanced toward Rafe who was grinning with his million dollar grin.
Just as they were nodding their heads in agreement to climb on the ship, they noticed a figure in the background of the ship.
"WAAAIIITTT RAFE!" hollered Mr. Arlem, "There is someone on board the clone's aircraft and I think it's MY clone…."
As Mr. Arlem finished his warning to Rafe, the metallic red and black striped, blimp-like aircraft flew off into the distance. This sudden action nearly cost Rafe his life as he almost tumbled from the platform.
"Oh quit being so dramatic and get up here Rafe," sighed Vicky.
By the time Rafe had rejoined them on Awhoba's back they were in hot pursuit of the clone's ship.
Dozens of similar looking buildings came into their view, nestled in the branches of several mahogany treetops.
In an attempt to remain hidden, the group stealthily landed Awhoba behind a field of tall, scratchy grass.
Felicity whispered, "It's spooky how much that clone looked exactly like you, Mr. Arlem."
Mr. Arlem decided to reveal his long-time secret…
"I have a confession to make. When I was 12 years old my beloved grandfather, Edward Arlem, passed away. Sadly, that was when my personal battle began. My grandfather had noticed some sinister, disturbing behaviour in my twin brother, Jordan, and he had good reason to be concerned because my younger brother had often talked about cruelly ruling the earth."
Keaton's eyeballs nearly popped out of his sockets as his voice exaggerated one word, "WHHHHHAT!"
"Let me continue, but please let's keep walking toward those buildings in the trees. Do you remember when I had to retrieve a booklet from the staffroom before meeting up with you?"
All four nodded yes.
Mr. Arlem further explained, "The ancient globe you toyed with is really a time traveling device and my booklet is the instruction manual. I was forced to create an army of clones to protect the globe from my brother's evil hands."
"What an interesting story…I do believe I've heard it somewhere before…
…but it's a wee bit backwards my brother. Kids, I believe you have been duped. You see, I formed the clone army, to protect the world from HIM!" accused Jordan Arlem as he pointed directly at Mr. Arlem.
"You lied, Mr. Arlem?" questioned Viki.
Rafe mumbled under his breath, "Now that there's two of them does it mean we get twice the homework? Geez!"
The grass began to wobble and the far off enemy camp began to shake and tumble from the trees. A reddish-brown cloud began to form as a swarm of aging, rusted elephants surrounded the group. Awhoba stepped proudly into the middle of the mob, directly behind Jordan. Awhoba's massive trunk swooped down at Jordan's arms and squeezed him like a boa constrictor, preventing him from escaping.
For the first time, the children heard Awhoba's booming voice, "As the leader of the elephants, I am here to right the wrongs of this century. Jordan, if you are telling the truth, call your clones and have them speak for you!"
"Agreed," Jordan accepted and sounded the command, "Mohbamdulahhh!"
Thousands of children soldiers erupted from the base wreckage. They appeared to be marching to an invisible drum, getting closer and closer, circling behind the elephants. In unison, the clone group began to call out, "WE HAVE BEEN DEPROGRAMMED….THE ELEPHANTS FIXED OUR MEMORY CHIPS WHILE THE FOUR REAL CHILDREN DISTRACTED EVIL JORDAN THE CAUSE OF ALL THIS MAYHEM!"
The real Mr. Arlem stepped forward and said, "Thank you, children, you have succeeded where I could not. You forced my evil twin Jordan to play his hand and we were able to disarm his army of clone students. You all receive an A+!"
"Does this mean NO TEST?" asked Rafe.
"No tests!" declared Mr. Arlem.
"YEAH!" called out the children.
There was a lot of noise and commotion, but it was all brought to dead silence from one simple question from Felicity, "Now that the threat is gone, how do we get back home?"
"There's only one way to return back to the classroom," said Mr. Arlem. "And that's by using the globe."
"But that's back at the classroom," added Keaton.
Then Awhoba lurched forward, still holding Jordan, the evil twin, tightly in his trunk. With the sound of metal scraping metal and rust falling, the great mechanical pachyderm lowered its humongous forehead towards the ground. Mr. Arlem reached up and forced back a section of armored plating and there was a globe that looked identical to the ancient one in the classroom.
"Unfortunately we need the ivory carving of the elephants head," stated Mr. Arlem.
"You mean the one that looks kinda like a baseball?" asked Keaton.
"You must have used it to get here," remembered Mr. Arlem.
"Everything happened so fast. I think we might have left it in the classroom," confessed Viki.
"Yeah we disappeared before we knew what was going on," said Keaton.
"I'm not blaming you. It must have been scary, not knowing what was going," said Mr. Arlem in a consoling tone.
"Is this it?" asked Rafe knowingly as he revealed the ivory ball shaped carving from his backpack.
"Rafe! You had it all the time!" declared Felicity. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"You didn't give me half a chance," said Rafe with a devilish grin on his face.
"Now that we have it, Mr. Arlem, how can we use it to get back home?" asked Keaton.
"Well," pondered Mr. Arlem, "The two globes are set up like tele-portles, meaning that they are in constant communication with one another. So theoretically speaking, by reversing the process, you should return to you original point of departure."
"Which means we'll end up back in your classroom," said Felicity.
"Yes," said Mr. Arlem. "Except it was never my classroom."
"What do you mean?" asked Viki.
"Well, it all very complex, but I'll try my best to explain," began Mr. Arlem. "You see, I have never been back to your time. It was all stage by my insane, evil twin Jordan. He went back in time to your school and cloned your images to create a massive army."
"Why us?" asked Keaton.
"Jordan thought that I wouldn't fight and destroy innocent children," continued Mr. Arlem. "And he was right, I didn't know who you were or where you were from or which were real and which were clones."
"How did you know that we weren't clones," asked Viki.
"When you appeared," said Mr. Arlem, "You were curious and you always watched out for one another. You cared."
So this whole thing is like a cross between the movie "Terminator" and "Back to the Future!" declared Rafe.
"I don't recognize the references," stated Mr. Arlem.
"What are you going to do now that you've caught Jordan?" asked Felicity.
"I believe that my twin brother has visited other points in time and possibly caused some major disruption," said Mr. Arlem, "So, I think I have my work cut out for me, as I try to correct and tidy up his messes."
"Good luck!" said Rafe.
With that Mr. Arlem took the four time travelers and positioned them beside Awhoba. The evil twin Jordan was still held tight in the elephant's trunk and was swung over to one side so he could not interfere. So Rafe approached the globe and placed the ivory trunk against the continent of Africa on the ancient globe.
"I guess when I pull the carving away from the globe," stated Rafe," You guys can start to turn it backwards."
"That's right," said Mr. Arlem, "And you have to promise me that when you arrive back at the classroom, the very first thing you're going to do is destroy that carving!"
"We Promise!" shouted the kids in agreement.
The friends looked at one another and nodded their heads. Rafe lifted the ivory carving from the surface of the globe as the others pushed the globe backwards on its axes and the four kids vanished into thin air. They felt like they were squished into a tiny elevator. It was extremely dark and very tight. There was an awful lot of shaking and bumping. A door opened. It was too bright to see anything. Then without warning the four kids were dumped on the ground. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust and to finally see that they were back in the classroom.
"Come on!" shouted Rafe as he ran out of the class.
"Where are you going?" called out Keaton.
"We have a promise to keep!" Rafe called back.
Rafe ran down the hall and out the double doors towards the sports field. The other three friends had a hard time keeping up. Rafe saw who he was looking for and stopped running.
"Hey, Roger!" yelled Rafe to a really big guy standing at home plate, holding a bat. "I bet I can toss one buy you. You think you're so hot! You think you're the best in the school, come on prove it!"
"You skinny little runt!" shouted Roger. "Bring it on!"
"Rafe!" called out Keaton, "Roger is the best in the school!"
"I know," answered Rafe.
Rafe walked up to the pitchers mound.
"You better throw and then duck!" instructed Roger.
"Thanks for the warning," said Rafe nervously. "I hope this works."
Rafe threw the ivory sphere as best he could. He hoped he threw it hard enough so the ball would reach Roger. It wasn't a good pitch. It was really slow. But Roger was smiling because he had extra time to set up his target. With a massive swing that almost seemed in slow motion, the bat made contact with the ivory ball shaped carving. There was a very large 'CRACK' sound and a lot of dust. It was a very fine powder that simply drifted away. The ball disappeared.
"Hey!" shouted Roger, "What was that?"
"I'm trying to develop a new and improved baseball," answered Rafe.
"That one was garbage," declared Roger, "The silly thing blew up!"
"Yeah, thanks," said Rafe trying to sound disappointed.
As Rafe rejoined his friends and turned to walk back to the school, they noticed an unusual glow coming from Mr. Arlem's Classroom.
"I bet you the globe and all that antique stuff has vanished just like Rafe's ivory baseball," said Viki.
"Not even a trace," agreed Felicity.
"Do you think there'll be a sub in for tomorrow?" asked Keaton.
"Of course!" said Viki.
"I really hope that their assignments are really dull and boring," said Rafe.
"Yeah, boring would be good for a while!" everyone agreed, "No more globe trotting for us.
The End
