The Palisadian-Post is running a selection of winning pieces from the 2021 Pacific Palisades Library Association’s Summer Creative Writing Contest, which featured the theme “Help!”
The following piece was penned by Rohan Mukhopadhyay, who was awarded second place in the third and fourth grade Jotters category.
Ralph loves going to his school library. But lately, something has seemed strange. He has noticed kids have been going into the library, but not coming out. Ralph goes to the library to ask his favorite librarian Mrs. Figgle Wiggle what is going on. To his dismay he realizes Mrs. Figgle Wiggle is gone and has been replaced by a new librarian.
When Ralph looks at the new librarian he notices something odd. Is the librarian hovering in the air? As soon she sees Ralph looking, she seems to quickly drop to the ground. Ralph looks at her more closely and thinks he must have been imagining things. Or was he?
“Hello” she says in a sharp high-pitched voice. “My name is Ms. Feeney and I am the substitute librarian.” “Where is Mrs. Figgle Wiggle” asked Ralph? “She is on vacation” Ms. Feeney replied. Ralph took a closer look at Ms. Feeney. She looked suspiciously like a vulture! She was hunched over and her nose was shaped like a beak. Her clothes were brown and she wore what looked like a sweater with vulture plumage even though it was very hot in the library.
Ralph slowly and carefully backed out of the library, keeping his eyes on Ms. Feeney the entire time. Could she have anything to do with the kids who are disappearing from the library? Ralph decides to try to find someone to help him. He looks around slowly and carefully and spots a big kid standing near a tree. “Can you help me get my book from the library.” “Yeah sure, I’ll help. By the way, everyone calls me Bob”, the kid says in a low gravely voice. They walk to the library together in a slow paced walk. As they climb the stairs, Ralph thinks he sees a tail sprouting from Bob’s behind. He looks again more closely, but he thinks he was just imagining things. Theres no tail. Or is there?
They go into the library and Ralph nervously looks around for Ms. Feeney. He breathes a sigh of relief as he doesn’t see her. As soon as Ralph walks along the aisles and tries to find the 2 book he wants, Bob suddenly says, “I’m no friend but foe.” And then Bob sprouts that tail Ralph thought he saw before. Horns erupt from his head and he turns a sickly shade of yellow as his mouth turns into jaws filled with sharp teeth and spines emerge from his back. Ralph recognizes the creature as a mythical character from a book he read once. He screams in terror “it’s a Decomber” and runs for his life, the Decomber chases after him hot in pursuit.
The Decomber shoots a ball of vines at Ralph. The vines hit the bookshelves and burst to life snaking up the books. Ralph grabs the heaviest book he can find, it turns out to be a dictionary, he throws it at the Decomber. He yells “eat words” and the book hits the Decomber in the back of the head. The Decomber growls in frustration. Ralph remembers in the book that they trap the Decomber using fire. Suddenly Ralph sees Ms. Feeney walking towards him as she transforms before his very eyes. He sees wings sprout from her back, a tail comes out of her rear end, she is covered in feathers and sharp talons replace her feet. Her mouth becomes a big dragon like mouth, she turns bright yellowish blue and as she beats her powerful scaly wings she soars up into the air. Ralph recognizes her as another character from the same book, a Vulgan! As Ralph remembers it, the Vulgan was able to defeat the Decomber in the story.
The Decomber starts shooting balls of vines trying to hit her out of the air. The Vulgan swoops gracefully and dodges. She shoots lightning at the Decomber, the Decomber gets hit and stops moving. The Vulgan pulls a glass vial from behind her wing and throws it at the Decomber. He gets stuck in the vial. The Vulgan slowly descends to the ground and starts transforming back into Ms. Feeney.
Ms. Feeney slowly walks to a book on the bookshelf and pulls it out. Ralph recognizes it as the book called Uprising of the Evil which the Vulgan and the Decomber are from. She taps the book three times with her finger. The spine of the book slowly opens up and reveals holes 3 where two vials are missing. She puts the vial with the Decomber inside one of the holes and then she takes another empty glass vial from behind her back and holds it aimed at herself. A yellowish blue light is sucked from her into the vial and a Vulgan forms inside. She slides the vial back inside the spine, taps the book another three times and the spine with the vials slides back into the book as if nothing ever happened.
“Who are you” gasped Ralph in a tone of amazement and disbelief. Ms. Feeney comes over to Ralph and says “you have seen what you should have never laid eyes on and it is now irreversible. You are now one of us, the Protectors of the Lost Books. As you saw, when a creature from a book escapes it will assume another identity. When this happens, you must find the characters and return them to the books they come from. They will try to earn your trust but do not be fooled. You can assume the identity of the characters in order to do battle.”
“You can always check if a book is missing a character by tapping on the book three times. But remember, tap it again three times to return it to its original stage. I assume you are wondering where Mrs. Figgle wiggle is and where the missing children are.” Ralph nodded. “Don’t worry, the children are safe and they will be returned to their classrooms shortly. Mrs. Figgle wiggle is in Antarctica helping a library deal with a missing storybook polar bear.”
Ralph asks “what did you mean I’m one of you now?” “Well, you saw what happened with the Decomber and you looked like you were ready to help. You have what it takes to be a Protector of Lost Books too.” Then the bell rings to signal the end of school. Ms. Feeny hands Ralph a book that is unlike any book he has ever seen. “This book will have all the answers and will prepare you for what is to come. Oh and here is the book you wanted from the library.” “How did you know,” asks ralph. “I have my ways” replies Ms. Feeney. She then walks away and Ralph runs all the way home.
The end… or is it?
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