Keeper 2: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Jamie snagged another triangle sandwich and headed back to the study upstairs.  He ate the sandwich as he walked and finished by the time he settled himself behind the desk.  Jamie slid open one of the deep desk drawers and extracted a thick file from its depths.  He set the thick file in the center of the blotter and opened it.  Jamie had only made it about halfway through the inventory as he kept getting sidetracked by events.  He figured that if he was lucky he might make it through the inventory about the same time he left the position of Keeper.

“And then the next Keeper can start again with checking things off,” Jamie told himself as he turned to the section dealing with the library. “It’s a vicious cycle. I wonder if anyone actually does make it through?”  He found the library section and smiled.

For the first time, the fact that the books were listed alphabetically by author actually helped him out.  As the books were grouped by category on the shelves, it had been more of an inconvenience than anything the last time he was searching for something. Jamie scanned down the long list of names, using his finger to keep track of the thin spidery handwriting. The black ink had faded to sepia tones and was hard to read in places. As charming as the hand written inventory was, he suspected it might fall to him to have the entire thing typed up.  Parts of it were nearly illegible.

“Hayes, Howard, Huffington, Ha,” Jamie said in triumph. “Huffington comma Reginald Foster.” He read aloud.  The name was listed twice.  Huffington, Reginald Foster, Jr. was listed and his name was followed by Reginald the fourth.

“Apparently Reggie three didn’t feel the need to write a book, or Albe didn’t see the need to keep it.” Jamie slid his finger to the side reading the title written by Reggie IV. “The Art and Science of Distance Communication and the Practical Application of Mechanical, Esoteric and Alchemical Means in Both the Ancient and Modern realms.” Jamie let out a low whistle. “Sounds like fun. At least Burr got the distance and communication right.”  Jamie looked up from the inventory and at the shelves.

“If I were a pretentiously titled book written by a pretentiously titled man where would I be?” He couldn’t recall seeing any section of the library dealing with transportation or communication. Jamie stood up from his desk and began to walk around the room looking for titles that looked like they might be in a similar category or bear the name Huffington on the spine.  He doubted the title would even fit on a book spine.  Jamie walked around the room, looking at all of the books that were eye level or lower.  When he had completed the circuit he climbed a few steps up on the ladder so that he could look at the upper shelves.  Both the Library and study had sixteen foot high ceilings and book cases that reached them.

The book wasn’t in the study so he moved to the library to continue his quest. He had only had to search a few shelves before he found it.  The large tome had been shoved into a corner as if whoever had put it there had hoped it would be forgotten.  Jamie almost passed it over as it had nothing written on its spine.  He pulled it from the shelf just in case and found it was the book he was searching for.  With a sense of accomplishment Jamie took it to his favorite reading chair and set it on the side table.  It felt more like a doorstop than a book and he hoped desperately that there was an index of some sort.

The wood and kindling was already laid for a fire and  all Jamie had to do was strike one of the long matches and set the kindling ablaze.  This he swiftly did as he realized that the room had grown chill as the world outside moved further into evening.  As the kindling caught and began to lick flames over the well placed logs, Jamie wondered when Del had managed to scoop the ashes out of the grate and set the logs just so.  Jamie could have sworn that the fireplace contained only the cold ashes from the night before when he went down to meet with Burr. As Jamie settled himself into his reading chair, Del appeared in the doorway.  This time it wasn’t to announce an unexpected visitor, but to bring him a large mug of rich hot chocolate and a plate of shortbread cookies.

“I figured it was about that time,” Del said placing the cookies and mug on the table next to the chair. Jamie had lived all of his life more or less catching food on the run, a burger here, a bowl of cereal there and a freezer full of microwavable products to fill in the gaps. While the position of Keeper had many drawbacks, the food certainly wasn’t one of them.  It had taken very little time for him to grow to love the made from scratch meals.  He was certain that Del’s hot chocolate should be classified as an addictive substance.

“Am I that predictable?” Jamie asked with a smile.

“Not in everything,” Del assured him. The little man noticed the heavy book Jamie’s hands.  “That seems quite substantial.” Jamie turned the book over so the title was facing up.

“Burr recommended it when I asked about the visilore.”

“That’s that hoop thing to contact other Keepers?”

“Yup,” Jamie confirmed. “Just a little light reading before bed.”

“The Art and Science of Distance Communication and the Practical Application of Mechanical, Esoteric and Alchemical Means in Both the Ancient and Modern Realms.” Del read the title and shuddered. “Better you than me.”

“Thanks.”  Del left him with his book and Jamie took a tentative sip of his hot chocolate before opening the book.  The drink was still too hot to drink and Jamie licked the whipped cream from his lip and set it back down on the table.  He opened the book and heard the old leather crack a little.  He winced at the sound and wondered when the book had been printed.  A glance at the flyleaf told him it was 1822. Above the date was scrawled a note. 

“To my dear friend Dr. Edwin Fulton, I offer this humble tome for your collection.” Jamie read.  “Well perhaps I misjudged Reggie, perhaps he wasn’t as pretentious as it seems.” he said.  Jamie looked for an index in the back and found none.  There was likewise no table of contents. He turned to the introduction hoping it would provide some sort of guidance.

The introduction was written in the same pretentious style as the title. He sighed. Jamie promised himself a cookie if he could make it through the introduction. Halfway through his eyes started to cross and he had to force himself to stay focused.  He took some amusement in the fact that the corner edges of some of the pages were still attached to each other proving that he had made it further into the tome than Dr. Edwin Fulton ever had. Finally, he made it through the introduction, without learning much, and bit into his shortbread with a sense of triumph.

“Apparently at some point Reggie managed to eat a thesaurus, found he didn’t like it and spit it back up on some conveniently placed pages,” Jamie muttered as he finished his cookie.  He took a sip of his drink and with a sigh started in on chapter one. Twenty pages in, all of Jamie’s cookies were gone and his mug was empty.  He was also having a hard time keeping his eyes open.  Jamie noticed the fire was dying down and he stood, stretched and began to add more wood.  Soon the blaze was once again high.  Jamie settled back down into his chair.

 

“Perhaps a different approach,” Jamie said to himself, knowing that he was not going to be able to read through too many more pages without deciding to use the tome as a doorstop.  He quickly flipped through the pages looking for the word visilore.  He read the first couple of paragraphs of the first page of each chapter to get a sense of it before moving on.  In chapter twenty five, close to the middle of the book, Jamie found what he was looking for and sighed with relief. Slowly, Jamie began to work his way through the chapter.

The fire crackled and began to die down again.  The words began to blur and Jamie lost the sense of them.  Admitting defeat, Jamie placed a marker in the book, closed it and set it to the side.  The mug and plate were gone and Jamie couldn’t remember if Del had come to retrieve them or not. If he had then Jamie had certainly not heard him and he didn’t think that good old Reggie was engrossing enough for him to miss the opportunity to take a break from his self-appointed task.  He shook his head and stood.  Jamie rubbed a hand over his tired eyes and let it fall back to his side as he began to walk to his room. 

Apparently the directions enclosed with the visilore were only a part of the instructions.  If he was reading the Huffington book correctly the visilore could do so much more. As Burr had mentioned the visilore was capable of acting as a portal.  So far though Jamie had only found references to stepping though, not of coming back. Finding himself stranded in some other Keeper’s house was not high on his list of things to do on a Tuesday.

“I don’t even know where the other Keeper’s houses are,” Jamie said as he sat down on his bed and began to unlace his sneakers.  He let them fall to the floor, dropping each onto the carpet with a dull thud. The idea of starting back in on the Huffington book first thing in the morning made him frown. “Maybe I could start by looking into finding out where the other Keepers are located first.  Jamie let his clothes fall into a small pile and he climbed into bed wearing only his boxers. The idea of looking for a map sounded much better than reading more of the dry book.

“And I even know where to look,” Jamie though t as he snuggled beneath the blanket.  Albe had long ago converted the dining room into a map room. “If there is a map of Keeper’s houses, there is a good bet that it is there.”  With the happy thought of searching Albe’s maps running through his head, Jamie drifted off to sleep.