There in an aquarium I noticed a hairy tortoise moving around without a shell. I hadn’t seen anything like it before. I would have to say that the crème de la crème was a hoot owl whose feathers that matched the colors of the rainbow. With all the exciting animals in the lab, I immediately asked in a sardonic way, “Are some of those animals’ mutants or something?”
Scottie smiled, and while hiding his secrets from me he said, “Or something.”
Petting one of the eccentric creatures that looked like a cross between a cat and a dog, curiosity got the best of me so I asked, “Scottie, so level with me, did you create all of these animals?”
Scottie laughed. “No, God created the animals. I just had a hand in reengineering their DNA.”
“Well, Dr. Scottie Sheffield, they are all fantastic specimens.” I was amazed while staring dumbfounded at them for several minutes until I heard the coo of a dove with neon feathers calling out to me. As I turned to focus on the rare site, a young lady about my age entered the room.
“Jordan I would like for you to meet my daughter Jenna. She is studying as a resident and helping me with my discoveries.”
At first Jenna struck me as kind of awkward. Jenna was wearing a white lab coat that looked like a mini skirt on her, because she was very tall for a girl. Freckles covered her nose and cheeks. Her glasses sat a little crooked on her face as she pushed her hair out of her eyes. She had long, dark, curly red hair that looked like fire, and her green eyes sparkled like emeralds as she came over to shake my hand.
“Hello, my name is Jenna, nice to meet you.” She had a warm smile, which made her pleasant and easy to talk too.
“Hi I’m Jordan Brady. I was just talking to your father about all the–” Jenna’s eyes grew to the size of quarters as she surprisingly interrupted. “You aren’t thee Jordan Brady are you?” I saw a look of concern cover her face. Jenna’s warm smile suddenly vanished into thin air as she looked at me with wonder and utter amazement.
“Well, Jordan Brady, some of us have been expecting you. Follow me.” Jenna took me by the hand as I entered a mysteriously darkened corridor. As I walked along the pitch-black tunnel, I had the feeling that a life changing experience was on the horizon.
Great Scott, Is That?
When I stepped foot the dimly lit chambers, it took a minute before my eyes could focus. Once my eyes adjusted, it seemed like the corridor was decorated with an ultraviolet light or black light. She held my hand as we began to walk.
My white t-shirt, along with everything else in the room, was gleaming. My shirt now resembled a luminous purple when I looked down. My hands were shaded neon as well.
“Jenna, could you tell me what this room is?” She let go of my hand, and as she turned to face me, she said, “Well, the warm sanguine lights help ease his eyes. He’s not as young as he used to be you know.” I supposed she assumed that I knew what or who she was talking about, but I didn’t. I waited a moment, thinking that she would explain herself, but instead she started to pull up a file on her glowing computer screen. “Let me log on. Okay I have it. Pull up a chair and read this.”
I sat down and quickly examined the entry. It was the article that was posted in the Willoughby Sun about my attack by toggles. “Yeah, so what am I looking for?” I concluded after reading it yet again. “I’ve read this a dozen times. Is this supposed to impress me or something?”
Jenna looked a little agitated as she huffed before saying, “Look a little closer at the beginning of each word and how they pop out under this light. Now read it again. Don’t you see the hidden message?” I looked a little closer this time and there it was, a hidden message indeed. “How did I miss this?” I’m usually pretty good at deciphering puzzles and patterns. Can you hand me a pen so I can write down the understanding?”
“No need to.” Jenna turned to the next file that she already had pulled up on her screen. I already took the liberty of saving the message, in hopes that I would soon find you. Let me print it off for you.”
I quickly glanced over the message when Jenna asked, “So what does it mean?” I studied it closer before saying, “I’m not entirely sure. I think we are missing part of the puzzle here. If I understand, we need to find a guy named Ralph.” Jenna’s eyes lit up as she earnestly replied, “Not a guy.” She then grinned with neon excitement as she said, “Follow me.”
Confused by her zeal and warmth, I decided to follow suit and go behind the yellow curtain. It’s there that I saw something that would forever change my life.
“Jordan Brady, I would like for you to meet Ralph.” My eyes couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There in a cage stood a luminous blue toggle, furry and mean looking. He had a neon pink tongue and fluorescent green on his hands, tummy, and feet. The first thing that I noticed was his eyes, as he was hunkered over in the corner shaking from fright. His visage wasn’t like any of the other toggles that I’ve come in contact with before. His eyes had a calming blue tint to them, and not the fiery red that fit all the rest. Yes I could tell right away that Ralph was in fact a nice toggle.
I went over to the cage with skepticism. So this was the toggle that got away from my gramps all those years ago. “So let me ask you a question Ralph. Just how did you do it?” Ralph quit shaking and came right over to the cage once he saw that there was a visitor. At first he looked confused. He started to say something, but put his hand over his mouth in disbelief. It appeared Ralph had just seen a ghost as he hunkered back over to the corner again. “I know it’s not you; it just can’t be. If it were so, I would be free.”
“I looked at Jenna and said, “Sounds like a toggle trick to me. I’ve never met a toggle that wasn’t sneaky and under handed, I wouldn’t imagine that this one would be any different. At my gramps cabin was a workshop that he used to have. He had all kinds of taxidermy on the wall of toggles that he’d caught over the years, all except for one that is. There in the corner was a plaque that simply read Ralph. I thought that gramps couldn’t ever catch this guy and that’s why his head didn’t grace the mantle of the workshop. What do you think Ralph?”
Ralph spoke up once he’d heard my comments. “You look just like my master, Gramps you call him now. The resemblance is uncanny, but how?”
When Ralph spoke it was many octaves higher than a normal person’s voice. He also spoke with gravel in his throat. I answered Ralph, “You are speaking about my grandpa. Everyone always said that we could pass as twins. Even I saw the likeness in one of his old pictures that he kept on the mantle.”
I don’t trust you Ralph, but you did know my gramps. Apparently he had some kind of relationship with you, so let me ask you about this message that we received. We need you to translate it. Can you help us? It starts out with: If you find Ralph, he can decipher. The rest is cryptic and in another language. What does it all mean?”
I placed the puzzling message into the cage for Ralph to examine.
Wakati wa mwezi kamili na jua anarudi nyeusi.
uchawi Toggle Handbook, wa toggles nguvu shambulio hilo.
Wa Woods, Whoah kubwa vita kama wewe sijawahi kuona
Siku hiyo dunia itakuwa na mfalme mpya
“This my friends is very bad news. Let me translate it for you.” I interrupted Ralph for just a moment. What language is it anyways?” Ralph just shook his head as he said, “Swahili and Togglanese are one and the same, just one goes by another name. My Togglanese is rusty but I think it says something like: By the powers of the Toggle Handbook, when the sun and moon are one a great battle will begun?”
I corrected Ralph by saying that should read begin. A great battle will begin.” Ralph looked confused at first and then shook his head to agree with me.” I saw Jenna making computations in a notebook. I asked her what she was doing. She showed me a picture of the sun and moon. “It says when the sun and moon are one. In other words they are talking about an eclipse.” She finished her drawing with a very long math formula. “That’s in a few days.” Jenna pulled out some old maps o
f the galaxy. Look here at the Earth and Moon. She measured the updated maps from the weather labs. “If I’m not mistaken, we will have an eclipse in three days.”
All three of us looked at each other in amazement, but just for a few seconds, then I asked, “So just who tipped us off anyways?” The other two looked confused by the question. “Who would have scrambled a message like this and placed it in this article? So what do you think? An enemy or a friend?” This time all three of us were stumped by this question.
I rubbed my forehead for a moment. It’d been awhile since I had my last migraine, but I felt one coming on as all of the evidence and questions were almost too much to swallow. “This article almost guarantees that there are others like me out there fighting for the truth.” Jenna spoke up, “Perhaps a secret society like The Illuminati is working with or against the toggles. It’s really hard to say. Maybe they want the world to end too.” I looked angrily at Jenna, “For all of humanity, let’s hope that they are not in cahoots with one another.”
The concern on Jenna’s face deepened. “So what do we do now?” There are not enough people that know the truth about toggles to make a difference in such little time. No one will listen to us right now. It’s rather obvious that you, Ralph, and I can’t take on a whole toggle army.”
Suddenly a great idea or perhaps a Hail Mary entered my mind. “We might not have to. I have an idea.” Puzzled by my last statement, Jenna inquired, “What do you mean?”
“I just remembered that there is someone that I desperately need to go see. He might be able to help us.” I hurriedly shook Jenna’s hand and waved goodbye to Ralph. I told them “I will be in contact very soon,” as I quickly made my way out the door. I didn’t mean to leave so abruptly, but we didn’t have a second to lose; in this case, every precious second was of the essence. When I climbed into the Jeep I thought to myself, If this doesn’t work I fear that we are all goners.
Old Mercenary
Stopping for gas at an old mom and pop filling station, I noticed something very strange happening across the street. Either my eyes were deceiving me, or I was being spied on by a toggle, a raw snorg to be exact. The toggle first caught my eye when I saw something strange move with speed out from behind an old newspaper stand. This was a toggle of many colors. I saw blues, greens, and purples as it moved quickly to hide behind a car tire. The snorg’s snout drug the ground when it tried to slide under a parked car. As I stood there in astonishment pumping my gas, a grim realization was starting to sink in. I was being watched.
In nothing flat, I scrambled back into my Jeep and started the engine. That’s when my day got a little brighter. See, the toggle that scurried behind the parked car’s tire thought that the car was stopped. I chuckled when the lady put the car in reverse and then drove away. Splat went the toggle. I drove over to the scene to examine the aftermath and the only thing that I saw was some rather sticky blue, green, and purple ooze.
I wasn’t for sure where I was going, so I continued driving to the edge of town, hoping to recognize something. The last time that I visited, Gramps was still alive, and he drove us. That was a long time ago now. It’s got to be around here somewhere, I told myself out of frustration. The only thing that I remembered from past visits was if I passed the penitentiary, I’d gone too far. Maybe it has been too long.
I eventually saw a billboard that gave me directions: Turn left at the light for Shady Ridge Delight. When I pulled up there was a sign out front that read: Shady Ridge Delight Assisted Living Facility. In other words I’d arrived at the old folk’s home–not just any convalescent home mind you, but a state-of-the art entertainment bachelor’s pad with assisted living. This is where my grandpa’s cousin lived, which was right on the edge of town.
He was one of the original three: a toggle mercenary. The cousin’s brother moved away a long time ago and broke up the trio. According to my grandpa, the other brother was once wounded and left for dead during one of their battles. They promised to come back for him if they could, but the fighting proved too much. Somehow he got out of there alive but was never the same again. Gramps told many a story about his two cousins and all the carnage, destruction, and havoc that they created as a team.
I will admit that I hadn’t seen gramps’ cousin in many years. I wasn’t sure that he would even recognize me when I entered the room. See, a long time ago he was committed, declared insane by Willoughby Wood’s finest. Gramps told me that he felt partially to blame because they were the ones that first discovered toggles.
Gramps told me a story once that I thought was a fairy tale; until the chain of recent events, I thought that it had no merit. It seems that after his wife died in a brutal accident, gramps’ cousin just lost it. He told all of the authorities that she was attacked and massacred by two fire-breathing stroggles. The accident, unfortunately, was just enough to push him over the edge. Last I saw him he was sitting there in his room playing an old, rusty, beat-up guitar that he named Drifter and writing songs about the good ole days.
The drifter was a most unique guitar that outshined and out played any other guitar that I’d ever seen before. It was hand crafted out of solid swamp ash and loaded with all the modern technology. The guitar was shaped like an AR-15 for its styling, and played like a dream. I very rarely saw him without it.
He once sung me a song that he’d written entitled “Two Terrible Toggles Fell in a Well.” At the end of the song, he killed off the toggles. Then he drew back and threw his guitar at the wall and threatened anyone to touch it. I supposed he had the right to hold a grudge. I too hold that same grudge today for all the obvious reasons.
Gramps always told me that his cousin was a master when it came to tracking and locating toggles. Gramps shared with us over the years countless stories of how they were able to track down the most vicious bands of toggles and wipe them out with their delucificators. I was hoping that when we met today he could help me find one very important toggle, the same one that took my Piper away from me.
As I turned the corner to his room, a thought suddenly occurred. What if the authorities had always known about toggles and had covered up their existence? The more I thought about it, the more this conspiracy theory made sense to me. It seemed like every time someone had come into contact with a toggle, the government, or authorities had stepped in and shut them down, or froze them out–until now. They did their best to eliminate any threat of toggles and the truth going public. Perhaps Gramps’ cousin wasn’t crazy at all, but confined against his will for simply knowing the facts.
Perhaps that’s why the authorities had been less than supportive in my efforts to uncover the truth. I would have to be very careful with this new information and share it with just the ones that I truly trusted, because if it were true, this new intelligence puts my life in danger from others and not just toggles.
When I entered the room, there sat a shell of a man rocking in his chair, holding tight to his Drifter. He was wearing a red and green Hawaiian shirt with an old man’s sweater over top. It pained me to see him this way. After all, Gramps valued their friendship and always spoke highly of his accomplishments: destroying toggles and his guitar playing skills.
“Well come on in if you’re coming. You’re letting all the store-bought air out of my room. That doesn’t come cheap you know.”
“It’s so good to see you again.” I immediately noticed that age had taken its toll on him. His hair and beard were now white as snow. His shriveled frame was covered with blankets to keep warm. I was glad to see him, but at the same time it hurt to see him this way.
“Well, Mr. Brady, what can I do ya for? You just missed the daily two o’clock sponge bath. I’ve got to tell ya about that nurse–Bobbi I think– has got a rock solid body on her. It’s possibly my favorite part of the day.” We both laughed at that like we’d been old friends for years.
“Well, the reason that I’m here is–.” With a hand gesture, he immediately cut me off. “I know the reason you are here. I r
ead the paper too you know. Someone put it all out there, clear as day awhile ago. Your article had that old one-two punch that writers used to use back in the day. Whoever wrote it was very clever. By the way, I always read by a fluorescent light, just in case there’s more news than what meets the eye. So the question is, what are you going to do about it?”
“Well I was hoping that you knew of a way that I could find the evil one’s toggle lair.”
“Then what are going to do? See, that’s what’s wrong with this generation today; you don’t think things through.” He had a point I guess. Truth was, I didn’t know what I would do if I did find his hideout.
“You know she used to call me Sparky.” I could tell that something was troubling him as he choked up for a moment. “She would come to my gigs and bring me a slice of homemade raspberry pie. We had four youngins’ you know. Where are they all now? They’ve all moved away and forgotten about this crazy old man–how do you like that?” I could tell that things were turning for the worst so I tried to cheer him up a little. “So tell me about your nurse again, Bobbi was it? He perked up once I mentioned his nurse. “Yeah I smacked her on her behind the other day. Man she’s got a large target too, big and plump. They told me that I would be thrown out if I couldn’t behave, but I know better. Truth is they won’t let me leave, no matter what.”
“What if I could help you with that and get you out of here? Would you help me in taking out these toggles?” He thought for a moment and I could tell that the wheels were turning in his head.
I saw the seriousness on his face as he told me, “If you don’t want to kill yourself, I suggest that you come up with a plan.” I just looked aimlessly at him, hoping that he had something in mind. After a few seconds of silence, he finally rolled his eyes at me and offered this advice: “If it were me I would have him come to you.”
Shantago's Revenge Page 4
