Zephyr

by Jade Damboise Rail

  When she woke up, she opened her eyes, and saw Harley standing over her, and saw that she was in a bed with white sheets.

  “Told you I would take care of your blindness problem.”

  Zephyr was smiling. She looked around, she was looking everywhere, as if it was a precious privilege, not like before when it was just something everyone could do.

  “You know, if we had to stay here it would be a problem, cause they would rip your eyes out if you weren’t able to pay for them, but we can just, disappear.

  Zephyr saw that Harley was holding the silver bag. It was good to know someone was taking care of Draco.

  “Let’s go.”

  This time, Zephyr enjoyed the white light, or more like enjoyed the fact that she could see it.

  “I can see!” She said again.

  “Yes you can.”

  “I can see!”

  “Yes, you already said that.”

  “I can see!”

  “You can stop saying that.”

  “Why would I it’s annoying you.”

  “Good point.”

  “Yes, but only when you’re me. And I’m me.”

  “That’s quite strong logic.”

  “This is probably the oddest conversation I have ever had with you.”

  “You’re sure? I would have thought that that I would have had a weirder conversation with you at some point, I’m the weird conversation expert.”

  Zephyr looked around her room, surprised at how bright and focused the images were. I guess she felt like this because she walked around missing eyes for a while.

  “You know, I have a suggestion, how about you go back to spider club, and pretend that nothing happened, you know Sophia will play along and you won’t get in any trouble.

  “Why are you saying that?” she asked, her voice full of dread and suspicion.

  “Can’t say.”

  “Oh yes you can.”

  “I’m about to do something so incredibly stupid that I’ll end up in the guidness world book of records under the category of stupidity.”

  “You’ll see, even if you don’t get involved, and trust me; you do not want to get involved. I’m going to get some of the rule breakers to take part in it, but it would be better for you to just walk away.”

  “I’m with you no matter what. You’re my friend and you also saved me, I’m very grateful for that.”

  “Yes but I still really don’t want to get you in trouble.” Zephyr answered her voice full of sincerity.

  Harley stared at her, but not any stare, the kind of stare that told you there was no way she was going to budge of change opinion.

  “But first, you tell me what it is.” She said.

  Zephyr spent the next hour explaining her plan to Harley. Her facial expression varied between surprised, horrified, mischievous and utterly concerned for Zephyr and her own safety.

  The next day, after Harley went home, they went to a place that few people knew about, Zephyr only knew about it because the members of this group knew for a fact that she would never tell on them. It was some old barn, where dormitories were improvised. It was filled with people who were talking to each other, reading, or bringing books in. The barn also linked to an old farmhouse and to storage areas. This was like the spider club but much less fancy and sophisticated. She started to yell.

  “Okay people; listen up, I got something very important to ask you. So, who is willing to break Book traveling rules?”

  None of them reacted, just stared at her as if she was crazy.

  “Those who are not willing to break Book traveling laws can leave.”

  About ten people left.

  “Um, why are they listening to you, do they even know you?”

  “Naw, they have no freaking idea who I am or what I’m doing. I just tend to have that kind of effect on people.”

  Harley stared at her with a new kind of scared respect.

  “So those who are left, who would want to abolish book traveling laws for good.”

  Everyone in the room yelled their approval. Zephyr looked around, most of them were teenagers, adults usually having found a way to make book traveling and the real life go together and had families. And they were also much wiser, which means they would never think of breaking the rules in a million years. Plus, Zephyr knew how to push their buttons. For the first task she needed to be done as part of her plan, she needed to choose the enthusiastic yet reserved ones. This meant that they would be dedicated to the cause but would also make smart and thoughtful moves. If Zephyr would care more about being social, she would probably be the leader of a group; she seemed to understand others well. Too bad nobody could understand her. From the ones that were left, she picked a few, one dark haired guy who had roared his approval and that also had a determinate look. He would be perfect. There was one blond haired girl with deep blue eyes that looked at her with intense interest. And a group of people who looked at her as if she had just spilled out what they had wanted to do since they had learned they could travel into books

  “Everyone except for that group over there, that guy and that blonde leave the building please and come back tomorrow.”

  And as usual when Zephyr wanted something, she got it. Everyone but the people she had named left the building.

  “So, you guys look quite serious about this rule abolishing thing, so I need you to do something to me. Or actually, we need to do something together. First of all, I want you to spend the next weeks looking at your companions, and give me a report of if they would be good allies in the plan to abolish all the laws.”

  For the first time that day, someone questioned her authority. And it was weird that she had an authority since she had just walked into these people.

  “I see your point,” The blond started. “But you think one person can just change everything?”

  “Maybe not everyone, but she is the most stubborn and determined person I know and when she wants something, she dies trying to get it. And since she’s standing in front today, it’s probably because she got everything she’s ever wanted. Not by sending a letter to Santa clause but by doing the heavy lifting and getting it.”

  “And how do we know she’s not trying to catch us in breaking rules.” A guy with red curly hair asked.

  Well, Zephyr knew just what to answer to that. She opened the silver bag that she now always carried with her; it was too dangerous to leave a dragon alone in a society that does not believe in dragons. She took him out, and he sneezed in his sleep, then woke up and lifted his cute little head. His ridiculously long tail was actually wagging, like the tail of a dog.

  “So, you see why there is no way that I would ever be here to bust you for rule breaking.”

  Her logic must have been convincing because the next question was:

  “Yes, but how do you know you can trust us?”

  “You don’t think I know what this place is.”

  This seemed to satisfy them.

  For the next few weeks, Zephyr skipped school (is that so surprising) and hung around the place, interviewing people, choosing her specialised team for her master plan. Soon she became famous there. Everyone knew who she was to the point where people were submitting CV’s to be part of her plan. Soon the team grew and grew all people she knew she could trust and that all had the exact same goal as her. There were about fifty people. They practically threw out the other people that usually hung out there and bought locks for the door. Each of the fifty people had a key. Then Zephyr chose eight people for the first task she needed to accomplish. With Zephyr and Harley, a total of ten people. The team was consisted of Zephyr and Harley, Jimmy, Krista, Kathleen, Earl, Steven, Tonya, Opal and Keith. Keith was the most important because of his knowledge about how to get passed security. Opal was able to pick locks. Jimmy was super rich and could supply cell phones and walkie talkies. The other was there for the sole purpose of being stationed and warn us if anything went wrong.

  The plan was too break in to thi
s call center, then steal the hard drive that created phone lines. Then they were to steal a bunch of phones from an electronic shop. That’s when Earl came in. Zephyr didn’t know how or why, but he was able to erase all the information that allowed to police to track down phones that are in use. Basically, they would be completely undetectable unless someone was to call them. They got there and Jimmy, Krista, Kathleen, Earl and Steven stationed themselves around the brick building. There were guards patrolling. They were each going to keep a guard busy. Krista was to pretend to have a concussion and need to be sent to the hospital immediately. Jimmy was there with a knife full of blood, muttering things like: “He deserved it!”. Kathleen would look like a drug addict. The security guards were too far away from each other to notice they were being scammed. Zephyr would take care of the guard near the door. Btu he wasn’t going to be so lucky, he would maybe get a concussion of his own. After this, Harley, Zephyr and Keith would enter the building. Keith had a map of the whole place, the emplacements of the cameras and of the shifts of the guards. We would them slip through the guards, find the room where the hard disk was hidden, and leave.

  That’s what they did.

  “It’s cold.” Opal murmured, complaining as usual.

  “Shhh.” Keith said, he was the smartest one of the team and the second most practical.

  The ones that weren’t going with Zephyr started to disperse when Zephyr gave the signal, they started going to their posts. The others waited there, as cars let one by one, each containing a member of their team who was smart enough to get them to bring them somewhere.

  “Go, go, go.” Zephyr whispered and Harley started to her right and Keith to her left.

  They were to make a giant loop to get on the sides of the building to not be seen, and then they would come to meet Zephyr. Zephyr simply walked to wards the front door, walking like she usually did just bringing it up a notch. She looked like some overly confident gang member.

  “Perfect.” She whispered to herself.

  “Heya! Watcha doing?” She asked the guard.

  “I will have to warn you to leave.”

  “Oh yah, well then I got to warn you to let me go in.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  Zephyr smiled.

  “I’ll give you one last chance.” She said.

  When the guard refused again, Zephyr stepped back, and then kicked sideways as high as she could; hitting him in the face like a train hits a suicidal guy who jumped onto the train tracks. He fell unconscious on the ground.

  “I still got it.” She said cracking her knuckles for dramatic effect.

  She waited for Keith and Harley to arrive, and then she passed Keith the lock picking kit and waited while he went through the long and boring to watch posses of picking a lock. When he was done, he carefully replaced the tools into the mini tool box and they were in. At the end of a long corridor that led from the door to wherever it lead to, Zephyr looked at the map, that lead to a little conference room. The walls were painted dull beige.

  “Remember there are cameras in the next room, follow my movements precisely and we’ll be hidden in the blind spots.” Keith said.

  When they arrived, they saw there were fold up tables against the walls and chairs folded against the table. There was a camera in one corner, the one closest to the door, the door opened to the right side. And here was also one camera on each wall. Keith went ahead, going flat on the wall until a certain spot where he stopped. Zephyr then did the same thing and when she stopped, Harley followed and Keith had already lay on the ground and crawled to the spot right under the wall they were against. Zephyr followed, and when she arrived, Harley followed and Keith was quickly running, his back as low as her could, to a spot right under the other camera. Zephyr followed and the Keith crawled to the door, on the opposite wall from which they came from and went into another room. Zephyr and Harley followed. This room was full of screens and switches. Keith started playing with them until all the images on the camera went blank.

  “For all they know, there was a problem with the circuit.” He said lifting up a burned and disconnected wire.

  They went back into the other room as if they owned the place, and looked for a place to hide. There was a pretty bid broom closet.

  “It takes at least three hours to fix the problem I just caused and all the security guards are most likely all headed there.” Keith whispered to us.

  In fact they soon heard the sound of people walking and talking. Ranting about how often there was a problem with the cameras. When they heard the door to the other room close, they went though more and more corridors and rooms until they found a very complex looking computer room. Keith then went wild, looking up stuff on the computer until he found what he wanted. He seemed to be hacking into something before they heard a beep. The door at the other end of the room had just opened. They went in and found a little transparent compartment. Keith pressed a few buttons and it opened, just for them to see a hard drive.

  “Tada, the one and only hard drive that allows you to create your own complex telephone line and yet let it be untraceable and unhackable. It s worth a bunch of money.”

  “Well than les get it out of here before the police catches us stealing that very valuable thing.” Zephyr told him.

  He led them into other twisting hallways until they burst out an emergency exit into the street.

  “Okay so now we’re supposed to go around, get the SUV then go back to the rule breaker’s club.” Harley pointed out.

  Keith smiled before stuffing the hard drive into his pocket. They drove back, at least Keith drove because Harley was only fifteen and Zephyr was fourteen. They were singing we are the champions, going over the speed limit on roads deserted at this hour. They arrived back while the sun was rising, and went straight to the kitchen. The others were there too.

  “Hey, I went to a police station for the first time!” Said Jimmy.

  They looked at us arrive and asked us if we got it.

  “Oh shit,” Keith started, frantically trying to find something in his pocket, “I think I lost it.”

  Everyone looked at him in horror, except for Zephyr who remembered playing the exact same prank on someone not long ago.

  “Gimme a break, he’s got it he’s just trying to freak you out.” Zephyr told them.

  “No fair, you ruined it for me.” He yelled.

  “Well to bad for you.”

  They prepared a meal consisting of everything that was there, the pocket books they had to escape in then go back to the club were chosen specifically so that they could bring back food. They all ate turkey among other stuff. All the new team slept there that night, and the next morning, the rest of the people who had been there before were back, the whole big gang of them.

  “So” Zephyr said pacing in front of them while Keith set up the phone stations. “You’re job here, is to start advertising the “live in your book program”. Start by calling people from the phone books, and start explaining that this is a once in a life time chance to live the experience of the book they have always wanted to live in, give no more details and give them the return number.”

  In the next few days, the club was transformed into a secretary’s office. On the ground of the old barn as well as the platforms that covered the sides were covered with tables, having several chairs placed next to them. Each chair was filled with one person who had one cell phone ad a phone book. Book travelers were vary resourceful because of all the valuable things they can get from books then sell them for ridiculously high prices.

  Zephyr did the work like anyone else; she was not one to leave the boring work to others just because the operation was her idea. For three weeks in a row, they would wake up every day and call people that they found in the phone books, telling them, to call in the month of April that was three weeks from the day they started.

  “Miss. Harman? Yes, I’m calling you to advertise the “live in your book program”. It...no this is not a pr
ank call I swear Miss, this is not a prank call.”

  “Mr. Duchaud, I’m calling you to introduce the lice in your book program, no, I am not saying I can actually bring you in the book. Yes, I understand that you are a physics teacher and that this is physically impossible. It is simply a process by which we bring you into the book with a virtual world creator. I may sound young on the phone but I am highly qualified for the job. Call the following number in April if the program interests you.”

  “Hi Misses...

  “You telemarketers! I’m telling you, all you telemarketers anre damned to spent the rest of eternity in hell!”

  ...are you still there?”

  “Hi, Mr. Lohy, I am calling for...no I am not the stripper calling back about your bachelor party...hello? Hello?”

  After three weeks, everyone was in the main room discussing the rest of the plan.”

  “This plan could, work like a charm, or work horribly and we’ll all end up in traveler’s jail.”

  For the first time some people looked worried.

  “If some of you prefer not to do this, I understand and you can leave right now, or just not show up tomorrow.”

  People started to protest.

  “We’re with you till the end!” Some of screamed.

  “Well that fixes that problem.” Harley interrupted. “So our next step, is taking the calls that will be arriving. Once you do, you set e meeting place with the person you called...”

  “...make sure it is a safe meeting place and tell them to bring their favourite book...” Zephyr continued.

  “The meeting place can never be here.” Harley finished.

  “”Now April starts tomorrow and they all think they can start calling in April...”

  A phone rang. It was the main one, the one were all the calls started and wee transferred when the phone line was occupied. Everyone looked at it, as if it was alien. Zephyr walked up to it, scared to know what it could be, it could have been an enforcer.

  She picked up the phone slowly.

  “Hello?” She said in a small and terrified voice.

  “Hi is Eugene here?” The voice asked.

  Zephyr blocked the receiver and yelled.

  “Anyone called Eugene here!”

  No answer.

  “I’m sorry, you have the wrong number.”

  She hung up, and everyone in the room burst out laughing, even the most serious ones, Zephyr had a giant grin on her face, but she never laughed hard when she was the center of attention, it was always to have a calm, semi-composed figure when dealing with people, it made you seem powerful and almighty.

  “Get out of here, you have a whole day before you have to work again.” Everyone got up and ruches towards the library which was just a bunch of old damaged books lying on the ground in piles.

  Zephyr and Harley went to, discussing which book they should go in.

  “I read this book once, and they think red headed people are gods, and they treat them like gods, want to go there?” Harley said with a slightly devious smile.

  “Well, yah, I’m a god and you’re one two that’s what I’ll tell them. And for proof, let’s go get Draco, I left him in my room.”

  They went to the room she had arranged for herself. It was basically a part of the dormitory, equivalent to the size of one bed and a bit of place to walk around it cornered off by sheets. As soon as she tossed the sheet aside, she got something in her face.

  “Draco!” She said peeling him off her face.

  “How are you doing, we’re going somewhere okay?”

  Draco gave a happy little yep as if he understood what Zephyr was saying then he struggle, so Zephyr simply dropped him. He flew back up and settled himself on her shoulder, curling his tail around her neck for support. She looked at Harley. Zephyr was surprised she never had a boyfriend, Harley was beautiful. Even when she wasn’t smiling, her dark brown eyes smiled for her and her shortish curly black hair cascaded down to her shoulders.

  “So were going?” Zephyr asked.

  “We’ll have to go to the library.” She said.

  “Well, Sophia said she’d cover for me so the enforcers probably don’t have my description.”

  Zephyr smiled, she was going to be a god.

  They took the bus there, Zephyr didn’t have any money left on her opus card but an evil stare stopped the driver from saying anything. They got to the library and went to the help counter.

  “Hi, um, I’m looking for a book.”

  “Sorry, it’s my break.” She said with an arrogant “I’m better than you so I don’t care look” and picked up a sandwich from under the desk and started to eat.

  “No, your break is over, because a customer needs your help.” Zephyr told her.

  The woman at the counter ignored her a while, but when she saw that Zephyr was looking at her incitingly, she said:

  “My hypothesis is that people hire people like me because other people are too dumb to find a book on their own.”

  Bad idea, Zephyr thought.

  “Here’s the new deal, you help my friend find the book she’s looking for, and you admit that you’re an arrogant low-life who makes herself feel better like treating others like crap and who gets away with it just because everyone fells to sorry for her to actually say anything. Or would you prefer having an ingrown toenail the size of thin counter?”

  She seemed surprised but not willing to budge. She had short blond hair around her pretty little face Zephyr was ready to smash. The woman looked down at her sandwich and continued eating. Zephyr then put her two hands on either side of the wooden counter (or more like desk but kind of a counter) and lifted it. The librarian looked at Zephyr with big eyes, then said:

  “I’ll help you find the book, just put that down.”

  With a teasing smile she meant to look half arrogant, Zephyr put back the counter and rubbed her hands together as if to say “work’s done here!”.

  “Well, look at that. That’s wasn’t that hard now was it, you could of saved you some trouble by just accepting to help us in the first place.” Zephyr said.

  As the librarian got up shakily, Harley whispered into Zephyr’s ear:

  “I don’t think you had to go that far.”

  “You know Harley, if I listened to you, my life wouldn’t be fun anymore.” Zephyr told her.

  Then:

  “I think I know why they call blonds dumb blonds. It’s because blond hair is a recessive gene, there aren't that many blonds, so odds are, that the smart kids in school are all brunets because brown hair is a dominant gene.”

  “You listen in science? You attend science is more the right question.”Harley then asked.

  “Nope, but I go on Wikipedia when I’m bore. I came up with the dumb blond theory though.”

  They followed the sandwich eating woman, Zephyr feeling the silver bag in her hand stir. She opened it and stuck her face in it, just to make sure little Draco was alright. He lunged and caught her on the nose with a tiny sharp claw, then whimpered, as if to say he was sorry.

  “It’s okay Draco, you didn’t know it was me, could of been anyone, you did the right thing.” She said, her voice filled with pain.

  As if satisfied with Zephyr’s comforting, he rolled up on the little cushion Zephyr had made for him and placed on the rigid bottom of the bag to make Draco more comfortable. She closed the bag and looked up to see Harley walk back with a book in her hand, Zephyr was slightly conscious of the wetness of her nose.

  “What happened?”She asked.

  Zephyr looked around to check if anyone was in hearing distance.

  “Draco has good reflexes.” she then said.

  “Come here, I always keep a miny first aid kit with me.” She told Zephyr.

  Zephyr sat down in front of the area Harley had just sat down Indian style on. Her nose was throbbing.

  “Shit, that’s deep.” Harley said her curly black hair bouncing as she rocked back in forth looking in her little kit.

 
Zephyr could taste blood, and she licked her lips to clear them from the blood. Soon after that her lip was all wet and gooey again.

  “You’re lucky I brought this back from a book I’ve read.”

  Harley took out some kind or powder and rubbed some on Zephyr’s nose. Her cut started to burn horribly but she did not react, except for the tears coming to her eyes. She wasn’t really crying though, her eyes often watered when something hurt badly somewhere around her face. Soon the burning settled and she went to touch her nose.

  “Don’t!” Harley said.

  Zephyr touched her nose slightly with the tip of her figure, just so as not to listen to Harley.

  “It was really deep, that little Draco must have some sharp claw. I swear I could see the inside of your nose. It was probably one centimetre deep.” Harley then said.

  “And you didn’t tell me.” She said.

  “I was sure the pain would have tipped you off.”

  “So it’s cured?” Zephyr asked.

  “Not completely, this thing just reformed you nose, you still have a nasty dent.”

  They went to the washroom, and Harley patiently wiped the blood of zephyr’s face with wet paper towels. It was a long process, since blood kept coming out. During this, Zephyr looked at her eyes. They were deep green, close to the colour they had been but they were a little lighter, and more metallic looking. They never hurt her, like when she had something in her eye or something, but she figured the gland that makes tears hadn’t been ripped out because her eyes could still water. After Harley finally managed to wipe off all the blood, she held the paper towels firmly to Zephyr’s nose while she unwrapped this ridiculously big bandage. It wasn’t like those tiny little band aids, it wasn’t like the big one’s either. It was like a giant band aid, with glue so strong Harley was having trouble taking off the little papers, and the white gauzy part was tick like Zephyr’s figure. When Harley had the band aid ready, she took off the paper towels and slapped to band aid on her nose faster than you can say zero. It stuck to Zephyr’s nose like a guy dumb enough to go sky diving without tying on the parachute back pack on him hangs on to the back pack. Then, Harley opened the book, took Zephyr’s hand and said the formula.