The History of Mischief

by Rebecca Higgie

  Neil watches me while Kay retrieves books. I’ve never met a man librarian before. He is very smiley, but he looks big and tough, like a rugby player. He sits behind a desk that is too small for him. It has a sign that reads REFERENCE DESK. People ask him where to find things and request books from the stacks. He puts the request slips in a magazine holder that Kay fetches every half hour, though she comes more often now to check on me. It’s nice to be out of the workroom, but I’m not allowed to sit by the windows. I swing my feet and sigh.

  ‘A computer just became free, if you’re bored,’ Neil says, pointing to the monitors behind him.

  ‘I’m not allowed to move,’ I tell him.

  ‘I’ll tell Kay I said it was alright.’

  There are six computers behind Neil’s desk. I sit next to a teenager who’s googling something called Othello. I go to Wikipedia and look up Diogenes again. It says he died in 323 BC. But in the History, he dies soon after the boy gets the mischief, which is 316 BC. Weird.

  ‘Can I have some paper?’ I ask Neil.

  ‘Of course!’

  He gives me a piece of paper and a pen.

  I write out the things I remember from the History. Using my notes, I find many mistakes online. Wikipedia says Diogenes met Alexander in a place called Corinth, not Athens, and that their stories are ‘apocryphal’, which means ‘works, usually written works, that are of unknown authorship, or of doubtful authenticity, or spurious, or not considered to be within a particular canon’.

  When I look up Aristophanes it says he was a comic playwright who lived from 446 to 386 BC. When I google ‘Aristophanes Library of Alexandria,’ I find a Wikipedia page for Aristophanes of Byzantium. It says he was the head librarian after Eratosthenes. I guess he got a promotion. It says he invented things like full stops and commas. But it says nothing about him being a confiscator.

  When I look up Hua Yingtai it says, ‘This page does not exist’. I find Mulan though. She’s from a ballad, which is a kind of poem. It says, ‘Hua Mulan is treated more as a legend than a historical person.’

  I’m annoyed.

  ‘Wikipedia is wrong,’ I tell Neil.

  He laughs. ‘Yes. You can’t trust Wikipedia!’

  I’m more annoyed now.

  ‘What are you looking at?’ he asks, peering at the screen. ‘Hua Mulan? Like the Disney movie?’

  ‘No! Like the real person!’

  ‘I bet we have books about her.’

  ‘Really?’

  Neil looks it up on his computer.

  ‘Do you want one?’

  I nod. He writes something out on a green slip and puts it in the magazine box. Eleven minutes later, Kay comes to take the slip. She glances at me and looks angry but she gets it. The book is boring, but I learn there are lots of stories about Mulan. One of them is a play. The play lists everyone except Yingtai. She’s listed simply as MOTHER, performed by lao (old female).

  ‘Can I get more?’ I ask Neil.

  ‘We don’t have any others on Mulan, unless you want some sheet music from the Disney movie.’

  ‘Can I get books about other things?’

  ‘Sure! What do you want?’ Neil asks, really jolly. Neil seems happy about everything. That kinda makes me happy.

  He writes up more green slips for books on Alexander the Great, Diogenes the Cynic, the Library of Alexandria, and codices. He even finds a book about libraries on fire. Kay still looks annoyed but she fetches them.

  ‘Most of the books you’re looking for aren’t at this library,’ Neil says. ‘They’re at libraries all over the state. You can request these from your local public library, did you know?’

  I shake my head.

  ‘Inter-library loan. Basically, you can order any book in WA and they’ll send it to your local library. What’s your library?’

  ‘We have a library at school.’

  ‘Hmmm, no, it needs to be a public library. Where do you live?’

  ‘Guildford.’

  ‘Lovely. Let me look it up. Here,’ he says, and swivels his computer screen around to show me. ‘It’s on James Street. Is your school Guildford Primary or Guildford Grammar?’

  ‘Guildford Primary.’

  His fingers fly across the keyboard.

  ‘Hey, it’s on Helena Street. That’s super close to James Street. You could walk there with Kay.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Absolutely! How about I write up a list of books you can request from Guildford Library? Then you can take them home. You can’t borrow books from here.’

  ‘Okay!’

  Neil types out a list with codes for the librarians at Guildford. I ask for some books on penjing and he does a quick search and some googling.

  ‘Penjing is the Chinese version of bonsai. You know, those little Japanese trees? Penjing came first according to this … oh!’ He stops, looks at me, looks at the clock and then back at me. ‘Stay here. Man the desk. Tell anyone who comes up that I’m in the loo.’

  He runs out from behind the desk and races down the stairs. I sit behind the desk but he’s back really quick, like only three minutes. He has a book.

  ‘I saw this in the discard bookshop the other day,’ he says. ‘It’s an old library book. Not penjing but similar. You can have it.’

  I take the book. It’s about bonsai trees. It has black marks and scratches on the cover, which has gone a little yellow. Inside, there’s a barcode that’s been stamped over in red with DISCARD BY THE LIBRARY OF WA. It has so many pretty pictures of bonsai trees, some with wire on them. Neil shows me the index at the back of the book. I find a trident maple like Yingtai had.

  ‘Is it really for me?’

  ‘Of course!’

  ‘Was it expensive?’

  ‘Three dollars. Cheap as chips. Cheaper than chips!’

  ‘I can pay you back. I get pocket money every fortnight.’

  Neil laughs. ‘Don’t worry about it. You can pay me back in bonsai facts!’

  I like Neil a lot. I write out bonsai facts from the book on strips of scrap paper and sign them ‘FROM A. MISCHIEF’ on the back. When Neil goes to the toilet, I hide them under his keyboard, in his notebook, in his jacket pocket and in the hat sitting on the floor. I smile at him when he comes back. Later, when he puts his hat on, I think about the bonsai fact tumbling out when he gets home.

  This is my first act of mischief.

  Jessie

  Today Kay promised we can go to Guildford Library after school and request all the books Neil typed out for me. We’d have gone Monday, but the men from the iron bars place were over and they took forever.

  School goes on and on. I go to the library at lunch and read a Disney Mulan book (which is stupid) and then the bell goes. I can’t wait for the day to be over.

  Kay is sitting on the brick steps in the courtyard when I come out of class. She smiles and takes her earphones out.

  ‘Okay, off to Guildford Library!’ she says. ‘Oh, and look what I got.’

  She hands me a red library bag made from the same material they use in the green shopping bags you keep forever. It has flowers, people and hearts on it, and says ‘LIVE LOVE LEARN with Public Libraries’ on one side and ‘Proudly supported by public libraries Western Australia’ on the other.

  ‘For all the books we’re going to get,’ Kay says.

  It’s even bigger than my backpack. I love it.

  One of the mums tries to stop Kay as we’re leaving.

  ‘Hi, Kay, you’re Jessie’s sister, right? Do you have a minute?’

  ‘No, sorry,’ she says. We keep walking.

  We cross the busy road next to school and go down the hill with the petrol station and the little park. Finally, we turn onto Meadow Street, which has lots of pretty houses on it. At the end of the street, tucked behind a theatre, is the library. It faces the train tracks and the park with the big grave. I never even knew it was here.

  Inside, it’s small, only a few shelves, some couches and a few desks, but it has ver
y tall ceilings. There are pictures on the walls, old maps and old faces, and a pretty stained-glass window above the librarian’s desk.

  I go right up to the desk. The librarian looks up.

  ‘Hello there.’

  ‘I would like these books please,’ I say. I hand her the list. ‘Neil from the State Library said you could get them for me.’

  The librarian smiles and takes the list. ‘Well! He’s even written down which ones can be found here. Neil from the State Library is very helpful.’

  I nod.

  ‘These are very mature books. Are they for you or …’ she glances at Kay.

  ‘They’re for me!’

  ‘It’s fine,’ Kay says.

  ‘Okay, let me get the three we’ve got here and then we’ll request the others.’

  The librarian gets the books as we fill in some forms. I get my own library card.

  Then she starts on Neil’s list. She types really fast just like Neil and, when I think about it, Mrs Harper. You must have to be a fast typer to be a librarian.

  ‘Okay, Jessie, all of those are on order for you,’ she says. ‘They’ll be coming from other libraries in WA, so you’ll have to wait, but you can definitely borrow these three today. Would you like to get anything else? We have a great kids’ section just around the corner, see?’

  ‘No thanks,’ I say. ‘How long will the books take to get here?’

  ‘It depends where they’re coming from.’

  ‘Will some get here by tomorrow or the day after or do I have to wait for weeks?’

  ‘Not by tomorrow but I bet one or two will be here by next week.’

  ‘Do I have to come every day to check?’

  ‘No, we’ll email you.’

  ‘I don’t have email.’

  ‘We’ll email your sister. She’ll tell you.’

  ‘What if she’s grumpy and doesn’t tell me?’

  The librarian smiles but tries to hide it. ‘I guess you better not make her grumpy.’

  At home I try to read the three books I got from the library. One of them is about Chinese myths and has the story of Mulan in it. It also has a story about a lady and her lover who turn into butterflies, and the lady’s name is Yingtai. The second book is ‘sayings and anecdotes’ from Diogenes (the cover has a picture of him naked and with his lantern). The third one is a thick book about Alexander the Great.

  I read the Mulan story while Kay is making dinner. It says Mulan was the youngest daughter, not mentioning Munan, and that she was away for twelve years. The Alexander the Great book is too big to read now, so I flip through the Diogenes book. It lists things he did and said. I don’t really understand everything, but I do find conversations between him and Alexander. In one bit, Alexander asks if Diogenes is frightened of him. Diogenes asks if he is good or bad. Alexander says he is good, so Diogenes responds, ‘Who’s afraid of what is good?’

  We have fish fingers and peas for dinner. I eat mine with tartar sauce. Kay has tomato sauce.

  ‘Can we read another history tonight?’ I ask.

  ‘No, I’m really tired.’

  ‘Can I read it on my own? I’m not tired.’

  ‘No, you need to sleep,’ she says grumpily. Then, nicely, she says, ‘Plus, it’s fun when we read it together.’

  I think it would be fun if I read it on my own but I don’t say so.

  ‘You need to finish those library books anyway. We’ll read the next history when you finish your research on the first three. Then we can read another and do more research. Won’t that be fun?’

  No.

  Kay makes me go to bed early. She tells me off when I put the light on to read so I just lie there and think about mischief. Kay watches TV for a long time and goes to bed late.

  After a while, I get up and go to the toilet. Kay doesn’t come out to check on me, so I go to the study and look out the window. Mrs Moran from Number 61 is outside with Cornelius again, but she isn’t vacuuming. She sits in a chair with Cornelius on her lap. She seems sad. She looks around, from one end of the street to the other. Maybe I could do some mischief to make her feel better. I decide to do something tomorrow.

  I bet Mrs Moran likes flowers. She spends a lot of time outside, and she has rosebushes in her front yard. We don’t have any flowers in our garden because everything’s dead. On the way to school, I look at our neighbours’ yards and think of Aristophanes stealing flowers all over Alexandria.

  At recess, I walk around the gardens at school. There aren’t a lot of flowers because it’s winter, but I find a few purple ones and some big spindly red ones. At lunch, I return with scissors and my backpack. We’re meant to stay in the undercover area to eat lunch for ten minutes before we can play, but I sneak out when the teachers on duty aren’t looking. I fill my bag with flowers, right up to the top.

  Someone sees me and tells the teachers. I have to sit on the bench for the rest of lunch and they take my backpack. Then I have to go to the principal’s office and get told off. Mrs Fraser returns my backpack but the flowers are all gone. I make mistakes on my worksheets for the rest of the day on purpose.

  Kay won’t let me take flowers from the neighbours’ yards and won’t give me money to buy any from the petrol station.

  ‘What do you want them for?’

  ‘Mischief,’ I say.

  ‘What kind of mischief?’

  ‘Secret.’

  The next day, I try to think of where I can get flowers without getting in trouble. Then I spot a book on the trolley near Mrs Harper’s desk. It’s about origami and has a paper flower on the cover.

  ‘Can I have that book?’ I ask Mrs Harper at lunch.

  ‘Sure,’ she says.

  In the book, there are steps with pictures to show you how to make all kinds of origami things, like birds, elephants, boxes and flowers. I ask for paper and Mrs Harper gives me some scrap.

  My flower is terrible. The steps are too hard. I scrunch it up and get another piece of paper but I ruin that one too. Mrs Harper won’t give me a third piece so I get the scrunched-up paper out of the bin and try again.

  ‘I like origami!’

  Theodore. I ignore him but he sits down at the desk with me.

  ‘Can I make origami with you? My favourites are cranes. Have you read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes? It’s so sad. Stephanie taught me how to make them like Sadako and I’m trying to make a thousand too.’

  I scrunch up my paper again. It’s no use. I can’t make it properly when the paper’s all crumpled. I look at Theodore. ‘Can you ask Mrs Harper for a piece of paper and then give it to me?’

  ‘Sure!’

  Theodore goes over to Mrs Harper and says, ‘Jessie would like another piece of paper please.’

  He’s such an idiot.

  Mrs Harper looks a little annoyed but she smiles too. ‘I’ll give you a piece of paper. If you want to share it with Jessie, you may.’

  ‘Thank you, Mrs Harper.’

  He snatches the paper and sits back down with me.

  ‘Let’s share,’ he says. ‘We need to make the paper square first. That’s why your flower didn’t work, you didn’t make it a square. We can get two squares from this.’

  He folds part of the paper into a triangle and then folds the extra bit at the end. He opens it up to a square and carefully tears off the bit on the bottom. He does the same thing to the leftover piece, making another smaller square.

  ‘I’ll show you how to make a paper crane,’ he says. ‘It’s easier with bigger pieces of paper so you can have the big square.’

  ‘I want to make a flower.’

  ‘I’ll show you how to make a crane first.’

  ‘I don’t want to make a crane.’

  ‘Cranes are nice. Here, first you fold it into a triangle like this. Then, you unfold it and fold it into a rectangle, like this. You’re not doing it. Follow along with me.’

  I sigh but follow along. We fold our squares over and over again, and then unfold them and put them back
together in a different way. It turns out a crane is a bird, not a crane that works on buildings. Theodore asks for a pen and we draw smiley faces on our cranes. They’re nice actually.

  Mrs Harper comes over, slips us more paper and winks.

  Theodore shows me how to make the flower and rose in the book, and then he shows me how to make a lily and a lotus flower. We make flowers and birds all lunch, him chatting on and on while he shows me what to do. He talks about the book with the girl and her paper cranes, and how she got sick from a bomb dropped on her city. He boasts that he and his mum have a secret language, Korean. Even though his dad is half-Korean, he was born here and doesn’t speak it well. He talks about his nanny Stephanie, his dog Broom, and other things like how paper’s made and what he had for breakfast.

  The bell goes. Theodore lets me keep all the origami and helps me carry them to my backpack.

  ‘Let’s meet tomorrow. We can make more! Thank you for playing with me!’ he says before we go back to class.

  I take the origami home and hide them under my bed.

  The next day, Theodore brings lots of coloured paper already cut into squares, some with pretty patterns. At lunch, we make lots of birds and flowers. He talks a lot and asks me questions. I don’t answer. He doesn’t seem to mind. He lets me be quiet.

  I start writing ‘From A. Mischief’ underneath the cranes’ wings. You can only see it if you turn them over. When Theodore asks what I’m writing, I say ‘None of your business!’ He just says ‘Okay!’ happily. That afternoon, I hear a teacher complain that he’s ‘undiagnosed’ and ‘the parents are in denial’. I guess it’s an adult way of saying annoying.

  At home, I take a cardboard box out of the recycling bin, one with pictures of bananas all over it that Kay got from the market. I put all my origami in it and hide it under my bed.

  When it’s full, the mischief can begin.

  On Friday, Kay gets an email. We go pick up five books from Guildford Library. Two are about penjing, full of beautiful photos. I learn that penjing is different from bonsai because penjing is more about ‘landscape’ and ‘creating a scene’. The other three are about the Library of Alexandria, well, two of them are. One of them is about books and has a section on Alexandria. It has lots of pictures. Some books used to look like fans and some were written on bone. It says that the book (or ‘codex’) was invented in the first and second century, which is two to three hundred years after Aristophanes’ history.