For the tenth time, I don’t want to talk about it!” I said as I was taking my bike out of the garage. Amelia, Riley, Barry, Sal, and Damien, who were all kicked out so my mom could ‘talk to me,’ were now all standing, waiting to hear just what she said. My mother knew all too well they’d try to take up some of the blame when it was all my fault any of this started in the first place. But worst of all, I hated how upset I had made her. It made me so mad just to see her sad. How are you going to get into a good high school if you don’t get good grades Jimmy? You have to try your best and I know you’re hardly even trying anymore. You were so good last year, straight A’s! What happened? What changed Jimmy? I don’t understand! Honestly, I wish I knew too.
“His mom is mad because he hasn’t finished his essay! That’s right Jimmy, I saw your blank pages!” Riley said.
“WHAT! Jimmy, we had a month, what were you doing all this time?” Amelia asked angrily.
“Ugh, will you just shut up! None of this would have happened if Sal didn’t mess up the dial!” I said as I hopped onto my bike and Sal shrunk down.
My friends had left me alone so I could sort through all the anger and guilt I felt. My mom was right. I needed to start taking school more seriously and I definitely didn’t want to disappoint her with my grades. Afterall, it never did feel good to constantly be procrastinating all of my school work and studying.
We rode through the trails to the Monek Library, which was nice and almost cave-like in appearance. It was the closest library to my school, Cross Rivers Middle School, so naturally I always had a friend around whenever I stopped by. We parked our bikes and walked past the statue of a long-eared mouse with absurdly large glasses, Monek Mygikski. He apparently would always study here in his young days and eventually went on to become the Pleaser of the Wazoo (the leader of our island).
“How long are we going to be at the library? I wanted to pick fruits today!” Barry complained. Nearly everyone was excited about finding owjees, durangoes, cwiwicks, but most especially the sweetest fruit across the island, babaloos.
“In a while, Jimmy still needs to work on his essay. Besides, we can study for Ms. Keaton’s test tomorrow. Then we can go picking.”
“No! By then it will all be gone!” the little monkey replied as he began to flop his body down, throwing a tantrum of sorts. Truth be told, I wasn’t really excited about going out and picking fruits anyway. It was the same old tradition I’d been doing all my life. I guess it was just one of the many activities across the island I just didn’t find exciting anymore. If only I knew why.
After a while, it got very quiet around me as everyone was locked into their own studying. Damien, however, was already forty pages into a book he had just picked up while Amelia was using her neatly written note cards to study for Ms. Keaton’s exam tomorrow with Riley and Barry. Who knows where Sal went off to, but honestly, I was glad he was gone. He was always my biggest distraction.
I sifted through Damien’s notes, and my own book, trying desperately to pick one topic. The monkey protests, the boulder wars, hippopotamus blockade, even bug rights would've been great to write about. Yet, the more I tried to lock down and focus, the more I could only think about the strange men I had seen in my dream. The lost island of the Wazoo. Soon we shall be the first men to find it. All I could wonder about was why I saw any of it, and if it was as real as it felt. Who knows though. Maybe this was just another bizarre one that I’d end up forgetting about in a couple of days.
Just as I was getting dialed in, deciding to scrap whatever it was I was writing about and to get into bugs rights, someone had been calling for me. “Psst Jimmy,” I heard a whisper from somewhere. I looked up, but quickly went back to focusing on my work. Then a paper ball hit me right on the head. I looked up sternly as Sal waved at me from a few tables away. He wanted me to come over to all the other friends around him, but I shook my head, trying to focus on my school work. I thought they’d all understand, but instead, another paper ball was thrown at me. I didn’t react. So, another one was thrown. And another. And another, until I actually lost my mind and shot up from my seat to march over.
“WHAT?” I asked loudly to all of them.
“Jimmy, tell them about the vacuum, they don’t believe what we saw!” Sal said eagerly as he laughed. At the end of the day, everything was a joke to him. And he was the only Wildling on the whole island that could actually get away with it.
“Did a bunch of arms really come out from it!” a small blue Ossalow bear exclaimed as he jumped up and down.
“Could it really do all your chores? Really?” said Oki Occugpy, a delinquent platypus classmate.
“Say Jimmy, you don’t mind if I came over to borrow it, right?” Steab Staubaloue, a giant nosed wombat asked.
Normally, I wouldn’t mind talking to all these classmates of mine. In fact, I wouldn’t mind wasting hours on end laughing away and having a great time. But I was in a time crunch. This time tomorrow, I had to have an essay finished and be ready for a test, two things I hadn’t even started preparing for yet, and it was irritating me to my bones.
“Sal, I have to finish my work, leave me alone! All of you!” I said before marching back to my table. Amelia and Riley had been watching me the whole time. I already knew they just thought I was off wasting more time again.
“Did you finish your essay already?” Amelia asked, but I only shook my head. I didn’t want any of them to know that I still had hardly started. I continued on writing a few sentences before Sal tried calling me over. “Pssst Jimmy,” he said before throwing another paper ball at me.
I lost it, quickly packing my things into my satchel and walking away from everyone.
“Where are you going?” Damien asked.
“I’m going to find a book to help me do some research.”
I made my way down to the other side of the library, known as the stacks, where there were aisles of academic books and a few desks here and there. Generally, not many Wildlings made their way to these parts because there was almost no one else around, exactly what I needed.
I sat down, trying to put thought to my words. Actually trying to write, not scribble away. But I found myself scratching most of it after finishing a paragraph. Not to mention I had no idea where it was really going, or why Damien’s notes kept mentioning this Yythoa Yyaannsyy Wildling.
I was searching on an old wooden computer in the basement for a book that mentioned this Wildling when Jary Jenfields walked by, surrounded by a bunch of students as he gossiped away.
“...and Mr. Oens lost everything too, but that didn’t make the news. I heard Paleggo’s house was also broken into, and they stole bunches of food! Oh Jimmy! How’s it going?” the annoying little squirrel said as he ran up to me and stood right on top of the keyboard. “Is it true? Did a vacuum really destroy your house! I heard it was chasing all of you down too!”
“Jary, not now, I need to finish my essay.”
“If you need, you could always stay over at my place, though I don’t know which tree you’ll be able to sleep on…”
“Jary! I’m fine, please can you go!”
“No way you’ll be able to stay over, nobody trusts humans, especially since you all have been going around breaking into homes!” Biggsby Baunops, Jary’s long eared brown furred rabbit friend said from behind.
“What did you say Biggsby?”
“That’s right, I said it! You no good humans have been going around and stealing from the rest of the Wildlings, that’s why my daddy says you should all be thrown off the island!”
“Wh-humans haven’t been breaking in anywhere! Why would you say that?” I asked, but Biggsby didn’t reply, only looking over at Jary.
“No no, don’t say that! The Jungles family would never do those things! It was well, the pirates who did it.”
“The who? Jary, what are you talking about? What are pirates?”
“Oh Jimmy, haven’t you heard the news of strange footsteps on the shores and all the missing Wildlings? There have been a lot of break-ins too. And well some are saying it's these pirates who’ve come from far away on these large boats called ships.”
“What? How come no one's seen them then?”
“No idea Jimmy, but this isn’t the first time. My friend Gibsig says his dad has a friend who has another friend and his neighbor told him these dirty old men, the pirates, were here thirty years ago. He said they set a bunch of fires, but the Pleaser and media kept it all a secret so none of the Wildlings would panic.”
“What? You’re telling me outsiders have found the Wazoo? And that this isn’t even the first time?” I asked, trying to think to myself. Trying to make it all make sense until suddenly, it hit me. My dream! Was that what I was seeing? Were those the same men he was talking about? The pirates?
“But how? No one has ever found the Wazoo! Are you sure this is real?” a long nosed pink mouse wearing a blue bowtie asked.
“No idea, Cnuk.”
“A large ship? You think it just slipped past the coast guards and that none of the police noticed a bunch of strange men running through the woods? And not a single Wildlings said a thing? Do you really believe all that Jary?” asked the white furred lemur as he went on munching a packet of chewy gooey walnuts.
“It’s true Swafoo! You have to-”
“Oh Jary, don't believe everything you hear!” Cnuk interrupted.
“You see, this is why no one ever believes you, because you always say the wildest things!” Swafoo said, shaking his head.
“GOOD MORNING YOUNGLINGS,” said Ms. Napala, our grouchy ostrich librarian, as she marched in while still holding a few books she was in the middle of shelving. Jary was getting ready to explain himself before quickly shriveling back in silence. “This is the quiet section, as you all well know! Be quiet, or I will call security, do you all understand?” she said sternly. We all nodded our heads. “And no eating here either!” she said as she ripped the large bag of nuts and waited for us to separate. But I wasn’t finished with the conversation. Not just yet.
I quickly waited for Ms. Napala to walk off before running after Jary.
“Jary, wait up!”
“What is it, Jimmy? I don’t want to get kicked out of here. Not again!” he said as he jumped onto several books on the shelf to talk to me.
“Those pirates you were talking about. On the large ship. Did they carry large blades, almost like knives?” I asked. Jary thought to himself for a few seconds.
“Oh, you mean swords? Yes they carry those, that’s what they use to attack with! Scary things I heard.”
“And what do they want with the island? Why did they even come here in the first place? Why did they set those fires?”
“Well between me and you Jimmy, I heard they came here to find something, and when they couldn’t get it, they started setting large fires, to get what they wanted.”
“What did they want from the Wazoo?
“Who knows Jimmy. But many died from the fires and the news didn’t say it was the pirates, just that it was some sort of accident. And same with the Consulars and the Pleaser, they all kept quiet about it.”
“What ended up happening to the pirates that came before?”
“I dunno Jimmy. One minute they were here and the next they were completely gone. I don’t think anyone who knew about it even saw them leave. I don’t know what happened. All I can tell you is now they’re back,” Jary said.
“Shhhh!” a small brown skunk gestured before slipping back into the shelf and reading.
While I was off trying to find a book I could use for my paper, Sal was sitting around telling everyone about this morning’s vacuum incident while Amelia and Riley were all finished studying, slowly getting more and more impatient as they wondered where I wandered off to. All of them were ready to go fruit picking, but that was the last thing on my mind.
Barry, who was usually the shy one of the group, always trying his best to talk to a popular group of Wildlings from school, mainly Krayter Kaarmadi, a chimp who usually wore a backwards red cap hat and leather jacket. He was perhaps the most shallow and selfish student at Cross Rivers, always spreading rumors, making fun of everyone, and getting himself into detention for who knows what. It wasn’t a surprise though, since his father was apparently some rich, big shot lawyer for many important Wildlings all across the Wazoo. He was a spoiled brat among many other things, and I did my best to avoid him.
“HEY! YOU CAN’T BE HERE!” said an orange furred monkey as he pushed Barry away with his tail. He turned back around, looking like he was walking away, but waited before he turned around, crouching away from anyone else who might see him. He was a shy monkey, but don’t think for a second that he wasn’t sneaky or even a little selfish.
Many of my classmates and upper-class students, monkeys, rhinos, birds, a frog, deer and kangaroo all walked towards the large back area of the library, known as the safari room, and sat around as Krayter jumped onto a stone table and yelled to get everyone’s attention.
“Alright everyone, listen up because I’ll only say it once!” Krayter said as everyone turned towards him. “First we’re going to go to Uwamwha Forest to hear Peister debate some candidates for his election campaign.”
Everyone around groaned at the mention of it, probably because no one wanted to listen to some dumb political speech by a bunch of oldlings, and I couldn’t blame them either.
“WHY?!”
“WHAT! NO WAY!”
“THAT’S SO BORING KRAYTER! NO, WE’RE-”
“Alright, alright, that's enough!” Krayter interrupted. “Look, I don’t really care about this either, but my dad said there are plenty of babaloos growing right around there and that we can go picking after it's all done. All he asked is that we cheer on everything the vulture says, and boo at everyone else after they’ve finished speaking. That’s all we have to do, alright? Can everyone do that for an hour?”
“Can I bring my friends?” a long-limbed monkey asked.
“NO! We can’t let too many people know, otherwise there won't be enough for us.”
“But how many babaloos will there be?”
“Bunches on bunches.”
Barry was hiding behind a desk, barely peeking his eyes over a table. After overhearing the whole conversation, Amelia’s little monkey pet quickly ran off, happy that he finally found a way to impress Krayter.
While all of Krayter’s friends walked out together like some kind of glorious pack, I walked up nervously to Ms. Napala, the ostrich librarian who I couldn’t tell if she hated just me or every youngling all the same. Though I had seen her smile once, and I don’t think she had to do it either.
But it couldn’t have mattered to me now. I wanted to know everything there was to know about these pirates. I had never heard anything like them ever before, and now it was the only thing on my mind. I mean one crazy dream was nothing, but seeing the same metal blade on TV and hearing a few friends of yours talking about rumors of things you’d already seen, that would drive you a little crazy too, wouldn’t it?
“Hi, Ms. Napala,” I said gently, hoping she still wasn’t upset.
“Oh, good morning, Mr. Jungles. I see you’re actually trying to get some work done now,” (you see what I mean).
“Uh, yes. I was hoping you could help me find a book about a topic I want to write about for school.”
“Yes of course, we are one of the biggest libraries in these parts of the Wazoo and have many selections! What exactly did you want to look for?”
“Uh yes, do you have any books on pirates?”
“Pirates? Well, I haven’t heard of that before,” she said as she typed and searched on the computer. “Hmm, I’m not getting anything here. Tell me, what are these pirates?”
“Uh- they’re these dirty humans that live on ships and have these weapons called swords they use to attack others with and uh- well, they go around finding lands to invade and I think they’ve come to the Wazoo before and well - now again too,” I muttered nervously, watching her face as her expression went from shock to confusion and eventually pure anger.
“I don’t know what kind of fairy tales you kids have been making up these days, but don’t tell me this kind of nonsense Jimmy Jungles! I suggest you go back to your books and choose a serious topic!” she yelled as I nodded my head and walked off.
I quickly sat down and began writing again. I was still nowhere near being done, and mentally, I had completely checked out from writing an essay on bug rights. It was important, but just wasn’t in my heart.
But right as I was about to give up, Mr. Grimaldi, the old geezer chameleon who looked like he was at least three hundred years old and was usually always shouting, approached me.
“You! Come with me. Now youngling!” he said in his low, raspy voice as I jumped up from my seat and followed him.
“Uh- am I in trouble?” I asked.
“You were the one asking about the pirates, weren’t you?”
“Uh yes, I was,” I said, still confused about where he was taking me as we walked down the staircase and into an old dark room. He flipped the light switch on with his long tongue and I looked around to see stacks of books piled up on each other with cobwebs and dust all around them. There were large swivel plants curled up all over the stoney room.
“What is this place?”
“This is my office boy,” he said as he jumped on a table that had a plaque etched with his name on it. He extended his tongue again, this time to the tiled ceiling searching for something.
He pulled out a book and put it in my hands. I brushed the dust off of it and saw that it said ‘The Tales of Nevra Venayhue,’ on the front cover.
“What is this?”
“What do you mean, ‘what is it?’ It's a book about pirates! Do you want it or not?” he asked.
“Uh-yes, but Ms. Napala said there were no books on pirates, how do you have this?” I asked.
Mr. Grimaldi laughed to himself. “She’s too sweet to know anything about them, but I don’t blame her. You see, this book has been banned all across the island, every copy burned, well almost every copy, I should say.”
“Really? Can I have this one?”
“Well, I’ll tell you what, since you are so young and can still move around, I’ll give you this book, but you’ve got to go and pick me some of these sweet blue babaloos growing around. Haven’t got my tongue wrapped around a single one this year,” he asked, but I didn’t listen, too busy sifting through the old dusty pages with fading black ink. The convincing evidence I saw were the old images of the same dirty, rugged humans I had seen in my dream. I was completely mesmerized, asking myself how I had never even seen them in the first place. But I still didn’t know if I could believe it all. The men I had seen in my dream, the rumors of pirates Jary was telling me about. It sounded too crazy without any proof. Maybe this book would explain it all.
“HELLO!” he said as he slapped me across the face with his tongue. “Did you hear me? Do we have a deal or what boy?”
“Uh, yes, yes, I’ll pick you some babaloos!”
“Oh, not just some,” he said with a smirk. “I want a dozen bunches for that book!”
“A dozen bunches! How am I supposed to get -”
“So, we don’t have a deal then?” Grimaldi said as he began to pull the book away, but I quickly clenched onto it.
“NO! Okay fine, a dozen bunches today,” I conceded, having absolutely no idea where I would even get them. “Uh- but sir, can I ask you a question, who was this Nevra Venayhue person?”
It was quiet for a moment as the chameleon lowered his head and took a few steps away from me. “He was the leader of the pirates way back then, and the first person to ever find the Wazoo,” Mr. Grimaldi said seriously as he looked away.
“So you think the pirates are real too. But, why was it all kept a secret? And how did he even find us?”
Mr. Grimaldi quickly turned his head and looked into my eyes. “Don’t ask me to do your homework for you, Mr. Jungles!” he yelled angrily as he ripped the book out of my hands with his long tongue and pointed me out the door.