Finders Keepers

            Alex pushed open the creaky door and stepped inside the old mansion. He couldn’t believe that he was even inside. The place hadn’t been lived in for at least 15 years and was the perfect subject for haunted house stories. Kids had dared each other to go inside, but no one had ever found a way in. The doors were always locked, and the windows seemed to be made of thick, bullet-proof glass.

            Alex looked down at the key in his hand. Someone had left the key and a note by his front door this morning. The note had simply said, “There’s something strange inside the old mansion.” There was no signature or any hint of who had left him the note.

            Alex considered himself a pretty good investigator. Even though he was only 11 years old, he had a reputation for tracking down things that had been stolen or lost. That’s why he wasn’t too surprised when he found the note. Someone had a mystery for him.

            Even though it was only ten o’clock in the morning, Alex clicked on his flashlight as he pulled it out of his backpack. He shone it around the darkened entryway. The door swung shut behind him and Alex gave an involuntary jump. There was a thick layer of dust everywhere except for a set of footprints leading down the hall. Alex followed the footprints and came to an ornate set of stairs. The steps creaked as he climbed up and reached the landing.

            Nervously, Alex adjusted his backpack as he continued to follow the footprints. With every step, the wood underneath him moaned and groaned in protest. The footprints stopped in front of a door that was slightly ajar. Alex pushed open the door and stepped inside. He glimpsed an old, dusty room before suddenly, everything changed.

            There was such a powerful whoosh of air that Alex closed his eyes and took an involuntary step back. When he opened his eyes again, he was absolutely dumbfounded. “What the?!!” he said, totally confused.

            Alex was standing in the middle of a bright, sunlit meadow. His eyes darted around and landed on a strange man standing a few feet away. He was wearing a suit and tie, and a warm smile as he said, “Welcome Alex!”

            Alex had never seen this man before. He pulled out the small flip phone that he carried in his backpack, just in case.

            “That’s not going to work here,” the man said kindly.

            All was silent in the meadow until Alex asked, “Who are you, and what is this place? I was in the old mansion, and I suddenly find myself here. What happened? How did I get here?” This all came out very fast, thanks to his nervousness.

            “Well Alex,” the man said as he shook Alex’s hand. “I was the one who sent you the key. My name is Greg.” He led Alex over to a nearby garden bench and invited him to sit down.

            Alex slowly sank down on to the bench and asked, “Where are we and why are we here?”

            Greg chuckled as he sat down next to Alex. “Well, I wanted to let you know that you’ve caught my attention. Not many 11-year-old boys are able to do what you do.”

            “What’s that?” Alex asked.

            “You’re a finder.”

            “A what?”

            “A finder. Someone with the magical gift to be able to find anything that they’re seeking.”

            Alex’s confusion now turned to disbelief. “That’s not magic! I’m just able to find things that people lost or were stolen because I’m a good investigator. There’s no such thing as magic!”

            Greg’s smile grew wider. “I beg to differ, Alex. How do you think we got here?” He gestured to the meadow around them. He continued explaining to Alex. “Usually, people with this magical gift take years to use it properly. You’ve been able to master it without any training at all.”

            Greg paused as he pulled something out of his suit coat pocket. “That’s why I’m inviting you to join the Finder’s Society.” He showed Alex what was in his hand.

            Alex couldn’t believe his eyes. Greg was holding a miniature gold dragon in the palm of his hand that was moving. The dragon paced around his palm as it studied Alex. Alex was shocked and didn’t know what to say. Finally, he asked, “What’s the Finder’s Society?”

            “Oh, it’s just a secret group of Finders like you and I. Yes, I’m a Finder too,” he answered before Alex could ask.

            “So, what does this society do?” came Alex’s next question.

            “We just work behind the scenes, helping others. It’s what you already do, right?”

            Alex thought for a moment and then said, “I suppose so, but what about the dragon?”

            Greg held the tiny dragon out closer to Alex and then said, “Go ahead, take it.”

            Not knowing what else to do, Alex reached out to touch the little golden dragon. Immediately, it wrapped itself around Alex’s finger and became solid. Alex felt something inside him shift and looked up at Greg.

            “With this dragon, you’ll be able to use your finder magic more easily, and other Finders will be able to sense you.” Greg smiled at Alex again. “You will also be able to sense other Finders.” He abruptly stood up and said, “Well, that’s it, time to go.”

            Alex had a million questions and opened his mouth to ask one when suddenly, there was another powerful whoosh of air that made him close his eyes and fall off of the bench he was sitting on.

            When he opened his eyes again, he found himself on the ground outside the old mansion’s front door. More confused than ever, he reached to open the door again, but discovered that it was locked and he had lost the key. He was seriously questioning his sanity when he saw the dragon ring still on his finger.

            Alex went home that day, not really believing or understanding what had happened. But for the rest of his life, he wore the golden dragon ring around his finger. People often came to him for help, and he was a very successful private investigator. They were always surprised at how easily it came to him to get to the bottom of every mystery. Alex would just say that it came naturally, but he always rubbed his golden dragon ring as he said this. People assumed it was his good luck charm, but Alex knew better.

In Storage

            Leo paced the floor of his grandfather’s small house. He looked out the window and saw, yet again, the barrage of unending lightning. Why couldn’t his parents have taken him with them on their interplanetary cruise? He let out a long sigh and flopped down onto the couch. Instead of seeing new and exotic places, he was stuck on the small planet of Zoltan, far away from all of his friends, and indeed, most of civilization. Zoltan was very sparsely populated, mostly because of the near constant lightning storms that covered the planet.

            Leo pulled out his soccer ball and started to play keepie-uppie. He was on his school’s soccer team, and he was a fair player. He managed to keep the ball up for a few minutes before he lost control and it rolled away. Luckily, his grandfather’s house didn’t have too many breakable things. The ball rolled and bounced harmlessly toward the hall.

            Leo started after it and saw his grandfather coming toward him, concern on his face. “You all right, Leo?” he asked with furrowed brows.

            “Yeah,” Leo answered quickly, a little shame-faced. “I just let my ball get away from me.” Before his grandfather could say anything, Leo followed his ball. He knew he shouldn’t have been playing keepie-uppie in the house, but he was so bored.

            At the end of the hall, there were some stairs that went down to the basement. He’d never been down there before. Leo ran after his ball, and was amazed to find himself surrounded by tons of boxes at the bottom of the stairs. They were stacked nearly to the ceiling. His ball was still rolling down a small aisle in between the towers of boxes. Finally, after running what felt like an entire soccer field, he reached his ball which had stopped at a closed door. He looked behind him at the towers of boxes and was again amazed to see how far he had come. That’s weird he thought. I didn’t realize Grandpa’s basement was a tunnel.

            He also hadn’t realized how dark it had gotten in the race after his ball. He looked at the door where the tunnel ended, and could barely make out the small sign on it that said STORAGE.

            Curious now, Leo turned the knob, which opened easily. Automatic lights came on and he saw that he was indeed in a small storage room. “Why does Grandfather have such a long tunnel that only leads to a storage room?” he asked out loud.

            A thick layer of dust covered everything around him. He looked around at all the objects that had been carefully mounted on the walls. At first glance, it all just looked like junk and old computer parts. But now he saw that everything was carefully labelled. This stuff was old. Underneath each item was a small screen that displayed a name and a date. All the dates that Leo saw seemed to be around the year 2235.

            “Wow,” Leo breathed excitedly. It was now the year 2301. He moved closer to inspect an interesting piece of tech that looked like it came off of an old hovercar. Then a purple light flashed from the corner of his eye. He turned and saw a small hand-held device that hadn’t been labelled with a name, but bore the year 2230. “Wow,” Leo said again, awe in his voice. He reached out to pick up the item, and saw that it fit in his hand like it was made for him.

            The item started to shift, and then there was a bright green button that appeared on the surface. Without waiting to think about any possible consequences, Leo pushed it.

            A small holographic image appeared in front of Leo, hovering in the air. It was a boy, around Leo’s age, whose face was covered in panic. “You have to help me!” it said desperately. “I’m trapped here!”

            Leo studied the image. He was impressed at how well it had held up after all these years. Everyone knew that holographic images degraded over time. This one was seventy years old, and it looked like it had been made yesterday.

            “What is this thing?” Leo wondered, intrigued. To his immense shock, the image answered his question.

            Some of the panic on the boy’s face seemed to dissipate a little as he said, “I’m a personal assistant, Model #A214. My name is Kenneth.”

            Now Leo began to understand. He had heard of the holographic personal assistants. They were really popular a long time ago. With a jolt, he remembered why they were no longer around anymore. He hurriedly put the device back on the shelf and turned to leave.

            “Wait!” Kenneth said, urgently now. “Come back, please!”

            Leo picked up his ball and hurried out the door and into the tunnel. He slammed the door shut and leaned against it, his heart pounding. A holographic personal assistant? Now he remembered the story that had become a legend. He ran back down the long tunnel, and had just gotten to the stairs when he nearly crashed into his grandfather.

            “Grandfather!” he shouted, relieved. “You know you have a holographic personal assistant in your storage room?”

            Grandfather’s already concerned face turned into real worry at this news. “Did you talk to Kenneth?” he asked, a little too quickly.

            “Only for a minute,” Leo said, struggling to regain his breath. “I put the device back as soon as I knew what it was.”

            Grandfather looked back the way Leo had come. “He’s the reason that I live alone on this awful planet,” he said bitterly. “He was the leader of the holographs that waged war on humanity.”

            Leo felt his eyes widen. “That kid was the leader of the revolt? Why wasn’t he destroyed with the others?”

            “Because he’s a model A214,” Grandfather said resignedly. “Those models were directly connected to their users with a special brain chip. The only way they could ever be disconnected was if the host dies.”

            Leo had never heard this part of the legend. “Who was Kenneth’s host?” he asked, tentatively.

            Grandfather held his breath for a moment, and then let it out with a soft, “Me.” He turned and walked up the stairs, with Leo following close behind him.

            Now Leo understood why his grandfather lived on Zoltan, alone. He made Leo swear to keep his secret. If the government ever found out that there was a surviving holographic personal assistant from the AI revolt, they would kill Leo’s grandfather without a thought. They could never again risk AI taking over humanity.

            When his parents came back from their cruise a week later, Leo was almost reluctant to leave. He hugged his grandfather tightly and stepped back into the world that had been eradicated of artificially intelligent machines and programs.

Man Overboard!

            Diego loved his job. He ran a tourist boat up and down the river near his home in Brazil. He lived in a smaller city outside of the main area of Rio de Janeiro. They weren’t technically part of the jungle proper, but close enough for tourists to say that they’ve seen it. As long as they could see the thick jungle from the boat, they were satisfied.

            That is, until today. Diego’s passengers today were a group of young adult men that had obviously had way too much to drink, even though it was only 11 AM. They were loud and annoying and demanded that Diego drive them into the forest itself. Diego wouldn’t have done it, but they had offered him a bonus that he couldn’t refuse. He had to make a living, after all.

            So, against Diego’s better judgement, he had steered his boat into a smaller side river. With every yard of progress that they made, the jungle seemed to move closer around and behind them, shutting them in it. Diego started to worry about the safety of his boat, when one of his passengers shouted, “Hey, look over there!”

            Diego followed his line of sight to see an enormous crocodile. It was bigger than even he had ever seen, even though the river was full of them. Before he could caution his passengers, they were all leaning out of the boat, trying to get the perfect picture. “Keep yourselves inside the boat please!” Diego shouted, a little panicked. “It’s really easy to lose your balance!” Especially when you're already wasted, he thought.

            One young man turned to Diego and grinned with a devil-may-care smile. This annoyed Diego more than he already was. His annoyance changed to something else, however, when the boat gave a little lurch and the young man abruptly disappeared over the side.

            “Man overboard!” one of the other young men called out, jokingly.

            Diego, however, knew this was no joking matter. He quickly turned off the boat motor and grabbed a length of rope. With expertise born from years of experience, he tied the rope to the boat, and threw the other end to the young man in the water. He was further annoyed and dismayed when he realized that the young man couldn’t really swim. He was flailing about in a ridiculous sort of dog paddle. “Grab the line!” Diego shouted to him.

            The young man tried desperately to grab hold, but to no avail. The river was pulling him away from the boat, and the crocodile, Diego noticed, was coming closer to his flailing form. Diego shouted to the rest of his passengers, “As soon as I grab him, pull us in!” He noticed with some satisfaction that they were finally starting to realize the gravity of the situation.

            Without another word, Diego dove into the river and swam powerfully over to the struggling young man. He grabbed a hold of one waving arm and shouted, “Pull us in!” Nothing happened for a moment, and he turned to watch the crocodile getting closer. Finally, he felt that they were being pulled by the rope, back to the boat.

            The other passengers were hurriedly working to pull the two men up. Diego made sure that they got the young man inside the boat, and then he heaved himself out of the water onto the deck. As soon as he was in, he turned around to look at the crocodile. Diego looked in horror as the monster rose halfway out of the river with its gigantic mouth open. The crocodile was even bigger than Diego had at first thought. Thwarted of its prey, the crocodile angrily started to swim away.

            Diego watched it for a moment, and then turned to his white-faced passengers. “It looks like it’s time to head back now,” he said nonchalantly. All of the young men stared at him as he worked to turn the boat around and headed home. Never again would he be lured with anything to venture that far into the jungle. Once was enough for a lifetime.