ZOE GALAXY: The Invitation

Chapter Five: The Legend of One Note

Alfred decided to spend his day off just as he always did, at work. He'd dressed that morning in his most treasured casual clothes; blue jeans tightened with a belt and oversized "TEXAS" buckle, freshly polished red cowboy boots, a neatly pressed oxford shirt with a bow tie, and a cowboy hat way too big for his pea-sized head. No one had the heart to tell Alfred he looked ridiculous. Instead they told him he looked like he'd just come back from the rodeo, which Alfred took as the best of compliments. 

He climbed up the marble steps of the Abukar Library, an impossibly tall one-hundred-forty-four story building that cast off a subtle violet light. Gazing up at the crystal carved archway he read the engraved words he often pondered:  

"All that ever has been or will be shall be written here." 

What do those 'will-be' records look like? He'd never seen them; his Life Book access was restricted to "has-been" records only. But that was fine with Alfred. In order to have access to the "will-be" records he must have Real Life experience. And for now, Alfred preferred a second-hand education, capitalizing on the mistakes of others by studying what to entirely avoid. Mistakes made Real Life littered with too many unpleasant surprises, at least in his opinion - of which he had many. 

Alfred loved being at the library surrounded by millions times millions of books. His favorites were the Life Books, which existed for every person who lived a Real Life and detailed every single moment of their experience. He loved to randomly pick a Life Book and imagine himself living that person's life even better.  

His second favorite were the Real Life romance novels he secretly read in bed by the soft glow of candle light while sipping white Zinfandel. There were also books from the Qualands written by very important people. Those books did not sit on shelves collecting dust, they glowed, sang, hummed and floated about to mingle and exchange information with other books. Some books were huge and fat and constantly expanding, some slim and tiny as a thumb so as to maintain their original integrity. All Qualander books chose their readers and to date Alfred had been unable to force, bribe or cajole one to share its contents. But he was determined to win them over and eventually read the entire contents of the library. Then he was sure he'd know all there was to know. 

Alfred entered the old-fashioned elevator, set down his brown audit briefcase and pushed the button for ground level. He enjoyed doing things the Real Life way as much as possible. Unnecessary things like walking, eating, sleeping and, of course, taking the elevator, always making the extra effort to better prepare himself for his eventual entry into a Real Life. As the elevator slowly made its descent fifty stories down, he wondered what would be this year's number one reason for declined mystery school Invitations. For the last twenty years, it had been: too busy. Even with all the technological advances to free up time, it seems Real Life has only gotten busier.  

Last year, "too busy" set the record with a whopping 48%. Second place went to "not enough proof of existence" with 32%. And the remaining fell into the categories of "not ready yet", "I'm not happy, but I know I'm right", "I can do it myself, thank you very much", and a most recent category "what-EVER". These were the reasons posted by the audit committee, but Alfred suspected there were other reasons. Reasons that he would someday figure out.  

Alfred exited the elevator and spotted the Headmaster of the Academy of Qua leaning over one of the library's crystal tabletops. He recognized Master Melkezador by his thick, silvering hair worn in a braid twisted with gold and silver twine. Master Melkezador was not wearing his customary school attire. Instead, he was dressed in the regalia of a Qua Ambassador, a well-fitted trench coat of violet-silver that reflected the light and knee high silver boots. To learn Master Melkezador was a Qua Ambassador was indeed a surprise to Alfred, as new appointments are so very rare.