The Library Stairs, Chapter One

It had been like sleep, and Joe had been right to fear that fog for something far more than fog. Apparently the power to shoot flames from his hands wasn’t all Crushroom had unlocked in him. Now as Joe steadily made his way back to consciousness, it was with an innate understanding he wasn’t doing so because it was morning. True, sunbeams slanting through the minibus windows indicated they’d driven all night, but Joe knew the real reason for his wakefulness was their finally having reached a junction. One which linked a road he’d traversed before with that mysterious southbound route leading away from the holiday camp.

Some holiday camp. Our hero doubted Mini-Flash Robin and Mini-Flash Juniper were going to remember it in such terms.

The former was still asleep, sprawled and hormonal and wide-mouthed on his folded-down bus seat, pants showing. On the other side of Joe was a small curtained-off section which he assumed at first was for Mini-Flash Juniper’s private slumbers, until he noticed the curtain was in motion, and there were sounds of industry coming from behind it.

Was Juniper already awake?

Could she have been awake throughout the journey?

How was that possible?

Well, Joe then remarked to himself, these other girls obviously had been. And they looked quite a lot like Mini-Flash Juniper.

Insofar as they could be seen at all, that was, even amid the brightness of this dawning day. Joe could determine three, sitting side-by-side on the seats facing him, and behind them a fourth who was at the wheel. All wore a uniform of dark blue and silver, and something about the trio bespoke hours of patient hushed anticipation for the moment he began to move. Wide waiting long-lashed eyes were visible, as were parted lips which glimmered softly from interposing planes of sun and shadow.

“This vehicle,” were the first words our hero managed. “For myself and Mini-Flash Robin it served as some sort of shield?”

The girls were as difficult to hear as they were to see, but between them they confirmed this was so.

“You saved our lives,” Joe went on.

This time his voice was no greater than theirs. Crushroom’s mission had been for him to rescue Mini-Flash Pseudangelos, but he’d barely survived long enough to pull his own people out of there before needing to be rescued himself. Just now Joe didn’t feel in any way worthy of this threesome’s awed diffidence.

The bus was turning, and slowing to a halt. Mini-Flash Robin began to stir. One of the girls rolled the side-door open and Joe climbed out, stretching.

Yesterday’s overcast nebulosity was gone. Down from a blue washed to clarity and lightness the morning streamed upon the car park of a school, old red brick and an Hellenic portico and towers topped in copper. Joe looked about him and was satisfied at once, not only that this was a place he remembered, but also that he had indeed never travelled directly from the coast to here.

It would have been going too far to say anything yet made sense.

However, the memory-gaps and logical inconsistencies which Joe had contemplated with idle interest less than twenty-four hours ago he now knew for the matters of burning import they were.

Thanks, Crushroom.

Robin clambered out of the minibus, untucking his underwear, and after him so too did the trio and the driver. These thereby became a little more perceptible than they had been, so much so that Joe could be fairly certain they were on the verge of speaking again. He did his best to focus, all the while thinking they really reminded him of someone.

Joe’s two friends, the girls assured him, would be well looked after. They were both going to spend the day in class. On a related note, it was hoped Joe wouldn’t think anybody guilty of fashion criticism, but when you were new you didn’t like to stand out. Our hero was still puzzling over this last part when a further duo exited the bus, followed by Mini-Flash Juniper.

She was a vision in silver and blue. Her legs and woollen pullover and tie dotted with crests shone back the school colours under brilliant celestial rays. Before everybody’s eyes, and Robin’s huge mouth, Juniper gave a dainty twirl that the pleats of her skirt rose in a fan. Then she and her identical contemporaries shared identical smiles, and although Joe didn’t care to endorse words spoken in anger or haste, there was about the whole crew more than a touch of the mini-cheddars. For reasons that went well beyond coordinated clothing, our hero was confirmed in his earlier suspicion that Juniper and their hostesses were somehow strangely and deeply alike.

“I was fine once I’d figured out stockings go on over panties,” Mini-Flash Juniper explained.

So saying she busied herself with largely imaginary crinkles in the nylon, lifting her hemline on one side then the other and diligently tugging each thigh to acceptable smoothness. If these girls really did have a day of lessons planned, then Joe wished them the best of luck keeping Mini-Flash Robin’s mind on his studies. As for our hero’s own itinerary, the trio he’d talked to on the bus seemed to have that in hand, so parting from their other companions Joe let them lead him in the direction of the main building.

END OF CHAPTER ONE