Book on the Isle
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Also by Stuart Jaffe
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Acknowledgements
THE PARALLEL SOCIETY WILL RETURN SOON!
Newsletter
About the Author
Copyright Information
Book on the Isle
Parallel Society #2
Stuart Jaffe
For Glory
Also by Stuart Jaffe
Max Porter Paranormal Mysteries
Southern Bound
Southern Charm
Southern Belle
Southern Gothic
Southern Haunts
Southern Curses
Southern Rites
Southern Craft
Southern Spirit
Nathan K Thrillers
Immortal Killers
Killing Machine
The Cardinal
Yukon Massacre
The First Battle
Immortal Darkness
Parallel Society
The Infinity Caverns
Book on the Isle
The Malja Chronicles
The Way of the Black Beast
The Way of the Sword and Gun
The Way of the Brother Gods
The Way of the Blade
The Way of the Power
The Way of the Soul
Gillian Boone novels
A Glimpse of Her Soul
Pathway to Spirit
Stand Alone Novels
After The Crash
Real Magic
Founders
Short Story Collection
10 Bits of My Brain
10 More Bits of My Brain
The Bluesman
Non-Fiction
How to Write Magical Words: A Writer’s Companion
For more information, please visit www.stuartjaffe.com
Chapter 1
Veronica “Roni” Rider sat in the breakfast nook of Elliot and Sully’s apartment. Living on the fifth floor of the In The Bind bookstore, the two old men had been part of her family for decades. Along with Gram, they made up all that Roni had left. Which made her problem all the more difficult.
“You should talk to her,” Sully said, pushing his glasses up his nose. He scratched at the white tufts that ringed his head. “She’s your grandmother, after all, and that’s important.”
Elliot laughed — a powerful sound that denied his age. With exacting motions, he scrambled eggs in a small pan. “We are talking about Lillian, correct? Roni’s Gram?”
“Phooey, to you. Yes, of course, Gram can be prickly about things at times, but this is her granddaughter and the future of the Parallel Society.”
Roni had been joining the boys for breakfast most every day for the last year — ever since she had discovered the truth about the Old Gang. Lillian “Gram” Donaugh, Elliot Kenwana, and Sully Greenbaum were no ordinary trio of elderly folk. Not at all. They had been saving the universe for decades.
“That’s my problem,” Roni said. “What kind of future will the Society have when all Gram will let me do is library work?”
Sully wagged a finger. “You’re our researcher, our librarian. Where else should you work? I make Golems, so I work in the studio with the clay. Gram’s gifts are the chains and books that bind the tears between universes — that’s why her office is the entrance to the caverns that house all those books. And Elliot — well, his abilities don’t really get an office here.”
Elliot laughed louder than before. “If I was not healing you every few months, you would have died ages ago. Besides, I do not think Roni is complaining about her work environment.” Though Elliot had been an American citizen for over twenty years, his Kenyan birth and London upbringing made his speech exact and his insights worldly. “It is more the work itself, yes?”
Accepting a plate of eggs, Roni tucked into her food — easier to focus on eating than on the truth of Elliot’s words. “I don’t want to seem ungrateful.”
As Elliot settled at the small table, Sully rose and went about pouring mugs of coffee for the three of them. “Nobody’ll think you’re ungrateful. You want more responsibility. That’s admirable. Shows real chutzpah. And you should get it, too. You need to learn more about what we do so that you’ll be ready when the time comes.”
“That is absolutely right,” Elliot said. “Because Gram and Sully and I have our powers, you might be mistakenly thinking that we have magic over life and death. But this is not true. We are mortal, and we are old.”
“Listen to him. Elliot’s done a marvelous job of healing Gram and me for years, but we all die eventually. You have to be ready to take over.”
Roni set down her fork. “Then help me talk with her. If the only other members of the Parallel Society support me, then she’ll have to listen.”
Elliot twitched his eye towards Sully. “That would not be advisable.”
“He’s right,” Sully said and slurped some coffee, hiding his eyes behind the mug. “In fact, Gram will only dig her heels in deeper if we get involved.”
Roni shook her head and chuckled. “Cowards.”
“No,” Sully said. “We’re simply smart. Trust me. When she’s ready, she’ll ask us our opinions and then we’ll support you. But to do more will only get you less.”
Roni pushed away from the table with a firm motion. “You’re right. How can I go about learning to save the universe, if I can’t even approach my grandmother with a simple request to have more responsibility in this outfit?”
“What? Now?”
“Why not? She’ll be up. Heck, she’ll be downstairs already, probably going through the bookstore inventory to see what to order.”
Sully gazed at the refrigerator. “I haven’t even toasted my bagel yet.”
Leaning over, Roni kissed the top of Sully’s head. “Enjoy your breakfast, boys. I’ve got to go chat with Gram.”
Elliot patted her arm. “You will do fine. And when we come downstairs, if we must, we will clean your blood from the floor as if it never had been spilled.”
Roni and Sully stared at him in shock. But then Elliot’s face broke into a wide grin, and all three laughed. For Roni, though, the nervous energy beneath their mirth cut straight into her chest.
She took the elevator to the first floor, its close confines like a coffin pressing in. When it came to rest with a hard bump, she considered opening the panel that housed the button for the secret floors beneath the building. She could simply go down to the Grand Library and get to work.
No. She had to deal with Gram. A year was more than enough time. Too much, in fact.
Walking toward the front of the bookstore reminded her that she had grown up here. The smell of the old books, the feel of the narrow aisles, the sound of the hushed voices — from the baseboard molding that she had carved her initials into when she turned fourteen to the dent in the metal shelves of the Fantasy section where she had smacked her head after running (and falling) at age seven — every inch of the place belonged to her childho
od. She knew it all.
Or she thought she did. Until she learned of the endless caverns beneath, the secret rooms on secret floors, and that her Gram and the Old Gang were powerful heroes battling amazing worlds, she had really known nothing about the place.
Gram manned the front counter with a large ledger open before her. Though not an all-out technophobe, Gram insisted on doing the books by hand. A stout woman, she kept one hand following the ledger numbers and the other clenching her beaded, crucifix necklace that sat on the shelf of her prominent chest.
Lifting her head, she nodded. “Good morning, Roni.”
“Morning.”
Roni’s legs weakened. She could still turn toward the basement stairs and catch the elevator one floor below. But Gram would wonder why she had taken such an odd route. If Gram didn’t stop her to ask then, the question would arise later in the day.
The OPEN sign hung in the doorway, but nobody would bother coming inside for a few more hours. It was a rare day that anybody arrived before ten o’clock. So, Roni couldn’t use customers as an excuse.
“Something on your mind?” Gram asked.
Roni trembled a smile. She had been standing still long enough to be noticeable. In fact, she realized, she stood next to the big table — a large, square oak table that ruled over the center reading area of the store. Many of the big conversations in her life had happened at this table — starting with the first big one, the day Gram told Roni that her mother had died in a car accident and that her father had been institutionalized.
“I haven’t all day,” Gram said. “What’s this about?”
“Well,” Roni said, and to her surprise, her voice sounded firm.
“Well what?”
“It’s been a year since I’ve learned the truth about you and the world and everything. I’ve spent this year in the sub-basement, cleaning up the library, organizing the books and maps and all of it, and that’s been fine.”
Gram straightened. “But?”
“It’s time I get more involved. I need more responsibilities. I need to learn how to do everything so that I’m ready.”
“And what exactly do you mean by everything? You want to go out fighting creatures with us?”
“Yes. But also, I should be introduced to the various contacts you have. I know there are religious leaders and other people all over the world who report to you when they spot trouble. How are they going to know to call me when … that is …”
“When I die?”
“I’ve done my year of penance. Shouldn’t I be allowed to join the Society in full?”
With a firm snap — a well-honed maneuver — Gram closed the ledger. Roni lowered to the nearest chair at the big table. Her mouth dried.
“Let me understand this,” Gram said, and Roni’s throat closed up. “You’ve decided that after a measly year, that you deserve to become a full member of the Parallel Society — the most important group in this entire universe, the one group of people protecting everybody. The fact that I’m the leader means nothing to you.”
“I only meant —”
Gram put up a hand to silence Roni. “You think because you’ve decided that you’re bored with the task I gave you, that your penance, as you put it, should be over. Let’s look at what caused your penance. You brought a date into this building and let him discover the hidden caverns.”
“I didn’t let him do anything. I didn’t even know about any of that stuff at the time.”
“Nonetheless, you knew that nobody was allowed in my office, but you allowed him —”
“He broke in.”
“Under you guard.”
“I wasn’t a damn sentry.”
“Watch your language.” Gram stepped out from behind the counter and loomed larger. “After we rescued the man, Darin, from the book he fell into, you were supposed to get rid of him. Instead, you ended up — unwittingly again — aiding him into become stronger and more of a problem. Finally, with Elliot and Sully’s help, we stopped Darin from potentially enslaving our world. And we all almost died doing so. During that time, you couldn’t make up your mind if you wanted to join us. When you finally decided to be part of the team, I made it clear that you had no special powers other than your mind. You’re smart and you love books. This makes you ideal to be our team researcher. I figured with all the journals and reports from centuries of the Society’s existence at your fingertips, you’d be enjoying all there was to learn for several years to come. Penance? That was a gift.”
“Meanwhile, you three are doing the real job of the Society and you never once call upon me for help. The idea that I’m your team researcher is a joke.”
Gram marched to the edge of the table. Her stern glower lightened. “Is that what you think?”
“Just last week, you and Sully went off to Argentina, and two months ago, you sent Elliot to Poland.”
“Dear, the reason we haven’t called for your help on jobs is because there haven’t been any. Those trips were more about keeping strong network ties with those that help us. It’s a big world, so every bit of help is appreciated. But going a year without trouble is not unheard of. Longest we’ve gone was five years, and I’m sure some of the Society members from centuries past went even longer. Other universes crashing into ours is not a weekly event. Thank the Lord for that.”
Roni frowned. The idea that she had not been excluded left her in doubt. She wanted to believe Gram, but that proved harder all the time. After all, Gram had lied to Roni from as far back as she could remember. No matter how much justification she wanted to grant Gram, the lies remained. Clearly, nothing as threatening as Darin had occurred in the last year, but nothing at all?
Clinging to her anger, Roni said, “That might be, but I still need to meet the people that you network with. I still need to know more about how to do any of this job. If a meteor strikes tomorrow and kills you three off, then I barely know anything. The Parallel Society would be ruined.”
“It’s a good thing there are no apocalyptic meteors on the way.”
“Joking isn’t going to change my mind.”
Gram’s gentle smile turned into a thin line. “Nor mine. You have an important job to do, but allow me to be clear — you work for us. Not the other way around. The Parallel Society has been operating far longer than we have written records for, and there is a method to keeping the whole thing going. So, stop worrying about yourself and how all this affects you, and start working for all of us.”
“That’s not at all what —”
“Enough of this. I’m all upset now. Please mind the store until the boys come down. I’m going to my apartment for a rest. When I return, I hope to find you in the Grand Library where you belong.”
Without waiting for Roni’s response, Gram shuffled toward the elevator. Her apartment took up the other half of the fifth floor opposite Elliot and Sully. Roni waited until the elevator closed before she punched down on the table. The smack’s dull echo died around her leaving a lonely silence.
“Well, shit,” she said.
Chapter 2
Roni spent the remainder of the day working as usual — sifting through old journals, organizing ancient books and diaries, taking scraps of hand-drawn maps and attempting to make sense of the twisting, winding caverns beneath her. But unlike her usual workdays, her thoughts did not fill up with the wonder of the library. Instead, she replayed her conversation with Gram.
More like a lecture.
No matter what angle she looked at it, Roni returned to the same result — Gram did not trust her. Gram had kept the truth of the universe hidden despite knowing that at some point Roni would have to take over. She had kept the gang’s current cases secret, claiming that nothing had happened in the last year. She had kept Roni isolated in the library, away from all the other secrets she must be holding.
By the time the day ended, Roni had worked herself into a quiet rage. She tramped out of the bookstore without a word to anybody and headed to the 1st Street Bar
. After two shots of whiskey and a beer, she relaxed enough to take a cab to Cody’s Saloon. Several more drinks and she found her way to Nicki’s Corner. By that point, midnight had come around. That’s when she met Frank.
Young, fit, and handsome — though she had enough sense to question if he really looked that way or if the alcohol had made him that way. He bought her a beer. “It’s late for a girl to be drinking on a Wednesday night.”
“Late for anybody,” she said.
He smiled and her body tingled. “Very true.”
With that auspicious introduction, she spent the next hour chatting away about movies and television shows. She wondered if he read books — one of the few passions in her life — but reminded herself not to care about him in that way. There would be no more romantic relationships in her life. How could there be? She had a monumental secret. If she got close enough to a man that she might reveal the truth about the world, she would put that man’s life at risk. Darin died because of that secret, and they had only dated twice.
“Frank,” she said, interrupting his observations on the comedy of Seinfeld, “there are only two reasons people are drinking hard in a bar on a Wednesday night. Either they’re a drunk or they’re looking to get laid. I’m not a drunk.”
Roni followed the cracks along the bedroom ceiling as she listened to the gentle snoring of the stranger beside her. Dim light peeked through the window blinds. Morning would arrive soon. Much of the previous night blurred together, but she knew enough. She drank too much, met up with Frank, and topped the night off in his bed. Twice.
With a gentle motion, she rocked her head from shoulder to shoulder. No pounding pain. No blistering fire from the sounds of the rustling pillowcase. Other than some dehydration, she fared well. No major hangover. If she were religious like any of the Old Gang, she would thank the Lord for small favors. As it was, she merely marveled at her body’s resilience.