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Young Writers Society


The Royalty Rendezvous



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Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:07 pm
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Lib says...



"Sure," Avery said. He took his phone and slipped it into his back pocket. They left the apartment and drove to the library. It was huge, and had a back side with a beautiful view of the beach. Alex would love it.

Avery pulled up into the parking and hopped out into the burning heat. "Hopefully they have refreshments of some sort."
*insert quirky signature here*
  





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Mon Aug 03, 2020 10:20 pm
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looseleaf says...



The front doors automatically opened as Alex and Avery strolled into the library. It was as big as it seemed from the outside, if not bigger. There were dozens of shelves lining the first floor's walls and even more on the second floor.

Alex and Avery walked up to the front desk and devised their plan. Avery would grab the books, Alex would sign up for a library card, and then they would go sit outside and study. Alex approached the lady at the front desk, who looked up from her computer and smiled.

"Hello! Hoe kan ek jou help?" The lady said, in a language Alex couldn't identify.

"Um.. uh... Could I have a library card?" Alex asked. The woman paused for a moment before calling over another employee. She said a few words to the man and then he turned to Alex. The woman went back to the computer.

"How can I help you?"

"Can I have a library card? Please?" Alex asked again.

"Yes!" The man pulled out a form and scribbled the English translation next to the words. Alex thanked him and quickly filled in the form.

The man looked over the form and grinned, "Ah, Canadian! Lovely country."

He slid the form under the counter and handed Alex a small plastic card. She wrote her name in sharpie under the barcode, thanked the man again, and made her way towards Avery, who had several books under his arm.

"Ready to check out?"
  





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Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:02 pm
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Lib says...



"Sure," Avery said. He gave Alex half the books and grunted, shifting the heavy load on his arms. "God, what are these made of? Bricks?"

They shuffled over to the area to check out the books. Avery saw a librarian pass by. He stopped her. "Excuse me, is there a seating area outside? We saw on the website -"

The librarian smiled and pointed outside. "There." And she walked off.

The two walked outside and the burning sun hit them again. Avery sighed. Jet lag, heat, what was coming next? Nothing too bad, he hoped. He looked at the horizon. "This place looks awesome," he breathed.

"It's incredible," Alex replied, "Especially the view!"

They sat on the beach chairs, setting their books on the glass table in front of them. The view was beautiful - the sun was in the sky, bright, yes, but gorgeous as well. The ocean was shimmering as if some giant had sprinkled glitter on it. Waves lapped onto the sandy shore in soothing whooshes.

And they started skimming through titles of books, deciding what looked the most interesting and would also give the most information.
*insert quirky signature here*
  





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Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:40 pm
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looseleaf says...



Alex looked through the books until she found several things that caught her eye. Avery had grabbed several old newspapers, plus a book titled Cape Town Public Archives: 1850-1950.

"Hey, check out these!" Alex said as she showed Avery the cover.

"We’ll get a good amount of information from that." Avery flipped through another newspaper, looking for any keywords. Eventually, Avery came across an article on the founding of the library along with a picture of their old symbol, “Look at this.” It was circular, with another circle in the middle and three wavy lines going outward.

“I’ve seen that symbol before,” Alex said, flipping one of her newspapers open, “I don’t know where.”

“Looks familiar, yeah, I guess,” Avery replied.

Avery peeked over her shoulder curiously as she researched. Alex looked through the newspaper as carefully as possible, but still couldn’t find anything that looked like the symbol Avery had found. She searched everything they had brought outside, but could not find the symbol. As Alex finished her third book, she felt a raindrop on her shoulder.

“Oh, no!” Alex sighed and closed her book, “How about we move inside?”

Avery nodded. They quickly picked up their books and moved inside as it started to rain harder.
  





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Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:47 pm
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Lib says...



Alex and Avery sat down on the velvet couches in a cozy corner of the library, leafing through a new stack of books they had collected, looking for the any sign of the symbol. “Do you see anything, yet?” Avery asked tiredly. Alex shook her head no.

“Alright, I’m tired and this isn’t working.” Avery tossed the book he had in his hands to the side and sighed. “It looks so familiar though…” He rubbed his chin.

Alex nodded. “It does, but I dunno where I’ve seen it.”

A boy, around the age of five skipped past the two adults. He had big brown eyes. His skin was the color of dark olive and his dreadlocks were the color of dark chocolate.

“Hi!” he said cheerily. Alex and Avery flashed him a fake smile. It was obvious they were both irritated - jet lag had suddenly gotten into their heads and it had been an hour f researching - and didn’t want to converse with anyone else. The boy plopped down beside Alex.

“Whatcha lookin’ for?” he asked, batting his eyelashes.

Alex gritted her teeth. “A symbol.”

“What symbol?” he asked.

Avery groaned. “Kid, it’s just some random thing that adults do,” he said.

The boy nodded, as if understanding. He perked up. “I can help you!”

Avery gave in, sighing. He took out his phone and showed the picture to the boy. He wasn’t expecting an answer. But the boy gave one. “Oh! Are you guys stupid?” Alex and Avery shared a look. What was this child up to?

The boy got up and pointed to the wall on the left. The exact same symbol was carved into it. Avery and Alex were dumbstruck. The boy grinned and skipped away.

So the symbol was the library's symbol.
*insert quirky signature here*
  





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Wed Aug 12, 2020 4:35 pm
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looseleaf says...



"How did we overlook that?" Alex sighed and slammed her book shut.

Avery stared at the symbol. "We could ask a librarian?" He looked at Alex.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Alex stood and set her books on the table beside them, "And then we can go sleep."

Avery nodded in agreement and they both walked to the front desk. The lady from before was there, so she quickly rushed to grab the man to talk to them.

"Hello, I'm Friedrich, how can I help you?" the man asked.

"Hi, could you tell us about the symbol on the wall?" Alex said, "I know that sounds weird, but-"

"Not weird at all!" Friedrich exclaimed, pulling another book out from under the counter. Alex and Avery groaned, Not another book, "When the library was founded, the Leifssons picked an island with three rivers as their symbol! It, along with the name, was changed in 1959, when the library went under new- what do you call it? Oh, yes, when it went under new management!"

"I'm sorry, did you say Leifsson?" Alex questioned.

"Yes! The Leifsson family was very famous for centuries, until they moved to Canada. I believe the first one not born in Cape Town's name was Ivan..."

"Isaac."

"Yes, Is... How did you know that?"

"He's my dad. He was born in 1960-something." Alex explained, "I never knew about this, though. Isaac never told me."

"Well, ma'am," Friedrich paused for a moment and typed something on the computer. He grinned, took some keys out of his pockets, and slid them over to Alex, "The library closes in five minutes, but because of your name, I can let you look around past closing. If you would like."

Avery and Alex glanced at each other for a moment, "We would love to."
  





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Sat Aug 15, 2020 7:01 pm
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Lib says...



Avery was in utter shock. This building was made by the Leiffsons! Which meant that Alex technically owned it. But not exactly, maybe her father hadn't given the library to her.

He made a mental note to ask Alex to call Isaac to ask him about it.

They watched as the librarian left. He waved at them and they waved back with smiling faces.

Avery and Alex looked at each other. "Seriously?" Avery blinked.

"I guess," Alex looked stricken.

Avery dropped the books on the information desk and sucked in a deep breath. Without a word, they both knew they had to check out the wall with the symbol. Maybe it would tell them where to go? Of course, it couldn't talk, so the two would have to rack their brains for any ideas of what the symbol could mean.

In three seconds flat, the two of them were standing in front of the symbol on the wall, inspecting each and every carving. Avery scrunched up his nose in annoyance and let out an even more annoyed 'ugh'.

He slammed his fist against the brick wall. Alex glared at him.

"What?" Avery exclaimed, irritated - which was very rare for him, but jet lag could do a lot. "This is of no use, it's not like -" he froze mid-sentence. He knocked on the brick he had hit his fist on. His eyes widened, and Alex stared at him, unblinking. To double check, he knocked again and his heartbeat quickened.

"It's hollow," he squeaked.
*insert quirky signature here*
  





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Mon Aug 17, 2020 5:11 pm
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looseleaf says...



"What do you mean it's hollow?" Alex asked.

"It's literally hollow, feel it."

Alex knocked against the brick and gasped, "It is hollow! Wait. Why would it be hollow?"

"You're the one majoring in engineering," Avery replied.

"Well there's no reason there would be a hollow brick in the middle of a wall," Alex said. She thought for a moment before resuming, "Do we have a knife or something? We could scrape out the mortar and take out the brick."

"And if we can't put the brick back in?"

"We'll be able to. Hopefully."

Alex backed away from the wall and looked around. They needed something strong, stronger than a pocket knife or key, to take out the mortar, "Do you think this place has a kitchen? Like in an employee lounge."

"I'll go check the employee lounge." Avery took the keys and looked around for any sign that said "employee". Eventually, he found one near the "religion" section of the library. Avery unlocked the door and walked in. There were some chairs, a couch, and a small kitchenette. He looked through drawers and eventually found a steak knife. He grabbed it and headed back to where Alex was still inspecting the brick.

Alex went to grab a pencil and marked the hollow brick so they could find it later. She wandered over to the front desk and looked in all the drawers. There was a hammer and some nails hiding behind some stacks of paper, probably left over from putting the desk together. Alex grabbed the hammer and the nails and returned to the brick. Avery joined her moments later.

"What did you find?" Alex asked.

"A steak knife."

"Great," Alex stood on the tips of her toes and held the hammer up to the brick. It could break the brick easily, but they didn't want to destroy the brick just yet, "We can try to pick out the mortar with your knife and maybe the claw of the hammer. If that doesn't work, well, we can destroy the brick."

Avery bobs his head. "'Kay."

They both started picking at the wall with their tools. Alex made the most progress at first, but as they got to the end of the mortar, Avery's knife was the only one that could reach it. After nearly thirty minutes of digging at the mortar, Avery was able to take out the brick. He set it on the table and dumped out its contents, which was a single piece of paper with coordinates on it.

"All that work for one single piece of paper!" Alex exclaimed.
  





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Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:05 pm
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Lib says...



Avery pursed his lips, equally frustrated. "It has coordinates though," he said quietly. He squinted at the numbers. “Negative thirty nine point -” He grunted and gave Alex the piece of paper. “That’s what it says.”

-39.21863569, 18.46581951

“What are we supposed to do with this?” Avery asked.

“Google them,” Alex advised, “Maybe they’ll pop up.”

Avery took the yellowed paper and sat down on one of the computer desks. He moved the mouse a bit and the screen lit up, showing the library’s catalogue. He x-ed out of the tab and looked up Google Maps. He typed in the coordinates and squinted at the screen. “It’s in the middle of the ocean,” he said flatly.

He zoomed out. “Wait no.” He zoomed out some more. “Wait… it’s close to South Africa. Cape town actually. Right under, but a bit to the left, see?”

Alex looked over his shoulder and at the screen. “Hmm…”

“What do you suppose we do now?” Avery asked.

“How far is it from Cape Town? It’s got to be like seven hundred kilometres.”

“Uhh…” Avery did another Google search. “Nope! It’s around five sixty five.”

“Then, I guess we go there! Get a plane, like a sea plane, and go wherever that is,” Alex said, “After we sleep, of course.”

“Yes, please.” Avery sighed. He got up and stretched. “We should put the brick back, maybe, and keep the coordinates with us just in case.”

They cleaned up their mess and locked the library after they left. There was a potted plant beside the door and Avery decided to slip the key under there. Hopefully the librarian either had an extra key or he was smart enough to check underneath the pot.
*insert quirky signature here*
  





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Sat Aug 22, 2020 9:06 pm
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looseleaf says...



Alex and Avery took an Uber back to the hotel and collapsed onto their beds as soon as they entered the apartment. They were exhausted and Alex was asleep within minutes.

xXx


Alex rolled onto her side and slowly opened her eyes. The clock on the table beside her read 10:23 am. Alex groaned and rolled out of bed. She stretched, changed into a tanktop and shorts, then opened the curtains. It was a beautiful day outside, so Alex decided to enjoy the morning and sit outdoors.

Alex walked out into the living room and made a cup of coffee before sitting out on the balcony. She relaxed there for about twenty minutes, soaking in the sun and taking in the view, before Avery joined her with his own cup of coffee.

"Good morning!" Alex exclaimed.

"'Morning," Avery mumbled. "How'd you sleep?"

"I slept well, thanks," Alex said. She paused for a moment to take a sip of her coffee, "So.. what are we going to do today?"

"Look for some cheap planes or something to rent, or to have someone fly us over. But I don't think letting anyone fly us over would be a safe idea. We're new here and we don't know who to trust. We'd probably have to use some boat plane or a boat even," he explained. Avery had thought about it all night.

"How would we get there without a pilot?" Alex chuckled, "Magic?"

"I have a license," Avery said, raising his eyebrows slightly, amused.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that," Alex took the last sip of her coffee and stood up, "I can start looking for places to rent planes."

"And I'll just relax here." He smiled.
  





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Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:48 pm
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Lib says...



While Alex was inside, looking for planes, Avery decided to freshen up. He finished the last bit of his coffee and headed back inside. He took a shower, changed into khaki pants and a black t-shirt and got a glass of OJ.

It was 11:05AM when he checked the clock again. He sat down beside Alex on the velvety couch. He set his glass of orange juice on the coffee table. "Want anything to eat?" he asked as he watched Alex busily scroll through websites.
*insert quirky signature here*
  





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Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:00 pm
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looseleaf says...



"I'll grab an apple," Alex replied. She was never one to eat a large breakfast. She usually just had some coffee and fruit.

Alex took the apple and made her way onto the couch next to Avery. She had pulled up a website that rented out amphibious planes at an airport nearby. They were cheap compared to what a large boat would coast, but they still were expensive.

"How does this one look?" She showed Avery a picture of a Cessna 206 Amphib. It was the most expensive on the site, but it was the only one that could make the trip.
  





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Mon Aug 24, 2020 12:54 am
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Lib says...



"Looks awesome to me!" he exclaimed and leaned back into the couch, finishing his OJ. "Also, about the money that Charles gave us, are we using that or nah?"
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Mon Aug 24, 2020 1:41 am
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looseleaf says...



"Definitely. I don't think we could afford $400 an hour without it," Alex said. Charles had given them $15,000 after rescuing him from Beatrice.

Alex scrolled to the "Booking" page on the website, "The plane's not booked for another month, meaning for.." Alex paused for a second and did some quick math, "For three weeks we could get the plane for $14,300. If we even need it for that long."
  





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Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:16 am
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Lib says...



Avery squinted.

"We'd only need it for like a week. So that divided by three..." He groaned. Mental math was not his forte. He closed his eyes, thinking. "That's like four thousand seven hundred sixty-six per week, if I did that math right," he said, looking at Alex again who was doing her own math in her head.

"What's the earliest time we can have it booked?" he asked. "Also did we switch our dollars for rands, we'll have to do that maybe. But I don't think we need cash?"
*insert quirky signature here*
  








Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
— Søren Kierkegaard