2️⃣081: Under Further Review - III 📚

Rederick was an Artist, but he really (really) loved to read.

He didn't refer to himself as an artist. He called himself a "drawer" (lowercase "d," for now). His mom thought that was so cute of him.

Reddy, your drawings are beautiful. Better than most people your age and older. You're an Artist, she would reply.

I'll be an artist one day. When I win contests and they hang my drawings in museums and people want to give me money for them. But for now, I'll just be a drawer.

Those were wise words from an eleven-year-old, she always thought to herself. How did I get so lucky?

One of the most interesting things about Rederick's drawings is that they weren't inspired by other paintings. He never enjoyed going to museums to look at art or reading comics because of the colorful pictures. And he was never one to survey his surroundings, looking for inspiration in nature or architecture or even outer space.

Rederick loved to read 📖

Because when Rederick read, he discovered new worlds, and new creatures, and new ideas that could never be born from his imagination. A properly worded description was all he needed for images bursting with color and detail and shapes and different styles to come to life in his mind. That's why he read so much. He needed inspiration for his drawings. As he lost himself in the stories, every page he flipped was a new set of ideas added to the vault of endless illustrations piling up in his subconscious.

Every morning before school, you could find Rederick in the courtyard by the big oak tree the other students never played around because they said it was haunted. Rederick didn't think it was haunted. He thought something was causing it to die. It used to be the pride of the town, standing tall for hundreds of years (or so they said), providing shade to weary travelers and young children who played under its branches.

But, recently, it looked like something ill had afflicted the tree in a way the town had never seen before. The leaves grew darker but never fell, and the branches continued to wilt lower and lower to the ground as they begrudgingly drooped into their eternal slumber. From far away, it almost looked as if the tree was weeping. Aware of its imminent demise but too stubborn to give up, it lived in a constant state of decay masquerading as life.

No one had ever said that before. Rederick read it in a book once and felt it was an accurate description of this very (very) ugly tree. At least the tree was so ugly that the other students stayed away. Giving him plenty of space to read in peace. While everyone else was distracted playing kickball or making dance videos trying to go viral, Rederick was free to read by his tree.

Hey, NERD, what're ya reading today?

(well, he was almost free)

I heard he likes to read because he's so boring his mom doesn't want to talk to him. So she gives him books to keep him busy.

(at least their insults were getting more creative)

Even your mom thinks you're a loser!

(you can only expect so much from a sixth grader)

Maybe if you weren't so boring, your dad would still be around.

Rederick rose to his feet without hesitation and aimed his head directly at the boy's chest who had mentioned his father like he was recreating the GIF of the bald soccer player head-butting the other guy. Before he could reach his final destination, he felt his shirt wrap tightly around his neck and his feet lifted from the ground leaving his arms limp like a Woody action figure when Andy walked into the room 🧸

He hated that Spencer had an 8-inch growth spurt over the summer. Dealing with him was much easier when they were the same size. It also didn't help that he was two years older than everyone else in their grade (he was held back in elementary school).

Didn't I tell you we don't mention his dad? Do you want us to get in trouble?

Spencer admonished the younger bully without loosening his grip on Rederick's shirt.

I thought we were making fun of him!

You can't make fun of people like that anymore! You need to find a way that whatever he says we said won't get a grown-up angry enough to get us in trouble. Now stop repeating the stupid shit your dad says before we get sent to Saturday detention again.

Whatever, I didn't want to talk to this loser anyway. Now the line for kickball is so long that we'll never get to play before the first bell!

As quickly as Rederick was lifted from the ground, he dropped like a sack of potatoes 🧸

He rose to his feet and dusted himself off as he contemplated taking a clean shot to the back of Spencer's head when they weren't looking, but they were already too far away. They'd hear him coming, and he'd probably get beat up for real this time.

In some of the books Rederick read, the kids stood up to the bullies and won, but that never happened in real life (one time, another kid brought up the fact that Spencer had been held back, and he beat him up so bad he had to change schools, but nothing ever happened to Spencer except for Saturday detention because "his dad works for the state"). Not even the teachers were on his side. But he didn't tend to read the types of books with bullies like the ones he saw in school. He liked fantasies and stories with new worlds, places he'd never been with creatures who weren't like humans. Or maybe they were humans, but they were living in places that were nothing like the planet Rederick lived on.

He walked back to the tree and picked up the book he'd dropped that landed facedown and wide open. Carefully wiping off the grass and dirt, he sat down to get in a few more pages before the first bell 🤓

This book was about trees. Not just the trees, but all types of plants 🌱

It was about an entire planet of just plants and animals. There were no humans. But these plants were like humans. They could communicate with each other. All across the planet's thousands of miles of land, the different types of plants, trees, flowers, and wildlife all lived together in harmony. The plants and the trees couldn't move. They remained rooted in the same place they were born their entire lives. But they were able to grow freely. They grew taller, wider, longer, rising high above the other trees, burrowing deeper in the ground, floating on the water, up hills, and into crevasses, weaving their way through caves, branches, and even other plants to find new things to look at and new ways to soak in the sun.

The vines moved the most. They weren't tall and strong like an oak tree, but they could make their way up an oak tree's bark hundreds of feet, almost reaching the sky. And the vines loved this, and the other plants loved this for the vines. They all understood it was necessary to ebb and flow with each other to preserve the ecosystem. None of them were living on this planet entirely alone. And things went well for millions of years. The oak trees grew taller, the vines grew longer, the algae flourished in the ocean (it was good algae), the birds sang their gentle songs, and the animals fed off the fruits, nuts, and other nutrients created by the trees.

Until one day, one vine decided it wanted more 🤔

It wasn't satisfied with merely reaching the tallest tip of the tree it happened to sprout under. It wanted to venture into distant lands it had never seen before. Maybe the caves with the hanging orchids that grew where the beams of sunlight shone through, or the deserts where a strange, prickly plant very different from trees or vines lived. It was such a vast world with so much to see! Why would the vines ever be satisfied living in one place for their entire lives?

As it began its journey from the top of one tree to another, something began to change. The oak trees were sturdy from years and years of uninterrupted growth, but the vines had never acted like this before. One by one, the oak trees began to wake from their sleep to let the vines know this new way of moving wasn't working out. "I don't care," responded the adventurous vine, "I want to go that way, and I can choose to do anything I want. Who are you to tell me no?" The trees tried to reason with the vines. This decision wasn't only affecting the vines and the oak trees. It was throwing off the entire ecosystem. But when they confronted the vines about what could happen if they kept moving in new directions they—

Reddy! Where are you??? Sweetie, you're going to be late for school!! Rederick's mom knew exactly where he was, but she always pretended to be looking for him to see if he'd come out on his own. It never worked, though. He sure loved his books.

She slid the closet door open to find him sitting in his favorite spot, flashlight in one hand, book in the other. Let's go. You need to catch the bus because I can't drive you again and be late for work. You can keep reading on the bus.

The bus is here in 15 minutes, I'm already packed, and I had breakfast. Give me 5 minutes to read, and I'll still have 9 minutes to walk outside and to the corner before the bus arrives.

Since you put it that way, fine. But five minutes, only 300 seconds, and not a second more!

Rederick laughed. His mom was pretty good at cheering him up.

I know you don't like math, but your mother can be smart and funny, too 😊

I know, Mom 😛 

Five minutes was enough for Rederick. He just needed to get to the end of the chapter.

He was reading a book about a planet where five ancient tribes had prospered in the desert around a single spring of fresh water. But it wasn't always like this. Before they discovered the spring, they lived in a giant jungle oasis. Surrounded by a never-ending sea of sand, this oasis provided everything the people could ever need. Food, shelter, and plenty of new places to discover.

One day, for reasons they didn't understand, the oasis started to die. The flowers grew, but they never bloomed. The streams on the rivers where they got their water started moving slower and slower until they stopped flowing altogether. The people brought their wisest minds together to try and figure out why this was happening. The eldest in the group pointed at the great tree. As long as his ancestors had lived, the great tree had provided shade and fruit. But, very recently, the tree started to whither. The fruit didn't grow as often, and the leaves looked smaller and thinner, allowing sunlight to pass through instead of blocking it.

"A tree that old, it's bound to happen!" said one of the younger group members. For the tree had been dying since the day he was born. This was normal to him. He knew no other life.

"Now it may look like this, but for thousands of years, our people prospered while paying respects to the tree. Since we stopped our offerings in the time of your father, the tree has grown sadder," the wise elder responded.

"A sad tree 🙄 You don't know what you speak of, old man. This tree means nothing. And it won't help us survive. There's only one thing we can do now. We must set across the great dry sea."

The crowd gasped 😲 The people had never ventured across the dry lands. They had everything they needed right where they were.

"For too long, we've remained in the same place. Content with what the ground gives us without thinking if we could build more. Enough of that. I'm finding a new place to live before this one dies. And anyone brave enough is welcome to come with me."

After three days of discussion, the young man and four others set off across the horizon in search of a new place to call home. After 30 days of wandering the dry lands, their food began to run out. With hope dwindling, they prepared themselves for the ultimate fate. Just as they were ready to give up, they came across a spring in the sand. A pool of fresh water at the top of a large hill. They began to dig and dig, and more water continued to flow.

They returned home ready to share the news of their discovery and bring their families to this new oasis. But too much time had passed. The land they knew was nearly dead. With only a few ailing people still alive, they took anyone left to their new water source and settled in.

Several generations later, the five settlers of the oasis had built a magnificent city. Five villages united around the spring that provided water and life. The leaders of the five villages had agreed to allow the young man who first decided to set off in search of a new oasis to build his home around the spring under the condition that each village and all its people would always have access to the water.

This agreement worked for hundreds of years. Until one day, the water started to flow slower than ever before. The heads of the villages came together to discuss what to do.

"We must start rationing the water," proposed one.

"But who gets more?"

"Nobody gets more. Everyone gets exactly what they need until we figure out what is happening. We can't continue to act like our water is endless. We always thought it was, but we must be ready for the day it's not."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," a voice spoke up, "my family's home has rested atop the hill for six generations. In all that time, we've always been fair in allowing the rest of you to live from our water. But I can't put my people at risk by continuing to give you our resources freely."

"These resources do not belong to you. They belong to all of us," the old man responded. "When our people first reached this land, they made a pact that every generation that followed would have equal access to the water. It's what we need to survive. Now more than ever, we must work together and make sacrifices to ensure the survival of our five villages. We are one people."

"You do what you need to do for your people. And I'll do what I need to for mine. I will not deny my children an extra glass of water to quench their thirst simply because you have been careless with the water you receive from us."

"You didn't find this spring, and you don't decide who gets what water. We make decisions together!"

"It seems that time has come to an end, just like the time before ours that led our people to this land. We must all make decisions and sacrifices. I will protect my people even if it means that yours—"

So this is where you're hiding, Red.

Rederick looked up from his book to see his P.E. teacher, Coach Smithberg, hovering over him with the same look he gives the kids who walk when they're supposed to be running sprints around the track. He thinks it's intimidating, but all the kids make fun of him behind his back 🤪

You should be out playing soccer with the rest of third period.

But soccer sucks.

Coach Smithberg chuckled. I gotta give it to you there, Red. It really does. Grown men running around chasing a ball with their feet? At least let them hit each other! 😂 All jokes aside, you still need to be out there, or you'll get an incomplete in this class. You can't just sneak off to the locker room and read whenever you don't want to do something. Physical activity is good for you.

🙄

That's it, no more faces. Put the book down and meet me in the field in the next 10 minutes, or I'm sending you to Saturday detention. And you know who's always at Saturday detention...😏

He was talking about Spencer, who always found a way to get sent to Saturday detention. Rederick didn’t understand the threat, weren't adults supposed to stop kids from bullying? But he had given up trying to understand adults. They never did what they told the kids to do. They mostly lied. Rederick reluctantly put his book down and pretended to start getting ready until Coach finally walked away. When he realized the locker room was empty, he darted to the library (his favorite place in the entire school and the one place he knew his P.E. teacher would never step foot in).

Hi, Reddy! Ms. Ensworth, the librarian, was always excited to see him. Sometimes she felt like the only friend he had.

Aren't you supposed to be in P.E. right now?

🤷‍♂️

Reddy….you know we could both get in trouble for this. But Coach Smithberg is kind of a grump anyways, isn't he? 😜

Rederick laughed. She was the only person who could make him smile like his mom.

Here's what we'll do. You can help me clean up the Non-Fiction area as we get ready for our remodeling, and if anyone comes in, I'll tell them you told me you had your free period. When we're done, I'll give you another book to read.

Yes, Ms. Ensworth! 🤓

They quickly got to work as Rederick dusted off old history books one by one, separating them into the piles Ms. Ensworth had already labeled. Rederick was so efficient that he quickly finished sorting all the books and found a stack of colorful folders with strange circular objects inside. He flipped through the folders reading the titles, unaware of what he had discovered:

Ms. Ensworth, what are these?

Oh, Reddy, you're not supposed to be looking at that!

Is there something wrong with them?

No, of course not, honey. These are just music albums. Well, I guess I'll tell you since it's not happening. I was helping your music teacher put together a few things for an after-school program she wanted to start. We collected Grammy-winning albums from different genres and decades to help students learn how popular music has changed.

THESE ARE WHAT CDS LOOK LIKE?!?!?!?!

Rederick's eyes lit up, he had always heard about CDs from his mom, but he'd never actually seen one. They didn't have a lot of stuff at home since they moved after his dad left.

No, sweetie, these are vinyl albums. CDs were much smaller and could hold more songs. One of these big ones can hold half of the songs a CD could hold and then divide that by half on each side.

You flip them, and they play on both sides??!?!?!

Yes, that's just how they work! And because of how they're made, they also have some of the highest-quality sounds. For longer than we had CDs, people listened to music on these.

Can we listen to one????

Oh, Reddy, I would love to share these with you. But, you know, with these new "Content Reviews" the state is implementing, it can be tricky figuring out what I'm allowed to show you and not. This after-school program was canceled because some parents didn't think these albums were age-appropriate for students.

That sounds dumb. Is that why my mom had to leave her other school? Rederick asked solemnly.

Ms. Ensworth knew this would happen. She wanted to support Rederick, but she was also scared of losing her job.

Honey, your mom didn't do anything wrong. She was just finding new and creative ways to help her students learn. Just because some parents disagreed with what she taught doesn't mean she was doing something that was bad. You should know your mom is a great teacher who always has your best interest at heart.

I know. She pretends not to be, but I can tell she's been sad ever since she had to change schools, and we needed to move into a smaller apartment. I wish I could help.

You are helping! With every book you read, you're growing your mind to help you become the beautiful person your mom knows you can be and that you already are!

But I can't listen to the music?

Sorry, Reddy, not today. But I can give you something else. Here, I think you'll enjoy this book 📙

Eeewwwww, a history book?!?!?! 🤢

Ms. Ensworth laughed. I know, I know. You hate history books. They're not as fun as your sci-fi novels. But this isn't just any history book. It's a very special one. It's about this town. Our town. Your town. And there are some very interesting things you might enjoy learning about, not just because they explain why everything looks the way it does today, but because it also talks about some really cool things you could draw!

Rederick lit up. I'm going to read it on my way home from school today! Thanks, Ms. Ensworth!

He dashed out of the library, sprinting to his next period before Coach Smithberg could figure out where he was.

Rederick was the first student on the bus after school. He ran to the back to the wheelchair seat (which no one else uses because Stacey McDaniels once threw up all over the seat after eating 10 packs of ketchup on a dare, and the smell had never gone away).

It really did smell. The other kids weren't exaggerating. But it gave Rederick a chance to be alone on a bus full of students. That was fine by him.

Rederick got to his seat and wasted no time getting started on the first history book he had ever been excited to read.

This wasn't like any history book they'd ever read in school.

It told the story of a tribe that had lived in this land for thousands of years. Before it ever became the town they knew today. They hunted and farmed and never stayed in one place for too long. They would move every season. They'd spend several months living off the land in one area, and before all the trees, animals, and food were gone, they'd move on to the next. The tribe needed the land to survive, but they also knew they couldn't survive if the land didn't thrive as well. They would leave every settlement after a certain amount of time to let the trees, food, and animals grow back. When they came back to hunt and eat, there would be plenty for them to take and plenty left over for the land.

Although they moved from place to place, they never strayed too far from the canpaza 🌳

The canpanza was a great, ancient tree they revered as a god-like figure. The tribe felt this tree was their source of life. They said its trunk was so big it took a healthy warrior two full days to walk around. The branches were so long three generations of a family could climb on a single one without it breaking or even reaching closer to the ground. The leaves were larger than the tallest, strongest man, providing shade for entire families. At the end of every summer, the tribe would pick succulent fruits from the tree to survive during winter. Stories passed down from generation to generation claimed each fruit grew as large as a woman's belly when another human was inside.

But all of this wasn't even the most remarkable part of the tree. The tree was larger than any they'd ever seen, with more fruit than anything they encountered in the vast wilderness, but the most remarkable part of this tree was the tree itself. One day, an elder woman walked to the canpaza and began pulling long, thin pieces of bark from the tree. She noticed this material wasn't the same as the bark once it was separated from the trunk. It was strong, and it could stretch, but it would never break. The tribe realized they could use this material for protection and began pulling more and more pieces, weaving them together to make blankets that kept them warm during the winter and clothes that protected them from the sun while keeping them cool during the summer. And, one day, by accident, they realized the blankets were stronger than any rock or wood they'd ever used to make tools for protection and hunting.

Just like the other lands they frequented, the tribe would take what they needed from the tree, but never more. Once they made their clothes and tools for the upcoming seasons, they made an offering to the tree and left. Letting its trunk grow stronger and wider so they could return the following year to gather more material.

This went on for generations. The tribe always knew how much to take so they never took too much. Because of this, the canpaza not only survived, it thrived 🌳

Until one day, a group of men they'd never seen before arrived. Their skin was as light as the clouds, and the sounds they made with their mouths were different from anything the tribe had ever heard before from humans or animals. They offered these travelers gifts and shelter as they arrived during the winter. Providing them safety from the cold with blankets made from the bark of the canpaza. The travelers were in awe at the material and quickly wanted to know where it came from. The tribe was wary, not knowing if the travelers would respect the tree as they did, so they didn't tell them where it was from.

One day, one of the travelers followed an elder to the tree and discovered the source of the material. That night, when the moon was at its highest point, the travelers burned the entire village. When no one from the tribe was left alive, they set to work on the tree. Stripping every piece of bark they could day after day until they withered the tree down from its majestic foundation to a thin trunk you could walk around in a single breath.

When they got everything they needed, they left. Returning where they came from so they could sell the material and profit—

Hey, kid, what are you doing out here?

Rederick was sitting outside of the library, startled by this stranger in a suit and glasses.

I'm reading.

I can see that, but what are you reading?

Rederick had never seen this man before. He didn't look like one of his teachers. He didn't look like anyone he'd seen in school.

Why are you dressed like the guys from Mindhunter?

Mindhunter? How old are you? Isn't that show a little too mature for a kid your age?

I don't really watch it, but my mom loves it. She lets me sit next to her and read while she watches it because I prefer books over Netflix.

Is that why you're sitting outside of the library?

I came to see Ms. Ensworth, she always gives me something new to read, but the doors are locked. They've never been locked before. I don't know where she is. So I'm waiting here for her to come back.

I don't think Ms. Ensworth is coming back any time soon, buddy. She's actually in a lot of trouble.

Trouble, why? How does a librarian get in trouble?

That's a good question, and it's a complicated answer. But I'll give you the short explanation. It's because Ms. Ensworth was doing something very dangerous.

Dangerous? 🧐

Yes, very dangerous. I can tell you love books. Books are great. I love books too. But books can also be dangerous. Because they can talk about things we shouldn't be talking about. Things that you may think are no big deal but are actually not safe for a young boy your age to know about. For anyone of any age to know about. Things like violence and people who are different from you and me. People who make different decisions that they think are okay but are actually not the way we're supposed to live.

Are these things more dangerous than what they show on the news?

You're a smart kid, aren't you? Are you going to tell me what you’re reading or not?

Rederick tried to tuck the book away, but the man was too strong. He forced it from his hand and began to study the cover.

Are you police?

I'm with the state.

Like, Iowa?

Sort of, another state. One that partners with your state, Iowa. And we're on a very important mission to make sure kids across different states don't read books that are too dangerous for them to read. So they called me in to help here in your town like we did back in my town.

I may be 11 years old, but I'm not stupid. Who are you, and where is Ms. Ensworth?

I was trying to be nice, but smart-asses like you always have to ruin it.

The man tried to stare Rederick down, but Rederick wouldn't look away. Bullies had tried this with him before.

Listen, kid, just leave. I need to take care of some things here. The library's closed while we review every single book to make sure your Mrs. Einsteen doesn't keep peddling crap like this to kids.

Her name is Ensworth, not Einsteen!

She's dangerous, she's never coming back here, and you should thank me for it. And this book she gave you? It's all lies too. Our ancestors, your ancestors, discovered and conquered these lands. They did what they had to do to survive. Anyone who didn't make it didn't make it because they were too weak. And that's the whole story. Not the crap you're reading here.

Rederick didn't respond, his eyes fixed on the man's face.

Isn't there some sport you should be playing? Running around outside like a kid is supposed to, not locked up in a library reading this indoctrination.

I know what that means.

Huh?

I know what that word means. And that's not what reading is.

This conversation is over. Go to P.E. or something. And tell your mom they canceled Mindhunter.

They're playing soccer. I hate soccer. Rederick retorted without shifting his gaze.

Soccer? The man laughed to himself. This country's really going to shit. You're lucky people like me are here to help.