I don’t know what moves slower up mountains, RVs or trains. As we wound up the mountain, the train was going so slow I could practically step off it and then step back on.
It was fun to be on a train, but after an hour it wasn’t that great. There was nobody else on it, which made sense because any smart person would have just driven. One good thing did happen. While I was looking for Seussol, I felt something hop onto my right shoulder and hold on to my neck. That same something then whispered,
I have always wanted a monkey to sit on my shoulder, so I was pretty pleased to have an invisible Seussol hanging out on mine. Him being there made the boring train ride seem a lot better. I had secretly hoped we would be zipping up the mountain and people on horses would be shooting guns and trying to rob us. Instead it seemed like we were trapped on a really long nature ride.
There were only two things that made it exciting: One was the fact that Seussol was riding on me while no one could see him. The other was the dining car. It was fun eating food on a train, even though some of the food was disgusting.
Jack dared me to eat one of the gross pickled eggs floating around in a jar, but I refused. Then he followed me around, asking,
I could hear Seussol laughing on my shoulder. I guess he was happy about how me and Jack were talking.
One of the train cars had some bunk beds in it. Probably because the train ride was so slow and long that people needed to take naps. We weren’t tired, but we all went to the bunk car and stretched out on a bed. I took a top bunk, and the moment I was on mine, Seussol appeared in the flesh.
Seussol took off. I was really happy about him wanting to talk. I desperately needed to find out why he was here and what I needed to do to help. I also wanted to make it clear to him that I wouldn’t be reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy because the books seemed too thick and heavy.
After a couple of minutes, I began complaining that my stomach hurt. I then excused myself to go and use the bathroom.
I didn’t think bathrooms could be fun, but I made my way down the bunk car, through the dining cart, and over to the bathroom. I opened the door and kept it open for a couple of seconds so that if Seussol wasn’t already in there, he could slip inside. Libby walked by with Melany, and they saw me standing there in the bathroom doorway.
I didn’t really care if Libby thought I was nuts, but Melany’s little sister, Maggie, was friends with Janae, and I didn’t want Melany going back and telling her sister about me spending time in the bathroom. So I said something dumb.
Libby and Melany laughed at me the way a heartless person might laugh at an orphan on the streets who just tripped while selling matches.
I slipped into the bathroom and closed the door. Seussol took off his ring and materialized on the sink. He smiled at me and I smiled back. It was cool to see him. He seemed even more mixed up than the other creatures I had gotten to hang out with in the last few months.
Seussol nodded. Apparently when he had the ring on, my mom was the only one who seemed to sense he was around. She kept staring at him even though she couldn’t see him.
I asked Seussol what the quest was he had talked about, and he showed me one of the rings. He said that he must get it to the fire in the mountains where it came from. He then said something curious.
I had never really thought about where Beardy had come from. He was a doorknob, and in my mind he had just always existed. I knew he was special, because he was the gatekeeper to all the things that my closet created.
My heart started racing. Never had a creature come from my closet with such a cool quest. Returning a ring to a great fire was something I was definitely okay with. I would help Seussol and in doing so, help Beardy.
I talked to Seussol in the bathroom for almost half an hour. He let me pick him up and told me all kinds of important things about my closet that I didn’t know. He said there were many book mash-ups just waiting to come out. He mentioned Wonk and Hairy and Pinocula. He also said that Katfish was doing well. According to him, the reason my closet made such fantastical creatures was because of the combination of books and old fake lab supplies, but Beardy was the key to making it all work.
After I’d been talking to Seussol for a while, my mom knocked on the bathroom door.
When I came out of the bathroom with an invisible Seussol, I could see through the windows that the train was pulling into a small town. A few tiny stores popped into view.
My dad was so excited. I was scared that he was going to explode. I knew that this trip meant a lot to him, but I also knew that it meant a lot to me. I know closets don’t normally act like mine. And now I was going to figure out something about Beardy. We just needed to find Bartholomew’s Hat and the fire that burned on top of it.
