Olivia Brophie and the Pearl of Tagelus. Christopher Tozier
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I made my way north with the box marked ‘N.’ It was very heavy for its size. It was almost impossible for me to keep the box closed as I couldn’t wait to see what was inside. I traveled as far as I could by train. Then I traveled as far as I could by ship. Finally, I had to buy twelve dogs and a sled. I loaded up that sled with all of the salt pork that could fit, a gun, snowshoes, skis, and plenty of blankets. I went during winter because I knew it would be easier to travel on snow than traveling on summer mud.
During the winter, the sun doesn’t even rise in the Arctic, you know. It stays dark twenty-four hours a day. The dogs and I traveled by the light of the aurora borealis, the northern lights. Wow, what a trip! All of those beautiful colors swirling in the sky! Here is a little secret, Olivia, that no one in the world knows, not even your aunt. Sometimes, when the dogs were asleep and the wind silent, I could hear the northern lights. Whizzing and whirling in the sky like giant ghosts. Swooshing and buzzing. I never told anyone because I knew no one would believe me.
“I believe you!” Olivia piped in.
Uncle put his hand on her head. “Thank you,” he said, “you are very kind.”
“The traveling was getting harder and harder,” he continued. “I crossed over glaciers and fjords. I saw an old wooden ship trapped in the ice, the sails still flapping on the masts. The weather became unbearable and I was running out of salt pork. The dogs were getting worn out and they stopped wanting to run. I could hear wolves and began to fear that a polar bear was stalking us. Wolverines were always circling around, just far enough away that I couldn’t shoot them.
Then, on the northern edge of Baffin Island, just west of Clyde River, I found a small Inuit town. Those nice people took me in and fed me. But it was clear that the dogs were not going to run for me anymore. They were exhausted. My only option was to walk myself to the North Pole.”
“Then I had an idea. A crazy idea. I don’t know if the cold finally got into my brain, or if the aurora made me lose my senses. I had a rope that was a quarter mile long, so I fashioned a harness trap. Inside the trap I put what was left of the pork. I put my skis and backpack on. And then I waited. And waited. Snow drifted and piled up on me. The villagers came out to me and put their hands on me to see if I was still alive. And then it happened. A wolverine came to the bait. I sprung the trap. Perfect! I had harnessed a wolverine! And off we went, three times faster than the dogs. What you may not know about wolverines is how strong and fast they are. They can run twenty-four-hours-a-day for two weeks. I skied along a quarter mile behind him, like a water-skier. I had rigged the harness so I could steer the wolverine in the direction that I wanted to go, but when I pulled out my compass it was as if he already knew what to do. He ran for two days pulling me and I never had to change his direction. We crossed two hundred miles of ice and snow, lit only by the green and blue aurora.”
“And then he just stopped. He sat down on his haunches and stared at me. Even that far away, I could see his yellow eyes glowing in the Arctic darkness. We were there. The Magnetic North Pole! The thing is, it didn’t look like anything. There weren’t any lights or signs. Only miles and miles of ice. But I could sure feel something. I was energized, invigorated. I forgot my hunger and exhaustion. I took out the N box and carefully undid the latch. I finally would be able to see what the seed looked like. Inside was a perfectly round, dark silver ball. As the lid came up, the ball jumped! Now I was convinced I was crazy. I lifted it out and placed it on the snow. The seed rose up from the ground and hovered a few inches up in the air. It was moving on its own! I had never seen anything like it. It shot to the left twenty feet, adjusted its position, and settled just barely above the snow. The seed had found the right place for itself! To the seed, the earth’s magnetic currents were as obvious as a river and it wanted to be directly in the flow. Remember how I told you that the magnetic pole moves? Well, the seed moves with it, like a sailor adjusts to the wind. It was Tesla’s greatest invention and nobody knows about it to this day. Except me. And now you. It is still there to this day, following the magnetic currents across the vast tundra.”
“I had done it!”
“My wolverine stood up, trotted along the rope right past my feet, and started running south. Two days later we were back in the Inuit village. The winter turned rough and I had to spend the rest of the season on Baffin Island. Let’s just say that I’ve eaten my share of seal meat. I was also way behind schedule. Back in the US, I didn’t even try to communicate with Nikola. He didn’t want anyone to know what I was doing.”
“It is getting late. I will tell you about my trip to the South Pole another night. But suffice it to say that I was successful, even if it did take me twice as long. Part of my finger is still down there somewhere I suppose.” Uncle held his hand up and showed Olivia the stub where his right ring finger used to be.
“Gross,” Olivia could barely peek at the stump.
“When I got back from the South Pole, I learned that Nikola had died mysteriously of a heart attack and the government had seized all of his research papers and inventions. There was nothing left. Just an empty room. I called his laboratory in Colorado and no one answered. The American public thought he was a crazy old man, and the government made sure that was the way it stayed. I knew there was more to what was going on. What was Nikola up to? How could they ruin a man like that and take everything? I called every government office and no one knew anything. I was rich with Nikola’s fortune and didn’t even know why. I’m telling you, they murdered him! They murdered him!” Uncle’s voice was getting louder. His tiny eyes grew large and wild.
“They killed him for what he knew!”
In a flash of gingham and freckles, Aunt came rushing into the room and tackled Uncle from his chair to the floor. “Don’t you upset the kids with your crazy schemes,” Aunt screamed as she pinned his arms back. “Let’s get everyone into bed. Come on. Right now!” Aunt scooped up Gnat and hustled off to the far-reaches of the house.
Olivia stood up to go to bed. Uncle picked himself off the floor, grabbed her by the arm and said quietly and quickly, “Olivia. A package arrived six months after I returned. Inside was a measuring tool, a meter of sorts. I call it the Teslatron. I still have it. I realized the seeds were injecting particles into the telluric currents and now I can follow them with the Teslatron. Now I could figure out how it all works. The third pole is somewhere around here. The third pole is where all of the energy flowing from the magnetic poles reenters the Earth. Its discovery will change everything. And it is out here. In these woods!”
Olivia pulled her arm away and walked to her bedroom. “There is no TV, and I’m forced to live in a madhouse,” she thought. What does she care about a third pole? There is no way Uncle is that old. But she fell asleep dreaming about fierce freckles, packages with no senders, the northern lights humming in their own beauty above her in the sky, and a wild wolverine pulling her deeper and deeper into darkness.
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