Eleazar Goodenough
and the Mystery of the Scrying Inkwell

by Jerry Grimes

Chapter One - Off to School

It was a chilly September morning when young Eleazar Goodenough set out for his first day of school. His mother and father had brought him to the train station to see him off. At five years old, Eleazar was almost lost in the sea of older boys and girls waiting at the train station for the special train to Turkey Buzzard Academy. He was not quite three feet tall and his parents kept a tight grip on his two hands as they guided him through the crowded station.

"Are you certain that you're ready to go away to a boarding school?" asked Eleazar's father. He was a tall, slender African American man who had been fiercely protective of his son for five years and was now reluctant to give him to the world.

"We already had this talk, dad," said young Eleazar. "If I don't go to Turkey Buzzard Academy, I'd just have to go to school here in town. Kindergarten! Me in Kindergarten!"

"At least you'd be with other boys and girls your own age," sniffed his mother. She was a tall, proud Black woman who could bravely protect her son from everything but himself.

"I'll be with other boys and girls who are almost my own age," said Eleazar. "Just not too close to them."

"None of these boys and girls is even close to your age," said his father, looking around at the crowd. He saw one small boy trying to push his way into the crowd to get to the train tracks. "That one there seems to be about the youngest. Excuse me, young man, how old are you?"

"Who, me?" asked the boy who was struggling to get through the crowd of much taller and older children. "I'm ten years old."

"There, you see?" said Eleazar. "He's only five years older than I."

"That's twice your age!" exclaimed his mother, brushing away a tear from her face with her handkerchief.

The boy stopped pushing forward to look back at Eleazar and his parents. "Do you mean he's going with us to the Academy?"

All three of the Goodenoughs nodded their heads, the parents nodding sadly and Eleazar nodding joyfully.

The boy went up to Eleazar and held out his hand. "I'm Jolly Rodgers," he said. "I used to be the youngest boy at school and got picked on by everyone older than me. Now I'm glad you're going to take my place."

"Jolly Rodgers?" asked Eleazar, extending his hand to the boy. "Is that a pirate name?"

"That's the nickname they gave me at the Academy," said the boy. "My real name is Joliet Rodgers, but I kind of like my nickname."

"Pleased to meet you, Jolly," said Eleazar. "I'm Eleazar Goodenough."

Jolly suddenly looked startled. He peered intently into Eleazar's face. Then he looked at Eleazar's parents, first one and then the other. "You're not the Eleazar Goodenough, are you?" he stammered.

"Do you think there are more boys my age with a name like Eleazar?" asked Eleazar, jokingly.

"I'm sorry sir, about what I said, sir, I mean about your taking my place at getting picked on at the Academy, sir," stammered Jolly Rodgers.

Eleazar held his finger up to his lips. "Shhh!" he said to Jolly, and then he winked.

"You mean you don't want anyone to know?" asked Jolly.

"Not yet," said Eleazar. "Can we just be friends, at least until we get to the Academy?"

"You want to be friends with me?" asked Jolly in amazement. "Sure. Why not?"

"But you can't tell anyone who I am while we're on the train," said Eleazar. "They'll find out soon enough once we arrive at the Academy."

"OK," said Jolly.

"That's settled, then," said Eleazar to his father. "Jolly can look out for me all the way to the school."

"Thank you, Jolly," said Mr. Goodenough, holding out his hand to Jolly. "He's only five, you know. I'm glad you'll be looking out for him."

"You really should get one of the big guys to be his bodyguard," said Jolly. "I'm the runt of the school."

"Eleazar picked you to be his friend and protector," said Mrs. Goodenough, offering her hand to Jolly also. "I think he chose wisely. It will make us both feel much better knowing he has you to help guide him."

"Me, guiding Eleazar Goodenough!" exclaimed Jolly. "Imagine that!"

"Remember," cautioned Mr. Goodenough. "You mustn't use his name in public. At least not until you get to the Academy."

"Oh, right!" said Jolly, looking around quickly to see if anyone else had heard him. Fortunately, all the other boys and girls were talking to one another and paying no attention to the two smallest and youngest boys on the train station platform.

"Here it comes," said a voice from the other end of the crowd.

The entire mob of children suddenly became silent. They stood still, watching and waiting as a distant train sounded its horn. The headlight from the train glinted and sparkled as it rounded the curve and headed straight on into the station. It squeaked and scratched its brakes until it finally came to a stop before the throng of waiting students. The doors of the train opened and a conductor hopped out onto the platform.

"All aboard," called the conductor. A few adults boarded the train, pushing through the crowd of children, but not one child moved except to let the adults through.

"All aboard, children," said the conductor.

The children stood silently, looking at the train and the conductor, but not moving towards it.

"There's no other train scheduled for the next two hours," said the conductor. "All aboard!"

Seeing no response from the waiting children, the conductor shrugged his shoulders and returned to the train. He gave one last look at the children as if giving them a final chance to board the train, then pulled the cord to signal the engineer to move the train forward.

With a lurch and some more squeaking noises, the train started up again and soon had pulled out of the station. Still the entire crowd of children waited patiently, facing the tracks.

Almost in the dust of the departing train, there came a tiny whistle as if from a toy train. Only the children closest to the tracks could see what caused it. It appeared, in fact, to be a toy train chugging along, hugging one single rail of the huge tracks. It had a tiny headlight, and it appeared to be a much older version of the train that had just departed. From the smoke that came pouring out of its tiny smokestack, it was a fire burner, not a diesel like the train that had just left the station. It was also much more colorful, having a bright green painted locomotive from which trailed four tiny red, blue, yellow and green passenger cars. As the train drew closer to the station, it also grew larger and larger in size, until by the time it came to a halt in front of the platform, it was even larger than the earlier, more modern train.

A bewhiskered conductor hopped down off the last passenger car and announced, "Special Train to Turkey Buzzard Junction! All aboard!"

Suddenly the entire mob of children cheered and yelled. They bustled forward towards the train, lining up in an orderly fashion only as they neared the cars each would board.

Eleazar had heard about the magical train to Turkey Buzzard Academy before, but this was his first time seeing it in person.

"Do you think it will hold everyone?" he asked Jolly.

"It's much bigger on the inside than on the outside," said Jolly. "Come on, let's get our seats!" Jolly grabbed Eleazar's small hand and led him towards the group of children lining up to board the yellow car. Eleazar had just enough time to quickly turn and wave good-by to his parents, who were now clinging to one another as their only son went off to school. They waved back, and his mother wiped away more tears with her handkerchief.

"Do you think my parents will be all right?" he asked Jolly.

"They'll be fine, once they get used to the idea the way my parents did," said Jolly.

Jolly suddenly turned to wave, and Eleazar then saw that the entire background consisted of parents, weeping and waving sadly as their children went off to school. He had no trouble picking out Jolly's parents from the rest by the natural family resemblance. Jolly was a blue-eyed blonde-haired white boy, and his parents shared the same traits. Most of the rest of the crowd was of mixed races and ethnic backgrounds, from East Indians, Asians, African Americans, Latin Americans, and Native Americans.

"What year are you in?" asked Eleazar, turning around and not wanting to see the sad sight of all those parents weeping and waving at their children.

"Oh, this is my first year," said Jolly, "But I went to the summer camp program they had for new students last July. That's where I got my nickname." They were up at the front of the line now and had to produce their tickets for the yellow car conductor who was checking to make sure no stray children got on board.

"Any luggage?" asked the conductor as he inspected and then punched their tickets. Eleazar noticed that his ticket puncher was a tiny dragon-like animal that chomped down on the paper tickets and then spit out the pieces as if it did not really like its job.

"Got your luggage… uh… E.G?" asked Jolly, taking a tiny suitcase out of his pocket.

"Right," said Eleazar, happy that Jolly had found a way to address him without calling attention to his name. He fished in his pocket and came up with a tiny trunk and a matching suitcase.

"First years are only allowed one piece of luggage," said the conductor.

"I have special permission for the trunk," said Eleazar, pointing to a section marked on his ticket.

"Oh," said the conductor, adjusting his glasses and peering intently at the note attached to the ticket. "Never had that happen before. Oh, well!" He put the ticket back into the dragon's mouth and the creature punched it again.

Eleazar winked at the tiny dragon and was pleased to see it wink back at him. When it spit out the bits of paper this time, it blew fire on them and they burst into flames before the startled conductor.

"Top secret permission, too!" said the conductor with respect in his voice. "Well, just toss your luggage in here!" He opened up a panel in the wall of the passenger car and the boys tossed their luggage in with the rest.

Eleazar followed Jolly into the passenger car. He had been expecting to find it crowded and noisy with the children that had boarded before them, but now he saw that it was a compartment train, and as Jolly had said, was much larger on the inside than the outside. The row of compartment doors seemed to go on forever.

Another conductor inside the car motioned them down to the next empty compartment, and they went inside. It was very spacious and elegant from a by-gone era when railroad cars had been the chief means of travel in America. Everything was polished wood and brass, with red velvet plush cushions on the seats. Jolly and Eleazar sat together, and the next two children in the line behind them took the opposite seats, before the conductor closed the door.

The newcomers, a boy and a girl, looked at Jolly and Eleazar. "What's this, the kindergarten car?" asked the boy.

"We're all first years, no matter what our ages," said the girl. "Hello," she introduced herself, "I'm Carmen Rivera."

"Pleased to meet you, Carmen," said Jolly. "I'm Jolly and this is E.G."

"You don't even have real names!" snorted the boy in disgust. "I'm getting another car." He got up and left the compartment, banging the door behind him.

"Don't pay any attention to him," said Carmen. "Not all wizards have manners. Oh, look, we're shrinking!" She pointed at the window.

Eleazar looked out of the window and saw it was true. Everything outside was getting larger, or rather it was because the entire train was once again shrinking down to the toy-sized train that had first pulled into the station.

"Do you think there's any danger of us being squashed while we're this small?" asked Jolly, with a quaver in his voice.

"I'm sure they have some kind of anti-squashing spell on the train," said Carmen. "Now we can go much faster." The scenery in the window had become a blur as the train speeded up. "Anyone care for some grapes?" She opened her pocketbook and pulled out a freshly washed bunch of fresh grapes. Then she pulled out a plate to set them on. Within moments, a loaf of fresh baked bread, a huge hunk of cheese, a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly had joined it. Carmen pulled a long bread knife and a cutting board from the small purse and cut off a thick slice of bread. Jolly and Eleazar breathed in the delicious smell of fresh baked bread and Carmen offered them each a piece, telling them to help themselves to the cheese and peanut butter.

Soon the three children were eating and talking among themselves as if they had known each other and had been friends all their lives. It took a knock on the door of the compartment to make them stop and look up.

At the compartment door window was the boy who had walked out on them before. He had brought back three older boys and now they laughed and pointed at Jolly, Eleazar and Carmen. Although the thick glass of the compartment door kept out most of the noise, they could hear the boys taunting them until Eleazar snapped his fingers and the glass darkened. Then they heard some loud yelling and the sound of the boys running back down the train asile towards wherever they had come from.

"Wow!" said Jolly, looking at Eleazar with new respect. "I thought I was supposed to protect you."

"You are, kind of," said Eleazar, going back to his sandwich. "Actually I need you more as a guide than as a protector."

"That was amazing!" said Carmen. "I've never seen anything like that! You are a first year, aren't you?"

"Sort of," said Eleazar, somewhat mysteriously. "Can we talk about something else?"

"All right," said Carmen, cutting another thick slice of bread. The loaf never seemed to get smaller no matter how many slices she cut from it. "Let's talk about school. What classes are the two of you signed up for?"

"I'm just a first year," said Jolly. "I don't have much choice but to take all the classes for First Years."

"Who told you that?" asked Carmen. "Of course you have to take all the basic First Year classes, but then you do have a choice of some other more interesting ones. For example, I signed up for a class by that new professor somebody. It's called Scrying With Ink. I've always wanted to learn that."

"What's Scrying?" asked Jolly.

"It's a way of seeing into the future," answered Eleazar.

Carmen gave him a strange look. "That's right," she said. "Some wizards do it with crystal balls or tea, but you can also use mirrors and ink. You seem to know an awful lot for a… how old are you?"

"Five," said Eleazar.

"My goodness!" said Carmen. "You must be the youngest student ever to attend Turkey Buzzard Academy!"

"Kind of," said Eleazar.

"You always answer everything with 'kind of' and 'sort of,'" Carmen said. "How old are you, Jolly?"

"I'm ten years old," said Jolly, "and until E.G. came along, I was going to be the youngest student ever to attend Turkey Buzzard Academy. Now I have some company. There will be two youngest students!"

"That's impossible," said Carmen. "You can't have two youngest unless you're exactly the same ages!"

"Well, yes and no," said Eleazar.

"There you go again," said Carmen. "It looks as if we're arriving at Turkey Buzzard Junction," she added, glancing towards the window.

The scenery outside the window was no longer a blur and seemed to be growing smaller, which meant the train was getting larger again. All three children crammed against the window to watch the train pull into the station.

Turkey Buzzard Junction was little more than a wooden platform with a small wooden ticket office and an even smaller waiting room attached to it.

"Don't tell me it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside," said Eleazar.

Jolly nodded. "You would never guess it's as big as a shopping mall inside," he said. "I went inside it last summer."

"Isn't there a town to go with it?" asked Carmen. Besides the station, all one could see was a plain dirt road stretching for miles off to the distant mountains. Several old fashioned western-style stage coaches were parked along the road, their horses calmly drinking water from a common trough.

"That's all there is," said Jolly. "Unless you go inside the waiting room, of course. Anyway, we're not going to town. Those stage coaches are waiting to bring us to the school."

"Those few stage coaches won't carry this crowd!" exclaimed Carmen.

"They're bigger on the inside than they are on the outside," said Eleazar and Jolly together, then they broke out laughing.

Carmen quickly stuffed the remains of the meal back in her small purse, and somehow they all managed to fit inside. Eleazar waved his hand and made the glass on the compartment door transparent once again. Then they felt the train give one final lurch as it stopped, and they opened the compartment door just in time to join the stream of students scurrying down the aisle towards the exit door. As they passed one compartment, they saw the conductor having a difficult time trying to get the occupants to exit the train, but paid no attention to the commotion because they were too excited at finally arriving at Turkey Buzzard Junction.

Eleazar noticed that the little dragon ticket puncher was sticking out of the conductor's back pocket. It was happily chewing on a bit of cloth and when it saw Eleazer, it winked at him. Eleazer winked back and the tiny dragon burped some smoke and fire.

Outside, the air was warm and dry. The sun was high in the sky and a gentle breeze was blowing. Eleazar took a deep breath. The smell of summer was still in the air out here, unlike the city where the smells of fall had begun to set in. Jolly took Eleazar's hand and led him towards one of the stagecoaches where the driver was calling out, "First Years over here! First Years, this way!" The driver had a clipboard in his hand and was checking off the names of his first year students as he found them on his list.

"Names, please!" said the driver when Jolly, Carmen and Eleazar arrived at the front of the line. "Joliet Rodgers, Carmen Rivera and…" Jolly motioned for the driver to bend over so he could whisper the last name into his ear.

The driver straightened up suddenly and stared at Eleazar. "You're not on the list of First Years!" he exclaimed.

It was Eleazar's turn to motion the driver to bend over even more so he could whisper something in his ear.

The driver straightened back up and actually saluted Eleazar. "Yes, sir!" he said. "You can certainly ride in with the First Years if that's what you want!"

Carmen was going to ask Eleazar and Jolly what on earth all that mysterious behavior was about, but the driver was called over to gather up the four boys who had caused all the commotion on the train. They were the same boys that had fled down the aisle after Eleazar had made the door window go black. They seemed not to want to get onto the same stagecoach as Eleazar, but he smiled at them as they went past and they stopped struggling to board the coach as the driver had asked. Then the driver took off his hat, bowed and waved it at the last three riders and Carmen, Jolly and Eleazar stepped up and into the coach. Inside, the humble stagecoach resembled a jumbo jet, with more than enough seats for everyone. The four boys sat as far away as they could from Eleazar and when he smiled and waved at them, they hid their eyes and looked very frightened.

"What's the matter with them?" asked Jolly. "All you did was make the glass turn black."

"Did you look at the seat of their pants as they got on board?" whispered Carmen. "It looked as if they had been in a fight with a vicious dog!"

"It might have been the dragon," said Eleazar with a wink. Then the stagecoach lurched forward and the three fell back into their plush airline-style seats for the final ride to Turkey Buzzard Academy located high up in the distant mountains.

On to Chapter Two!

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