His name was Zebulon. Zebulon hated his name. He hated the one-size-too-big flowered shirts his mother laid out on his bed most mornings, but he hated his name more. He hated the nicknames that people tried to give him, too. Zeb? Lonnie? Z-Dog? Well, no one ever called him Z-Dog, but he knew he would hate it if someone did.
Zebulon called himself Bob. "Bob" because of a long-ago baseball pitcher his uncle had seen. This Bob guy threw the baseball fast. He dared the batters to hit it. So, in his very rich imagination, Zebulon became Bob; until the day he became the Earth Master. From that day Bob, Zebulon, Zeb, Lonnie, and
Z-Dog were no more. He had become the Earth Master.
Her name was Eliza. Eliza had a yellow ponytail and what seemed to Zebulon to be a hundred noisy friends who dressed and wore their ponytails just like Eliza. They all shared Ms. Muir's classroom that year.
Eliza was very happy with her name. She wore a shiny silver necklace that said Eliza in cursive. Eliza could see that Zebulon was not happy with his name by the way his narrow shoulders fell when Ms. Muir called on him. Eliza was really good at figuring out things like that. She asked him one day during geography class, Zebulon's favourite class, what he wanted to be called. He made a big mistake. He told her.
"Bob. I like Bob."
"I see," said Eliza already walking away.
Eliza decided to call him ZebBobulon. Eliza's noisy friends did, too. The smiles on their faces when they called him ZebBobulon, dragging out the last syllable -ZebBobuloooonnn - made his hands ball up. Some
days they ached. Those days Zebulon would spend recess in the boys' room running warm water on his sore hands. He used the same paper towel to dry his hands and his eyes on those days.
That Tuesday at school, three days before Zebulon became the Earth Master, began like most Tuesdays. He peeked into his wrinkly brown lunch bag and sighed. He answered Ms. Muir's attendance call.
"Here."
"Please say 'present', Zebbie," asked Ms. Muir. She smiled, pushed her hair to the side, and freed her upper lip from her teeth where it had become stuck.
"Zebbie," he thought to himself. Zebbie?
Eliza looked back, past her yellow pony tail and over her bouncing left shoulder, right at him. As he pretended not to notice, Zebulon wished his shoulders bounced more and slumped less, but he was sure they never would.
"How come Ms. Muir called you Debbie?" Walon, a new boy, asked Zebulon at lunch. "I thought your name was Zebulon." Zebulon reached into his brown bag as if there were a snake at the bottom. Walon unzipped his insulated lunchbox.
"Not Debbie, Zebbie..." Zebulon told Walon the story. He told him mostly because Walon was the only boy in the class whose name, Zebulon thought, was worse than his own. Walon listened politely nibbling at his sandwich and sipping his juice.
That day Zebulon and Walon talked and walked after school. They decided something important. From now on Walon would call Zebulon Bob and Zebulon would call Walon Walon. That lasted until Friday. The day Zebulon became the Earth Master. They shared parts of their lives with one another, too.
Walon was from Lancaster, a town about two hours away. His mom and he had moved not long after his dad died in a one-car accident.
"I was mad at him. Still am. He was there one minute and... not the next. My mom and grandma told me I was stupid that it wasn't his fault. I didn't care. It was his fault to me. Anyway, Lancaster's real small. My mom was embarrassed. So we moved here to my auntie’s house."
Walon shared he wouldn't go to his dad's funeral he was so angry. And to spite his mom for calling him stupid, too. He stayed home.
"Wow," was all Zebulon could find to say.
"Don't tell anyone that story, OK, Bob?"
"I won't."
Zebulon thought about telling Walon his secret. It was right there, ready to tumble out, but he didn't. Maybe another time. He asked a question instead.
"Walon, what would you do now? Would you still stay home mad?"
Walon shrugged his shoulders. Shielding his eyes against the late afternoon sun he looked at Zebulon. "Don't know. He’s still dead one way or the other."
Katrina was one of the girls who stayed close to Eliza. Katrina was afraid she'd miss something fun if she didn't, but Zebulon had heard Eliza say bad things about Katrina. He had heard her say things about lots of kids when those kids weren't close by. Katrina, Rosa, Lorraine... they all stayed as close to Eliza as they could. They shared those mean moments with Eliza whenever they could. Sometimes Katrina, Lorraine, and Rosa were mean even when Eliza was somewhere else.
Thursday afternoon, the day before Earth Master, Zebulon stood beside Ms. Muir's desk. She removed the microphone headpiece she used sometimes to make sure everyone could hear her and placed it on her desk. She turned the small black volume switch all the way down. She smoothed her hair.
"Zebbie, would you like to help me with tomorrow's geography lesson?"
With Zebbie ringing in his ears, he almost missed the question Ms. Muir asked.
"Would I, what...?" Then it clicked. "Yes, I would like that," he answered smiling.
"Don't you care what it is?" Ms. Muir asked.
"Nope, not if it's geography."
"Good, then. Pick a learning partner and see me tomorrow during morning recess, alright? Oh, and Zebbie, don't say nope."
"I certainly will and I certainly won't." Zebulon was already hurrying toward Walon.
"Cool," was Walon's answer to Zebulon's offer. "That would be cool."
That night Zebulon studied his maps and his globe. He wanted to be ready for the lesson. Djibouti, Andorra, Guam... no one knew more places than Zebulon. The Andes, the Amazon River basin, the Marianas Trench, the Inland Sea of Japan, the Chixalub crater... he counted quickly on his fingers other things he knew about Mother Earth. The Equator, the Prime Meridian, the Great Wall of China... Zebulon knew the important things man had built or thought up, too. He ran his index finger the length of the Panama Canal.
"Most people don't know it runs north and south," he said to himself.
"Bob, what do you think she wants us to do?" Walon seemed a little nervous to Zebulon as they walked to school. "It's geography, Zebulon answered. “It doesn't matter. We'll do great." Walon, to his own surprise, felt Zebulon's excitement. Maybe they would.
Ms. Muir's globe was massive. Zebulon could not get his arms around it. He wished it were his globe. When it stood on its big circular metal base, the fattest part of the globe, the Equator, reached the edges of his desk. He loved the feel -the mountains were high and the valleys were low. It had big words even for small places - SASKATOON. And, Zebulon loved spinning it, especially spinning it. Ms. Muir's globe spun smooth and heavy, as Zebulon knew the real world spun.
"I chose you to do this because I know you love geography, Zebulon." He was as happy she didn't call him Zebbie as he was with her kind words. "I also know you know the names of even the smallest of countries. This is what I'd like you and Walon to do."
They were to spin the globe, and as it slowed down, Zebulon was to stop it by placing his finger on it. Each student was to receive a research assignment, one at a time, on the place Zebulon stopped the
spinning globe. Ms. Muir said she knew Zebulon would pronounce the names correctly. Walon had two jobs: to write the student and the assignment together on the board and to use the microphone headset to help everyone hear what Zebulon would say. Mrs. Muir told the class what was to happen. Out came 23 assignment books.
"Ms. Muir, would you come to the office? You have a phone call." The voice coming through the wall speaker sounded tinny and lifeless. It always did. It had to be Mrs. Douglas, though Mrs. Douglas was far from tinny and lifeless.
"Boys, you know what to do. I'll return as soon as I can." Zebulon felt a tingle as the door closed behind Ms. Muir. He spun the globe for the first time. The sphere whirred. Zebulon wondered if this is what the Earth looked like to the astronauts. He stopped it with his finger, well, it took two fingers. Ronan, dark-haired and bespectacled, in the first seat of the first row, heard, "Lichtenstein."
"Huh?" Ronan looked puzzled, but he did stop doodling on his binder. Zebulon spelled it without looking at the globe. Walon repeated it looking just as puzzled as Ronan. Still, Walon spelled it correctly on the board. Ronan wrote it in his binder and returned to his drawing. Zebulon spun the massive globe again.
Austin, behind Ronan, heard "Uzbekistan." Austin, puzzled said, Uzbekiwho?" "Spell it as it sounds, Walon." And Walon did. Shae-Lynn, next in line, received the Salish Sea. She seemed relieved. Walon, with his right hand holding the earpiece, said "The Salish, ladies and gentlemen, Sea goes tooooo... Shaaae-Lynnnnn!" Zebulon grinned at his friend. It was going very well, even with Ms. Muir in the office.
"Would the girls' grade 7 volleyball team come to the gym at the end of the period?" The tinny lifeless voice requested. "That's the grade 7 girls' volleyball team."
Zebulon went on with his task. Jayden got Mongolia. Jacob got Patagonia although he was sure there was no such place and said so. Lili got something or someplace called Myanmar. Her eyes darted from side to side. Zebulon asked Walon to write Burma next to Myanmar. "Myanmar used to be called Burma," he said. Lili sighed. She had heard of Burma.
Then, it happened and Zebulon and Walon were not prepared... no one was.
"Get me an easy one, ZebBobulon." It was Eliza's turn. She sounded as if she were singing and giggling at the same time. Zebulon thought about making up a name. Perhaps he'd say Bananastan or something, but he didn't. He spun and stopped the globe. Looking up at Eliza he said, "The Peninsula of Anatolia."
Just as Walon said, "Anatolia ta stop boddering me, hah!" Eliza disappeared; a flash of unfocused color moving toward the window really, really fast. The two kids who were giggling at Walon's Anatolia joke stopped. One covered her mouth with her hand.
Zebulon sensed something as the other kids now sat wide-eyed and stunned. He spun again. Walon asked quietly if he should put "Eliza-Anatolia" on the board just as Zebulon stopped the globe again. "Yes." He looked at Katrina. "For you, Belarus," he said.
As her friend vanished, Rosa walked quickly towards Katrina's empty desk. Zebulon was already stopping another whirl of the globe. "Rosa, Democratic Republic of the Congo." Poof! Away went Rosa. Lorraine was moving toward the door, but not quickly enough. Zebulon shouted "Spain" over the near-riot now on in his classroom. Lorraine, too went pffft in a swipe of blues, greens and yellows. It was at that
moment that Walon said excitedly and for the first time, "Bob? Ah, like, you're not Bob anymore. You're the Earth Master."
"Please write, Walon. We can’t forget where they’ve gone.”
“Gone?” Walon wrote it all on the board, names and locations. His penmanship was shaky. The near-riot of a minute ago calmed. All eyes were on Zebulon who asked the remaining kids to return to their desks.
They bumped into each other doing so. Zebulon spun Ms. Muir's globe one more time. He called his own name,"
"Cambodia."
Zebulon clenched his jaw, closed his eyes and went nowhere. Nowhere. Walon stood motionless for a moment, with a startled though joyful expression on his face. Then, as his face tightened, his eyes nearly closed in concentration. His hand went back to the earpiece on his headset. "What? Who is... who?" Walon took off the headset extending it to Zebulon.
"It's for you." The two boys stared at each other over Walon's outstretched hand.
Zebulon slipped on the headset adjusting the height of the microphone.
"Hello?"
"Zebbie? Hi, it's Katrina. How are you?" Before Zebulon could answer Katrina spoke again.
"Where in the world am I?" Her voice cracked and crackled in Zebulon's left ear just as Ms. Muir walked through the door.
"Who's missing here? It’s not lunch time yet." Ms. Muir's question bounced around the room. Zebulon tried hard to think of something to say but he couldn't. Panic began to set in. There was still a voice
buzzing in his ear. In that split second, Walon spoke. "They called the volleyball girls to the gym," he said shrugging his shoulders. Mrs. Muir nodded. "OK, boys and girls, you may start lunch early. We'll finish this next geography class. I need to return to the office." Soon, Zebulon and Walon were alone in the room.
"Are you still there Katrina?"
"I guess I'm somewhere, but... how come you can hear me, anyway?"
Zebulon raised one eyebrow.
"I can't explain it, but I have an idea. Can you describe where you are?"
Katrina began to describe what she saw. It was very cold wherever she was. She saw a cream-colored "...kind of castle-ish thingy place." Zebulon asked if there was a flag she could see. He was expecting Katrina to see a green and red flag with a white and red pattern of decoration along one edge. That's exactly what she saw.
"Katrina, you're in Belarus." Zebulon used his bare hand to wipe the sweat from his upper lip.
"I am below what? What am I below?" Katrina sounded as if she were going to cry. And then she did.
"Belarus, it's near Ukraine." Katrina was in the middle of a very long sob. Zebulon wasn't sure she even heard him. Another voice, also panicked, cut in.
"This is Eliza." There was pause, a lengthy pause. "I'm frightened."
"Eliza, listen carefully..." Zebulon asked similar questions of Eliza. "Is there a big sort-of round building close by? It has narrow towers close to it?" Zebulon thought he knew where Eliza went because he had sent her there, but he needed to be sure.
"Let me loo... yes! It’s right across the water from me. Is that the Taj Mahal, Zebbie? Am I in China, then? "No, Eliza, you're not in China and it's not the Taj Mahal, Zebulon said. Just stay where you are. Understand? Don't go anywhere."
"But I think I see a Starbucks, Zebbie..."
"Move and you'll not be coming back." Zebulon had no idea if what he said were even true
"OK, OK. I'll stay right here."
It got quiet both in his headset and in the room. Walon was staring at him. "We haven't heard from
Rosa."
"Or Lorraine," Zebulon said. I'm thinking we will soon, though. And they did. They both were where Zebulon had sent them.
Mr. Hodges, the lunchtime supervisor stopped outside the door. He asked if the boys were going to the gym for intramurals. They answered him perhaps too enthusiastically.
“You betcha.” “Absolutely.” “Wouldn’t miss it for the world, so to speak.” The boys giggled at there own joke.
"Good, then, fellas." He laughed. " I'll see you in there." Mr. Hodges moved on.
"Jeez, Walon. We both screamed at him."
"I know, right?"
Walon sat on the edge of Ms. Muir's desk. Zebulon filled her chair. Walon rubbed his face. "What do we do now, Bob?"
"I keep thinking to myself that this globe can't be doing this. I play with it every day and no one has ever disappeared."
"OK," said Walon. "Well, if it's not the globe..."
"It’s got to be me. Or me and the globe? I don't know. I admit it, I have thought lots of times of ways to make those girls go away, but I never thought of this."
"If I hadn't seen it, I would never believe it. How do we get them back? I mean, we want them back, right? Right?
"Of course. We can't leave them out there."
""We can't? No we can't, can we? Can we?
"No, Walon, we can't." They sat. They looked at the floor.
"Walon, put the headset back on, please. See if anyone is there."
Walon did what Zebulon asked. "It's Eliza, Bob. Now what?"
"Ask her how badly she wants to come back."
"Eliza, Bob wants to know how bad you want..."
"I heard him. Ask Bob what he wants."
"What do you or we want, Bob?"
"Here's what we want?"
Zebulon stepped closer to Walon. Walon twisted the microphone toward Zebulon.
"If you come back here, Eliza, we want you to stop being mean. We want you to..."
"Zebbie, I'm not mean. I don't know what you're talking about..."
"Don't mess with the Earth Master, Eliza. He knows what you are," Walon said confidently.
"OK, OK. I won't be mean."
"Oh, I know," said Zebulon. I know you won't. Because if you do I can send you back there or somewhere else worse. Right?"
"OK." Eliza's voice was small. If a sparrow could talk that’s what it would sound like Walon thought.
"Your noisy friends, too. Can you hear me girls?"
A chorus if yeses and OKs came through the headset loud enough for Zebulon to hear. Walon pointed at his earpiece and smiled.
"You all know what I can do, right?" Zebulon motioned to Walon to turn the headset down. He did. "Holy cow, Bob you have them right where we want them."
Zebulon nodded. "Now let's see if I can get them back."
"You know it wouldn't be the worst thing if you..."
"Come on Walon. Turn the mike back up."
"OK Eliza, you'll be first." Zebulon put a tack in Ms. Muir's globe right where they lived. He looked up to see his classmates returning from lunch. He asked them to sit. They sat.
"Eliza?"
"Yes Bob?"
"Get ready. Oh, and Eliza... please call me Zebulon."
"Or Earth Master," Walon added in a very deep, very phony voice.
Zebulon spun Ms. Muir's humongous globe more slowly than he did earlier and in the opposite direction. He started with his finger on Istanbul, the city Eliza thought was in China. When his tack approached, Zebulon forced the sphere to stop. Eliza materialized right next to Zebulon. A short cheer went up from the class. Then they remembered who had come back.
"Thank you, Zebulon. May I sit down?” Eliza waited for Zebulon to say yes and moved quickly to her seat. She folded her hands and breathed deeply. One by one each of the other girls returned. Each looked more embarrassed than the last.
"It's over, right girls?" asked Zebulon. “You remember our deal?”
Eliza nodded. Her friends nodded.
“What’s his name?” Walon asked pointing at Zebulon.
They all said Zebulon in their sparrow voices. Then they were quiet; very, very quiet. A quiet that lasted all day. Every once in a while Zebulon would catch on of the “travellers” staring his way. He could not help himself. He’d bare his teeth and squint hard at them.
As Ms. Muir walked purposely into the room, the class pulled their math materials from their desks. Except Ronan, who continued to draw and Jacob who was talking to everybody and to nobody. Walon leaned over to his friend.
"What should I call you now? A lot has happened, you know." Walon really was not sure.
"Zebulon, I think. It’s my name."
Walon smiled. Zebulon smiled back.
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