The Magic Factory

Everyone squeezed inside—Oliver, Walter, Hazel, Simon, and Ralph. Though he’d only known them for a short while, Oliver felt like he’d found kindred spirits. They were from different points in history but were bonded by their powers. He felt closer to them than he ever had to anyone before. For the first time in his life, Oliver felt as though he’d found some friends.

They whooshed upward. Then the doors to the elevator opened and Ralph directed everyone along a walkway. They stopped outside a door. Then, for the first time since arriving at the School for Seers, Oliver went into a classroom.

He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but he should have known it wouldn’t be like your typical classroom. Instead, it was a domed room, with the seats in a horseshoe around the edges. In the middle was a sort of stage, with a raised platform. And there stood a woman in a white lab coat. She immediately reminded Oliver of Ms. Belfry, with her chestnut brown hair and warm smile. He wondered how Ms. Belfry was doing, back at Campbell Junior High.

“Doctor Ziblatt is a wonderful tutor,” Simon said to Oliver. “She’s the most intelligent person one could ever have the pleasure of knowing.”

They took their seats and Oliver noticed Esther sitting just a few rows ahead. She had a very poised demeanor, Oliver thought, as though she was aware that she drew the attention of every boy in the room.

“Oh,” Ralph said, leaning over from beside him. “You should strap in.”

“What?” Oliver asked. “Why?”

He noticed black straps hanging either side of him and quickly clipped in. No sooner had he done so than the whole room started to spin. Oliver clutched the edge of the bench, feeling his neon pancakes swirling in his stomach and regretting now the speed with which he’d eaten them.

“What’s happening?” he said.

But when he looked over, Walter, Simon, Ralph, and Hazel were just blurs beside him. In fact, the whole room was a blur!

Then at last, everything came back into focus, in crystal, pinpoint precision.

“You okay?” Ralph asked, looking over at Oliver. He grinned widely.

Oliver blinked several times. “I think so. What just happened?”

“Centrifugal motion,” Hazel explained. “It helps us tap into our powers more easily. But of course you have to get to the point where you don’t feel like you’re spinning anymore, which is very fast. It’s never fun to get there, but once you are it’s fine.”

“So we’re still spinning now?” Oliver asked, surprised.

“Yeah!” Walter exclaimed enthusiastically. “Cool, huh?”

Just then, Doctor Ziblatt addressed the class. “Today we’re going to resume our studies on dimensional vision. Could someone remind the rest of the class what that is?”

To Oliver’s shock, almost every single hand shot into the air. The School for Seers was very different from Campbell Junior High, he realized; the students actually wanted to learn. Even though Edmund and Vinnie had taken a disliking to him, at least he wouldn’t have to deal with being called a freak or a nerd in this place.

Doctor Ziblatt scanned the students with their raised hands. “Miss Valentini,” she said, pointing at Esther.

Oliver watched with rapt attention as the beautiful Esther stood, her black hair glistening under the lights.

“Dimensional vision is the ability to see through your current dimensional plane into the next,” she said.

Her voice was like a piano, or a harp, making the most wonderful music. Oliver’s heart skipped a beat.

“Thank you,” Doctor Ziblatt said. “So if we were to think of dimensions like layers of glass lying on top of one another, each dimension runs parallel to the next, on and on, ad infinitum. As a Seer, it’s important to be able to see through into all these different dimensions, because the information within them can be vital when making your decisions within this dimension. Each moment in time of every dimension can be accessed by a Seer, once they’ve trained hard enough.”

Oliver felt a sudden surge of excitement at the thought of being able to see into different dimensions and timelines. What a wonderful thing to experience! Finally he could see things the way Ralph did. But he had so many questions.

“Does that mean we can look into the past?” he asked eagerly.

“Yes,” Doctor Ziblatt said. “With enough hard work and training.”

“So I could go and watch the dinosaurs?”

“Yes,” Doctor Ziblatt confirmed. “And travel there as well after much more studying.”

“Travel there?” Oliver asked, breathless with wonder.

He saw the corners of Doctor Ziblatt’s lips turn upward. “You must be new here,” she said. “What’s your name?”

“Oliver Blue.”

Usually, Oliver would feel intimidated talking in front of so many people but he didn’t feel that way at the School for Seers. He felt like he belonged here.

“Mr. Blue,” Doctor Ziblatt said. “Come to the front and we’ll see whether we can get you looking into the next dimension.”

Oliver leapt up immediately. Though he was nervous, it was more with an excited sense of anticipation rather than fear. He hurried down the steps to the front of the class and up to Doctor Ziblatt.

She shook his hand. “The rest of the class have all completed this exercise,” she explained. “But I want to see what your baseline is.”

She handed him some goggles. Oliver took them, thinking immediately of the goggles Armando had given him back in the factory. They certainly looked very similar, except there were two electrodes attached to the side, a bit like the pads Oliver had had to attach to his head in his sleep pod. Doctor Ziblatt pressed them to his temples and, behind her, a large holographic image appeared of the view through Oliver’s eyes.

“That’s what I’m seeing!” Oliver said with a gasp.

“It is indeed,” Doctor Ziblatt said. “Now, this button here will help your eyes to unfocus on this dimension. Think of these as training wheels on a bicycle. Eventually, you’ll be able to do this without them, but for now they will guide you.”

She clicked the button and immediately Oliver’s vision blurred. The image behind him blurred in unison.

“This is the state your mind must be in to begin to penetrate the layers of dimensions,” Doctor Ziblatt explained. “You must be able to look past this world and into the next.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Oliver said, and to his surprise the class started to giggle.

He looked over at the blur of faces, and somehow through them all he was able to focus on Esther laughing at his joke. She looked even prettier when she was smiling, her usually serious demeanor lightening momentarily. His gaze lingered on her.

Suddenly, he heard a smattering of laughter.

“Someone’s got a crush!” Vinnie shouted loudly.

Oliver realized, with dismay, that the image of Esther was reflected back in huge holographic precision behind him. His face turned hot and flushed red. He quickly looked away, his vision clouding over again.

“Settle down,” Doctor Ziblatt told the class in a sharp tone.

The hubbub died down, and Oliver watched through misty eyes as Doctor Ziblatt took something from her drawer. It looked like a very large, shiny piece of white cardboard. Right in the center was a black dot.

“More training wheels?” Oliver asked.

“This will help you focus on a point,” she confirmed. “And then, hopefully, through that point and beyond into the next plane.”

Oliver nodded. He was determined to do this. It was so exciting!