“A tornado touched down here,” said Malachi. “We need to get it reorganized. But no one remembers what it was for. Your job is to reorganize this section and determine its purpose. We can’t have unknown sections of the library; it’s simply embarrassing.”

“Of course,” said Lenora, though she felt quite intimidated. However would she organize all this? It looked as though it would take an army of librarians weeks just to put the books back on the shelves! But she had sworn to work hard, and work hard she would.

She turned to Malachi to ask how she had managed to walk many miles in only a few moments. But the Chief Answerer was gone.

Lenora sighed. Time to get started. Perhaps if she knew the subject matter for this section, she would be able to decide how to organize it. She went toward a pile of books and picked up a thick one from the top:

Orbital Mechanics for Total Morons

She didn’t know what Orbital Mechanics was, but orbit sounded like it might have to do with outer space. She flipped through the pages and saw, as she’d guessed, loads of complicated math equations and pictures of spacecraft going around planets. Perhaps this section was for Space Travel? She picked up another book:

T is for Tardigrades

She couldn’t even begin to guess what tardigrades were. She was about to open the book and find out when her attention was caught by a large box upon which had been stamped:

MOOSE

A moose in a box? That she had to see. She laid the tardigrades book back on the pile and opened the box.

She was rather disappointed to find not a moose but a battered suitcase on which had been stamped:

MOOSE: MANNED ORBITAL OPERATIONS SAFETY EQUIPMENT

And below this, in smaller red letters, was written:

Warning: Historical artifact for library exhibition purposes only! Do not attempt to leap from outer space in this MOOSE!

Well, thought Lenora, I certainly won’t be doing THAT.

Curious to see what the MOOSE looked like, Lenora hefted the suitcase onto the Help Desk, which was of course just as messy as everything else in the section. Someone had left some powdered doughnuts here. They had spilled across the desk and there was powdered sugar everywhere.

Then Lenora noticed, standing just at the edge of the powder, a red ant.

Lenora looked down at the ant.

The ant looked up at Lenora.

“Hello,” said Lenora. “How may I help you?”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lenora Dodges Danger

The ant on the Help Desk began carefully plowing a path through the powdered sugar. Minutes later she had made what Lenora could see was the letter H. The ant stepped to the right and started anew. Eventually the H was followed by E, L, L, and O.

The ant looked at her expectantly.