Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Planet Girl by Tommy Greenwald Page B

hall toward the stairs. For some reason, though, we couldn’t see the stairs. Then, the reason became clear.
    The door that led to them had been shut.
    Panic rose up in my throat, and I started running toward the door, Jack right behind me. We both knew before we got there that it had been locked tight. But we still tried to turn the giant door handle about a thousand times.
    Eventually, we gave up. My heart was pounding.
    â€œCharlie Joe?” Jack said, his voice shaking a little bit.
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œAre you thinking what I’m thinking?”
    â€œProbably not.”
    What he was probably thinking was, We’re trapped in the basement and we need to come up with a way to get out, or else our parents are going to kill us.
    What I was thinking was, When you go into a giant building filled with books, bad things are bound to happen.

 
    20
    Jack and I stared at each other, as we realized we were trapped in the basement of the New York Public Library. Then we did the only thing that made sense.
    We screamed for help.
    â€œHELP! ANYBODY! HELP! HELP!” We pounded on the door, too, over and over and over again.
    After about fifty helps , we gave up.
    â€œOkay, we need to figure out a way to get back upstairs,” I said, checking my phone. No reception.
    â€œD’uh,” Jack answered. He was glaring at me, as if the whole thing were my fault.
    â€œThis whole thing is your fault,” he snapped, confirming my suspicions.
    â€œWhat are you talking about? How is it my fault?”
    He snorted. “Because it was your idea to leave the reception, and it was your idea to go down the stairs.”
    Oh, that.
    â€œYeah, but you’re the one who wanted to go in that stupid room full of old books,” I reminded him.
    â€œI don’t want to talk to you right now,” Jack said. “Unless you have an idea about how to get back upstairs.”
    That ended the conversation.
    We walked back down the hall, passing the room with the rare books. There was another room on the left—the door said MAPS AND GEOGRAPHICAL ARTIFACTS. I poked my head in and saw a lot of books. A few feet farther down, there was a room on the right—the door said A HISTORY OF MEDICAL SCIENCE, VOLUMES 1–64. I poked my head in—books and more books. The next room was also on the right—BIBLIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, 1679–1729. I didn’t even poke my head into that one.
    All in all, it turned out to be the longest hallway in America, with about forty rooms, all of which were completely filled with shelves and shelves and shelves of books. There wasn’t a single person in any of the rooms.
    Finally, we turned a corner and saw a door that looked familiar.
    â€œNo way,” I said.
    â€œWay,” Jack said.
    It was the door that we’d come in through at the bottom of the stairs. Which meant we’d spent the last fifteen minutes going in a giant circle. Or, to be totally accurate, a giant square.
    â€œI think we might be trapped for life,” Jack said. He was kidding. Kind of.
    All of a sudden I felt incredibly tired.
    â€œYou’re right, by the way,” I said, slumping down to sit on the floor. “This is all my fault.”
    â€œOh, stop it,” Jack said.
    â€œNo, it is.” I paused for a second. “The thing is, I was really looking forward to coming to the reunion, because my life isn’t going so great right now.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause I’m an idiot, that’s why.” I found a quarter in my pocket and started scraping the floor with it. “A lot of my friends back home are mad at me.”
    â€œWell, it can’t be the first time they’re mad at you,” Jack said, sitting down next to me. “I’m sure everyone will get over it. They always do.”
    â€œNot this time.”
    â€œWhy? Did you do something terrible?”
    I couldn’t bring myself to go into the gory details.