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Larry was walking home, a bag of groceries in his hand.
He was sixty-eight. It had been years since he had been the night guard at the museum of natural history. He still missed his friends a lot. After their last rendezvous at the British museum, he had quit his job and went to college. He used the knowledge of history he’d gained while working at the museum to get a teaching degree, and got a job as a history teacher in middle school. And with age, he’d recently retired from being a teacher. For the time that it lasted, the chaos of school had felt right at home, though nothing could quite match the energy of the museum.
The museum… it consumed his every waking second. When walking in Central Park, he thought of the time they’d chased Cecil for the Tablet. He would see a book made by DK Smithsonian and think of their adventure at the Smithsonian museum. Hell, every time he looked at a British flag he thought of their trip to the British museum!
…It was starting to get out of hand.
The sun was setting. He looked up at the reds and pinks painted across the sky. Just another reminder of his museum friends. He could almost see the Museum of Natural History right in front of him. He shook his head to wipe out the hallucination.
Wait. The image wasn’t disappearing. It really was the Museum of Natural History, standing there in all its glory. It was just as Larry had left it. He almost felt that he should go inside to lock up…
No. He couldn’t. He didn’t work there anymore. He hadn’t even gone to visit after he had quit. The memories were too much. That was why he had avoided the museum when the British exhibits had come over. The pain of seeing everyone again just for them to go away was too much.
But then again… could it hurt just to look around? Larry stopped in his tracks. He realized that he’d unknowingly walked all the way up to the entrance. As long as he was here, he might as well…
He pushed the doors open.
The museum was mostly empty, due to the late time. A blond haired woman looked up from the information desk. Larry remembered the first time he had come to the museum. Just an ordinary man looking for a job. Rebecca had been the docent back then. After she had found out about the magic of the Tablet and met Sacagawea, her book had become a huge success, and she quit her job soon after. The last time Larry had seen her was when she had invited him for dinner at a Japanese restaurant, to thank him for telling her about the whole museum-come-to-life thing.
“Sir, the museum will be closing soon,” the blond lady informed him. “You’ll have more time to look around if you come back tomorrow.”
“That’s alright,” Larry said. “I won’t take long.” He started walking aimlessly into the museum.
He first went up to Teddy. Teddy certainly looked like a brave president when he was sitting on top of his horse, sword held up high. He looked down at Teddy’s left hand. The hand that had held out the museum keys to Larry when he’d been ready to quit. Teddy had believed in Larry when Larry himself hadn’t. If he had left then, he wouldn’t have been able to lead such a glorious life in the museum. At least while it had lasted.
Thanks, Teddy, he thought.
His feet led him to the Hall of African Mammals. The pandemonium of the hall was gone. It was almost scary how silent the room was. The lions that had given Larry such a fright the first time he’d tried to lock up were unbelievably stationary. He instinctively checked the spot where Dexter was. He was there alright. Sitting there, patiently, with that slightly sad look on his face. Larry chuckled softly. None of the museum visitors would know how much of a troublemaker that capuchin had been.
Larry entered the Hall of Miniatures. He peered into the Wild West exhibit. He could almost hear the railroad workers singing the Camptown song as he searched for Jedediah. And there he was. Hands on his hips and looking as bold and boisterous as ever. Larry looked towards the Roman exhibit. Octavius was easier to spot with his red-plumed helmet. The two friends were confined to two separate exhibits from completely different eras. Larry still remembered how much they’d use to fight. But more than that, he remembered how good they’d been as friends. The sight of the once-inseparable miniatures being so far apart rang with a melancholy tone in Larry’s heart.
He considered taking the pair to his own home. No one would know if he decided to just take the two. Maybe he could book a plane to Britain and let them play in the British museum.
But he couldn’t. So Larry turned around and left the hall.
He passed the Easter Island head. He almost expected it to shout at him. Hey Dum-Dum, give me gum-gum! Larry turned to the head.
“Sorry, I don’t have gum-gum,” he told it. There was no response.
Attila was standing with his blade in the air, looking like he was going to slice Larry to bits. Which might as well be true. His features were much more watered down and wax-like than they had been when he was alive. Larry looked at the other soldiers. One of them caught his eye. He realized it was the hun he’d promised to give a hug to on the night the Tablet had first gotten stolen. He had never fulfilled his promise.
He looked around. No one was there. He reached out and gave the figure a hug.
He moved on before anybody else could see and think he was crazy
He entered the Hall of American History. The Civil War soldiers were locked in an everlasting battle. Well, that was sad. They weren’t always enemies. And Larry had been able to stop them with just a few words. He supposed they wouldn’t be able to be friends or enemies without the Tablet.
But just in case. “Play nice, okay?” he said.
He turned to the glass case with Lewis and Clark, and Sacagawea. Sac stood looking off into the distance. Maybe in search of Teddy. Or maybe she was simply tracking. Larry smiled as he thought of the night he’d busted the glass and asked her to locate the van. Wow, he’d really been dumb enough to not notice the crashed car.
The hinges that Larry had put on the glass to let her walk in and out as she pleased had disappeared. The museum workers must have noticed and welded the glass back on. Larry wondered how she was going to get out when the Tablet came back.
If the Tablet came back…
Larry moved on before he could overthink things. He felt his eyes water up. It was probably just him becoming more sensitive with age.
His final destination was the Egyptian room. Ahkmenrah was no longer there, but the room still held some Egyptian artifacts. The place where the Tablet had once been was still there, but it was empty.
Larry reached out to it. He felt the ghost of the Tablet’s cold, metal touch.
Larry started to regret letting Ahkmenrah go. The Tablet may have been made for Ahkmenrah, but that didn’t mean it should be taken away from everyone else. The museum had been Larry’s whole life. It had transformed a deadbeat, soulless wanderer into a man with something to work for. Before becoming a night guard, Larry hadn’t known what to do next. As a kid born to a not-so-fortunate family, he hadn’t been able to afford having big dreams. He hadn’t gone to college when he was younger because he couldn’t afford it. Yet he’d still kept his hopes up, just in case he would make it big. For a long time, he hadn’t had any luck. Until he got a job in the Museum of Natural History. He’d used to be just another guy who couldn’t tell today from tomorrow, but after he’d become a night guard, he started looking forward to his work. Sure, it’d been a pain sometimes, but he enjoyed it. And now he missed it. He wanted to see Teddy, Ahk, even that stupid capuchin again. He loved being with the exhibits. Ahkmenrah had loved being with everyone, too. So why had he left? What kind of teenager would want to stay with their parents, anyway?! Why couldn’t he stay?! WHY DID EVERYTHING LARRY LOVED EVENTUALLY LEAVE?!
Larry took a deep breath. He tried to calm himself. He realised that tears were streaming down his face, and he reached up to wipe them. There was no use complaining over something that already happened. It was selfish to want the Tablet back. Even after his death, the Tablet would move on. Maybe it would return, and the exhibits would meet a new night guard. Or maybe it would be sent somewhere new, to give life to others. Larry’s life may have been the museum, but the museum was so much more than him.
That didn’t mean Larry didn’t miss the magic.
“Mister…?” Larry looked behind him. He hadn’t even noticed that a young man, probably in his twenties, was standing at the entrance of the room. “Uh, we’re gonna close soon, so, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.” The boy, who seemed to be the current night guard judging by his uniform, looked nervous. It came to Larry’s mind that he might have seen him crying.
“Oh.” Larry backed up from the wall, mildly embarrassed. “Right. I’ll leave.” He started to head out, but he stopped to ask something. “Hey, quick question, there used to be a Tablet here, right? The Tablet of Ahkmenrah.”
“Uh, yes, I believe so,” the boy answered.
“Is it… ever coming back?”
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “It came back once a long time ago, when some artifacts from the British museum were displayed here for a month, but I don’t know if it’ll ever make a return. I’m sorry if you were hoping to see it.”
“That’s okay. I wasn’t… hoping to see it. It’s fine.”
A slight pause. “I’m guessing it’s pretty quiet here?” Larry asked.
“Yeah, it’s just me and a bunch of wax figures.” The boy laughed. Wax figures. Of course, they were just wax figures. What had Larry expected?
“Now, uh, sorry mister, but we are closing so…”
“Oh. Sorry, I’ll leave. Have a nice night.”
“You too, mister.”
Larry walked to the main entrance. The lady at the information desk was gone.
As he passed the wax figure of Teddy, he could swear he heard the sound of Texas whinnying. He took one last look back.
“Lawrence! You’re back, old friend!”