“I'm Bored”

Alpha & Nancy Rote, Songmark, Miss Devinski created by Mr. Simon Barber.

Used with Permission

“I’m bored” Katrina Schmidt announced to her dorm mates, her rich Southern voice filling the room.

“Bored Katrina? I’m so tired of this nothing at all I could just SHED” Megan Brightwhite, an English Canadian Martin countered. She looked over at the shorter, Southern marsh rabbit as if to dare her to outvote her.

Alpha Rote looked up from her navigation book, the young Cranium Island shrew obviously upset about this new twist to each nights conversation. “Please tobe quiet? Am trying tostudy” she asked softly. Her three new dorm mates were a strange set, absolutely nothing like she’d hoped to have. They only seemed happy when talking about boys, though on occasion their conversations drifted over to asking Alpha about her wife. All about her. Since the week began studying had become a matter of out waiting the three until they fell asleep.

“Well I don’t have someone special to dream about” Elizabeth Juniper snapped. A Uavapacal nutria, she was largest and strongest of the four girls. “Marrying a woman, how absurd. You won’t even be able to reproduce. Alpha, you may enjoy books and numbers but we want something else to do. If only we had a radio.”

Alpha perked up. “If haveradio will keep quiet?”

“Well of course we would have to keep quiet. Radios are against the rules so we would have to keep it low, but how to hide one? They are huge and need a lot of electricity.”

Closing her book Alpha sat up. “Kat your blue lipstick. One you notlike so much. Liz, that copperhaircoil you sometimes wear. Meg I needsmallbit ofglass.” Standing up she walked to the rooms double desk, pushing aside several piles of papers and books. “I build you radio, youbequiet. You study. I amnotbeing thrown out because younotstudy. I fail Nancy fails. Kat, strip ofgumpaper please.”

While the girls watched in cautious disbelief Alpha Rote carefully removed the dark blue lipstick from its tube, setting the colored wax cylinder it on a sheet of paper. She was then left with a tiny platform, one hardly thicker than her own thumb. Accepting the fragment of glass Meg supplied, from where no one knew but the girl was an excellent scrounger Alpha studied it. Opening a drawer in the desk she worried out the one loose nail, using its point to carefully chip at the fragment for several minutes.

Unknown to any of the girls they were being observed. Though from outside the compound there were very few ways to see into the dorms every building was angled in such a way that certain telescopes could see in quite clearly when needed. Normally via one of the mounted mirrors to be found in each room of course. “What are they up too” Miss Devinski asked herself as she watched. She was taking notes of course, and would continue to do so until ten pm when one of the other teachers would replace her. Unfortunately Alpha’s work was invisible from this angle. First setting a small earphone to her left ear she then reached over to a well hidden control panel. Deliberately the Instructor turned a knob and immediately her ear was filled with the girls discussion. Oddly, in Songmark’s entire history not one dorm had ever found the hidden microphones though most had hunted for the suspected devices.

Setting her worked bit of glass aside Alpha took the offered hair coil, carefully stretching it out into a single wire. Measuring it with a ruler she selected a place and nicked the wire with her nail, then began to bend it back and forth, metal fatigue would do the rest. “Kat, your blackclaw polish please” she asked as she began carefully rolling the wire even straighter.

Wire? Miss Devinski smiled to herself. They were building a radio of course, finally. She had begun to think that this Dorm was never going to do anything interesting. Well let them work then, a change of selector on that panel and she was listening as another first year dorm began planning on building a tunnel under the wire. Poor girls the hound thought, that was absolutely the hardest and least successful way of getting out of Songmark for the night. Still every year at least one dorm made the attempt. Few though were ever successful.

Two city born girls and a farmers daughter watched in amazement as Alpha carefully coiled her newly insulated wire around a pencil. “Is called coil antenna” the shrew explained as she worked. “Same length wirepick up same RadioLono but take verylittle space. Meg. Unplug secondlamp. I need wiresfrom same.”

“You ruin that lamp they’ll stick us in solitary for life” Kat warned. “No weekend pass ever.”

“I not ruin lamp” Alpha assured her dorm mate. “Onlyneed fewstrandswire.” Sitting her new coil aside, still on its pencil form so as to not lose it she accepted the lamp. A ten crowie coin unscrewed the base, then disconnected the wires from their mounting points. Removing the longer electrical cable Alpha measured no more than two inches, then using her own sharp teeth she snipped the wire clean off. A few seconds more work and the newly stripped cable looked almost exactly like it had before.

“How do you know all this stuff” Elizabeth asked as she accepted the original cable.

“I am card carrying madscientistCranium Island” the shrew explained as she first stripped insulation, then teased the strands of twisted copper wire apart. Two she straightened, coating them with the same black claw polish before returning to the others. “That is earned position. Not purchasedposition. I wasmaking radios whenwasfour.”

“Nancy Rote’s a sleuth” Kat whispered, speaking out loud as she thought. “Alpha is a mad scientist, I really want to be around when these two are working together.”

“Fine” Alpha agreed. “You want tobeapprentice sleuth or apprenticemadscientist? We find wayworkyou in between us.”

Kat blushed, then blushed deeper when the double meaning hit her while the other two girls giggled at her embarrassment. She couldn’t even be angry at the shrew, who was currently busily building them something. She had answered truthfully, probably without even thinking about how her words went together in a social context. It was doubtful she even realized her words could be taken two ways and that just made Kat’s embarrassment the worse though it brought a certain warmth to her at the idea.

Miss Devinski, tired of all the math being spouted as her tunnel making dorm began to realize the challenge ahead of them continued her surveillance. Turning her selector to another dorm she smiled. Nancy Rote was busy discussing the days events with her dorm. Those four, once they realized that almost all of Songmarks rules were meant to be broken, were going to become a real challenge. She just hoped that the squirrel didn’t get herself killed with her big nose. That would be a disaster for Alpha and though she’d had her misgivings about that shrew, she’d turned out to be made of the same cloth as most Songmark girls.

Closing her eyes, after warning the other girls, Alpha brought the now powered lamp cable closer to her target one last time. There was a fat blue-green spark then nothing as the shrew yanked her paw back quickly. “Unplug. Kat, putlampback together. That isallfor this.” She studied her work as her dorm mate carefully rebuilt the table lamp. Her tiny arc had nearly perfectly sealed the last coil in place, not as well as she liked though. Given more time and the right tools Alpha knew she could do a hundred times better but this was just a quick build. Over a dozen tiny wires led from the carved fragment of glass, each delicately spot welded into place. One wire ran to the longer antenna coil while another ran to two bare wire coils. One wires contact upon a specific coil was adjustable by turning the lipsticks original screw mounting. Beside them was the lipsticks top. Inside was a tiny double cone made of tin foil scavenged from the chewing gum wrapper. To each were attached insulated coils then they were attached... Well it didn’t really matter did it. Returning her attention to the blue lipstick Alpha carefully measured a length and cut it away with her school blade, then offered it and the insulation scraps to Kat. “Get rid of. Toilet best” she instructed. Turning to the remaining portion she carefully mounted it back onto the lipstick, thus hiding her work. Once closed it looked and acted like a well used lipstick.

When Kat returned Alpha laid both copper tubes side by side, not quite touching. Adjusting the lipstick she listened as static cackled from her make do speaker system. Abruptly the strains of hula music filled the room.

“There. Works. Will keepquitenow while I study” she asked.

“How” Meg asked, stunned at what was before her. “There’s no power, no tubes and its so tiny.”

Alpha stood, stretching until her spine popped back into position. “Is alwayspowerin air. Radio waves themselvesarepower. Can be usedtorun small radio. Think of tinylightningall around. Some coilsgather power, some use. One istuner. Better hide remains in casehaveto make another.” She headed to her bed and book, only to be stopped halfway there by Elizabeth.

“Look” the nutria said softly. “Official apology, we’ve been hounding you. Mainly because well, your really strange to us. Your way of talking, your intense study habits and well...” She blushed. “You and your wife are a Songmark first. That’s gotta count for something so we are I guess, more than a bit envious. Now you make this wonderful thing for us and ask nothing in return. Look, what I’m trying to say is we’re sorry.”

“Is okay” Alpha answered. “Should haveseenNancy when mother askedifcould experiment onher. Enjoy radio.” She completely missed the look of utter curiosity in her classmates face as she returned to her own studies only happy now, for her dorm mates would have to be quiet to hear the radio. It really wasn’t that powerful after all. Now if she’d been able to get her paws on a chunk of rose quartz instead of broken window glass then it could have been a lot stronger. She’d have to ask Meg to keep an eye out for a small piece. Meg seemed able to come up with anything, given time so maybe she ought to speak to Nancy about enlisting the promising scavenger.

Miss Devinski finally finished her cycle of dorm rooms. She would have to recover a hanging rope when her relief arrived and a knotted series of sheets. Those sheets would be returned to the laundry, while the rope would simply be coiled below its windowsill. Nothing tonight had surprised her though until she returned to Alpha’s dorm room in her sweep to hear the sounds of Radio Lono. Soft yes, but clear as a bell. ‘They built a radio this fast?’ she thought. Well that counted for several points for that dorm, of course they wouldn’t be able to hide it, it must be a bread boarded system. A sweep tomorrow during classes would pick it up easily. Still the sound was very clear, but where had they found a loose speaker so quickly she wondered.