Wishing For a Tesseract

Midterms began tomorrow, and Tess was weary of studying. Chemical reactions swirled in her head, all sticking together in a big sloppy mess like the snowflakes piling up outside the library. As soon as she understood one equation, another one fell from the sky and covered up the unique characteristics of the one she had already captured. Tess sighed, standing up to pace the bookshelves. Maybe she wasn’t meant to have a career in science like everyone else in her family. 

Truth was that Tess loved to read. She was, in fact, named after Madeleine L’Engle’s revolutionary fantasy book. Meg was the main character, but Tess’s father was a gifted scientist and he wanted to name his daughter something brilliant. He chose the name Tess for the book’s wrinkle in space and time called a tesseract. As the snow continued to fall in heavy clumps, Tess found herself wishing for a real tesseract. If she could just be like Meg and defeat the IT – the phantom brain with telepathic powers that made everyone conform – then maybe she could tesser to a place of acceptance. A place like the library.

She ran her fingers across the spines of familiar authors while her mind transcended galaxies of childhood memories. That is until she tripped, on a ratty wrinkle in the century old carpet and fell headfirst into the opened door of a dark room. Before Tess could ponder where she was, the shadows lifted away and revealed quite the party.

In the far right corner of the strange room, she spied the insolent Veruca Salt running around in her candy apple red dress hollering to her daddy. “I want an Oompa-Loompa! I want an everlasting gobstopper! I want a golden goose that lays chocolate eggs for Easter!” Indeed Veruca wanted the whole world. But Wonka had no need for her greed. In a flash, Veruca disappeared down the trapdoor of the eggdicator scale where all the other bad eggs go. Tess was amazed at how quickly one can eliminate what one does not want.

Outside the chocolate factory on the west side of the room, Tess stumbled upon Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger sitting along the river bank in an animated discussion about the dangers of chasing motor-cars. She wished she could be like Toad and go after what she really wanted, but the Mole inside of her was too soft-spoken to speak the truth. She had forgotten, however, that Mole was also brave. As he dared to leave his burrow, Tess decided to follow – which brought her back towards the center of the room where a large escalator pulsed. 

Here Tess watched as a young girl entered the department store with her piggy bank and poured her collected coins onto the counter. The clerk placed into her arms a little brown bear wearing green overalls with what appeared to be a missing button. The little girl’s smile told Tess all she needed to know – true friends accept us in spite of our flaws.

Tess knew it was time to tip the scales of her own destiny and let the wind blow in the willows. It was time to don her big girl corduroys. She would take her chemistry exam tomorrow and then telephone her father. Tess stepped out from the childhood book menagerie. She would no longer turn a page on her dreams; instead, she left the door wide open.