Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things by Carlos Bueno Page A

we have to split up.”
    “But—”
    “Only One Visitor Per Path. That’s the rule.” He jumped off her shoulder and
landed on the right-hand sign. “I guess . . . this is how you found me.” His skin turned
orange and purple.
    “We can do this,” said Laurie, thinking furiously. “Once you find your Aunt
Vana, take her to the Treelighthouse. I’ll find a way to come back. Or maybe I’ll get a
telescope and a big light and—”
    “We’ll see each other again,” Xor said.
    “Okay,” said Laurie. “Promise?”
    “Promise.”
    “And I’m going to whistle, okay?”
    “Okay.”
    “So you can hear me.”
    “Right,” said Xor.
    “It’ll be fine.”
    “Absolutely,” agreed Xor.
    “Here I go.”
    “Me too.”
    Laurie did try to whistle, but it’s impossible to whistle and cry at the same time. Just
try it.

Chapter 20. Fin

    The mandelbroccoli bushes got shorter and wilder until they blended in with the forest. Laurie
didn’t know where she was or where she was going. But she knew how to get there. At least, she
hoped she did. By now it was late afternoon and the shadows were getting longer.
    The trees of the forest were large oaks and maple, with an occasional pine or spruce. There
were a number of saplings and bushes of various sorts. It was hard to see far because of all the
leaves, but walking was easy enough if she skirted the spruce and berry bushes.
    “ Chirrrup! ”
    Laurie’s heart started pounding. More Jargon? How many? Where?
    “ Chirrrup! ”
    No running this time. She walked toward the noise as quietly as she could. It seemed to be
behind a large tree. No, not a Jargon. It was . . . a squirrel. An ordinary squirrel. It yelled what
were probably very nasty things in Squirrel, then ran up the tree to safety. And that tree! She
recognized it. It was the big tree behind her house, at the edge of the woods . . .
    Laurie was home.
    * * *
    Lying in her own bed after a hot bath made Laurie feel happy and tired. As far as her mother
knew, Laurie had been gone only an hour or two. To Laurie, though, it felt like at least a week
since she’d gotten lost in the woods. She was too sleepy to think about it. She hoped Xor had
gotten his wish and was learning how to blend in. She was sad that she didn’t get to see her
new friends again. She had promised to come back . . . after delivering . . . delivering that letter
. . .
    Two seconds later, she was out of bed and tearing open the plain white envelope.
    Hi, kiddo. If you’re reading this letter, you’ve figured
out who it was for. I wasn’t sure the Garden would actually work, and I don’t like
good-byes.

    You helped us build the Network. We couldn’t have done it
without you. Fresnel says once you learn a few things and unlearn some others, you’ll make a
good Composer.

    See you around,
    capt. Winsome “Losesome” Trapp

    She read it twice before she noticed that Winsome’s last name was Trapp. It made sense.
For all of the sour things Winsome had said about Colonel Trapp, they were a lot alike, sending
strange messages and bossing people around. It looked like Laurie wasn’t the only one who had
trouble getting along with her parents.
    She lay down again and thought about tomorrow. Tomorrow was the first day of summer school. It
didn’t sound as scary as it did before. If she could navigate the Byzantine Process, beat
Ponens and Tollens, make infinite strings, and teach turtles to build towers, sitting in a classroom
didn’t sound that hard at all.
    She might even learn something interesting.
    The End

Chapter 21. One More Thing

    It was a dark and foggy night, many months after Lauren Ipsum had gone back home to Hamilton.
A lighthouse flashed. Flashed. Flashed. Flashed.
    The flashes didn’t carry any messages this night. The fog was too thick to send signals,
so the Network was down. The powerful lights were needed for their original purpose: to warn boats
away from dangerous rocks.
    As it happened, only one boat was around,