Vacation Under the Volcano

Jack and Annie are siblings who use a magical tree house to travel through time and space on various missions. In previous adventures, the children earned the title of Master Librarian from Morgan le Fay, a magical figure connected to the legendary court of Camelot, who sends them on their missions.

Jack, a young boy, examines his secret library card marked with the shimmering letters "ML" for Master Librarian. His family is about to leave for a week-long vacation in the mountains, but his younger sister, Annie, suggests they check the Frog Creek woods to see if Morgan le Fay and the magic tree house have returned. Jack agrees, knowing that the tree house always returns them to the exact moment they left. As they walk through the woods, Annie mentions a nightmare about fires, smoke, darkness, and shaking ground. Jack dismisses it.

They find the magic tree house in the tallest oak, with Morgan waving from the window. She explains that many great libraries have been lost throughout history and needs Jack and Annie to recover a story from one of them. She shows them a piece of paper bearing the title Vir Fortissimus in Mundo, written in Latin, the language of the ancient Romans. The story is housed in a library in a Roman town that will soon be destroyed. Morgan gives them a research book called Life in Roman Times, warns them to keep their secret library cards because the right people will recognize them, and delivers a cryptic instruction: In their darkest hour, only the ancient story can save them, but first they must find it. Jack wishes to travel to the world on the book's cover, and the tree house spins them away.

Jack and Annie arrive to find their modern clothes replaced by white tunics, belts, sandals, and leather bags, Morgan's way of helping them blend in. From the tree house window, they see a grove of olive trees, a gentle mountain, and a sparkling seaside town. The research book reveals they have landed on August 24, A.D. 79, in the Roman vacation town of Pompeii, near a mountain called Mount Vesuvius. Annie feels the ground shake and senses something is wrong, but Jack dismisses her concerns. As they walk toward town, Annie notes an eerie silence: No birds are singing. They also discover that the stream near the olive grove has completely dried up.

They cross a small wooden bridge over the dry stream and enter Pompeii's busy streets, passing open shops and a bakery with flat breads resembling pizza. Jack observes that the town feels much like their hometown of Frog Creek. They reach the forum, the town's central square, where sellers hawk honey cakes and peacock eggs and speakers address small crowds. An old woman in a black cloak points a bony finger at them and warns that the end is near. Jack hurries Annie away. His research book identifies the woman as a soothsayer, a person believed in Roman times to see the future. Annie takes the warning seriously, connecting it to her nightmare, but Jack dismisses it.

They pass the Public Baths, where Romans went to wash, swim, and socialize, and the Temple of Jupiter, the chief god of Roman mythology. Jack speculates that the lost story might be a myth. On a wide street, they encounter a line of enormous warriors in fancy helmets, their feet chained together and flanked by guards. Jack identifies them as gladiators, slaves or criminals forced to fight each other or wild animals for public entertainment in an amphitheater. When Jack and Annie try to follow the gladiators inside, a guard forbids children from entering. The soothsayer appears again, urging them to run for their lives.

Annie approaches the soothsayer, who tells them all of Pompeii's streams have dried up, the birds and rats have fled, the sea is boiling hot, and the ground shakes. Annie shows her secret library card, and the soothsayer, recognizing its shimmering letters, smiles warmly and directs them to the villa of Brutus at the end of the street. She explains that Brutus and his household are away in Rome and urges them to take what they came for and leave at once, adding that after today, nothing will remain in Pompeii.

Jack and Annie race to the empty villa and explore its rooms, finding a garden with a mermaid fountain and a goldfish pond. Off the garden, they discover a room lined with shelves holding rolls of paper. Annie is disappointed, seeing no books, but Jack consults his research book and learns that Romans wrote on scrolls of papyrus paper. The rolls are Roman books, and this room is the library they need. They frantically unroll scrolls, comparing each to the Latin title on Morgan's paper. Annie finds the matching scroll and hands it to Jack, who places it in his leather bag.

While Annie urges him to leave, Jack pauses to flip through the research book and discovers that Mount Vesuvius, peaceful for 800 years, erupted at noon on August 24, A.D. 79, the very day they are visiting. Panicked, they rush to a sundial in the garden and confirm it is nearly noon. Jack tells Annie the end is not near; it is here. At that instant, a tremendous blast rocks the villa.

The explosion knocks both children to the ground. The mermaid fountain topples, roof tiles fall, and giant cracks split the floor of the scroll library. Through the window they see glowing rocks bursting from Mount Vesuvius, its entire top blown off. The sky turns smoky gray as a thick black cloud blots out the sun, and ash and pumice, lightweight volcanic rock, begin to rain down. Jack and Annie grab pillows from the dining room and tie them onto their heads with their belts for protection, then push through the crumbling villa and out into the dark, burning streets.

Burning rocks and fiery ash rain from the sky as the hot air fills with the smell of rotten eggs. In the forum, shoppers, soldiers, and sellers flee in every direction. Jack and Annie run past the collapsing Temple of Jupiter and the Public Baths. Remembering that the olive grove lies in the direction of Mount Vesuvius, which was behind them when they entered Pompeii, they run toward the volcano while everyone else flees the opposite way. Annie cries that the scene matches her nightmare exactly. When they reach the dried-up stream, the bridge has collapsed under enormous drifts of pumice.

They slide down the bank and try to wade across, but the warm, grayish-white pebbles trap them. Both become stuck. Annie recalls Morgan's words and pulls the scroll from Jack's bag, holding it up to the dark sky and shouting for the story to save them. As Jack sinks deeper, a deep voice tells him to rise, and an enormous man, larger even than the gladiators, lifts Jack with one hand and Annie with the other. He places them on the far bank and commands them to run. They charge through the olive grove, reach the tree house, and scramble up the rope ladder. Annie wishes to go home, and the tree house spins them back to Frog Creek.

Safe in the tree house, Jack and Annie find Morgan waiting. She tells them they witnessed a famous historical event and that modern scientists study Pompeii's remains to learn about Roman life. When Annie expresses sadness for the people of Pompeii, Morgan reassures them that most residents escaped, as the city was not fully buried until the following day. Jack hands over the dust-covered scroll, and Morgan thanks them deeply. She tells them to enjoy their family vacation and return in two weeks for their next mission.

As they climb down, Jack calls up to ask what the story is about. Morgan reveals it is called The Strongest Man in the World, a lost tale about Hercules, a hero of Greek and Roman mythology and a son of Jupiter. Annie realizes that when she called upon the story for help, Hercules himself appeared to rescue them. Jack insists it was just a gladiator and that Hercules is a myth, but Annie offers her own explanation: Since they were in Roman times, where people believed Hercules was real, he was real to them. Jack looks up at the sky and quietly thanks Hercules. Then they run home, hoping their upcoming family vacation will be wonderfully boring.