Wednesday 25 May 2016

Save the World, Find the Book (part one)



It begins in the library.

Josh is not sure how he came to the library, he can see no door and he is already standing in between rows and rows of books. The shelves reach high above him towards a ceiling that he cannot see.
He picks a book at random from those nearest to; it is ‘The Lost Tale of Another Day’. He looks at the name of the author; it is his own.

He does not remember having written a book and opens it: there is a lithograph of a tree standing alone in a field. The tree is ancient, the bark of the tree looks like sand from a beach where the wind has howled for centuries before it became solid an age before. In the branches of the tree something is hidden and although he searches he cannot see what it is, so he begins to read…

“The old man sat at the foot of the tree and started to cry. His sadness flowed from him like a river that he was powerless to stop…”

Josh stopped, and looked around, how long had he been here? He did not remember having sat down. 

Had he become an old man?

He closed the book and replaced it on the shelf, which rippled as he did so - as if it was alive and had shivered. This was not what he was here for, though the book he searched was certainly hidden and it would take more than his strength to find it. He knew that even if he did find it he would not be able to leave. He did not have the key.


And then he woke.

ab/85

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