Library

The library smelled the same every time. Musty and of old leather bindings. The smell of the wooden shelves, floors and benches combined with the warm and comforting smell of old paper and glue. She closed her eyes and took it all in, letting the smell fill her, letting the hush – almost holy to her – fill her soul. With a deep sigh she opened her eyes and let them feast a moment on the sight. A gallery opened before her, well over two stories tall, books everywhere. Shelf upon shelf soared toward the domed wooden ceiling far above. As she walked deeper into the library her footsteps echoed in the quiet. She passed from pool of light to pool of light, the dusty sunbeams diluted by the massive stained glass windows. Occasionally a face peered out at her from the stacks. People like her, people whose lives were devoted to books and learning, flocked to study the ancient texts. Finally, she turned off her path into a narrow hall of books at the back of the library. At the end was a simple wooden door. A small brass plaque, strong and imposing despite its lack of size, proclaimed the space beyond to be private. She stopped in the shadows in front of the door, knocked and waited.
         She'd seen the door marked PRIVATE every time she’d been to the library and had always wondered about what lay hidden behind it. She'd even enjoyed conjuring up ideas of the wonders behind that door. The ancient tomes. The forgotten texts. Books more like works of art than stories. But she'd never once thought she'd be summoned to the door. The note had been tucked on the windshield of her car the night before. Written on thick parchment and sealed with a wax stamp, the note alone was something fantastic. Inside it had simply said come to the library tomorrow at 10am to the Private Door. Knock twice and wait. Nothing more. She read the note many times over, searching for a hidden meaning but found none. And now it was 10am. And she'd knocked twice. She stood there waiting, hopeful and nervous. Sure something exciting was going to happen behind that door. Little did she know that entering the realm beyond the Private Door would change her whole life.
         Standing quietly, lost in thought and day dreams, she jumped when the door suddenly opened. A small man stood just inside. His body stooped with age, his face and hands worn by weather and life. His eyes, however, sparkled. As if he knew a joke that no one else did. He smiled, the wrinkles on his face realigning themselves to frame his mouth and almost hide his laughing blue eyes. At once she was at ease. He beckoned her to enter and she stepped through the door way. She gasped at what she saw. The main library was awe inspiring for sure, but this room. This room made the other seems like a small modern bookstore. The room spread before her, a round, tower-like place. Overhead the room soared upward, the ceiling out of site. Level after level of bookcases filled to bursting rose up into the darkness. Ladders and spiraling staircases following them up toward the hidden ceiling. To her surprise, the room and the bookcases also dropped down; making the floor she was standing on feel like an island in a sea of books. The room defied all logic. Around the section of floor ran a wrought iron rail, broken in places by stairs leading up or down. In the center of the oasis of floor was a desk, piled with papers and books. Behind the desk stood a worn leather chair. In this the man sat down, gratefully, as if the walk to the door had taken a lot out of him and he needed to rest in the chair to regain his strength. Again he gestured to her, this time offering a seat. She looked around, surprised that he would offer her a seat when he was in the only chair in the room. She'd resigned herself to sitting on the floor when to her shock a chair popped out of the air and gently dropped down in front of the desk. Nervous once more, she gingerly sat down and faced her guide across the cluttered desk.
         They continued to stare at one another for a while until she could take the silence no longer.
         "What is..." she started.
         The man held up his hand, stopping her. "Just a few moments more my dear," he said in a rough dry voice that sounded as if it was unused to talking.
         Miffed at being rebuked she crossed her arms and leaned back into the chair. Looking once more around her at the amazing room of books, she noticed that, though there were no windows or lamps, the room was well lit. It was almost as if the area of floor was glowing, throwing light out into the room and on the stacks. She wondered about the size of the room. Though it seemed massive, there had been no echo from her shoes or when they'd both spoke. The rows of bookcases spiraling off of the circle of floor seemed to go on forever. She could look down them and not see the stone walls she knew must enclose the room. They enclosed the rest of this library and this strange room was after all part of the library. No, these rows faded off into darkness just like the shelves leading up and down did. The whole room seemed to simply go on forever. The ammount of books stored here must number into the millions, as if all the world’s books were stored in one place.
         She jumped when a soft thunk broke the silence. She looked around for the source of the noise, her eyes going wide when she saw a cat balanced on the railing to her left. It must have come from the bookcase nearest the rail. As she watched, it jumped softly to the floor and strolled to the desk, leaping lightly to the clear spot in the center. The cat looked at her for a long moment. She felt as if she were under a microscope, the cat’s gaze was so intense. Seemingly satisfied it turned toward the old man. The two looked at each other and the cat seemed to nod. It stretched and yawned and lay down on the desk, apparently finished with the two humans.
         “Well, there’s that done. Shall we begin then?” The old man spoke at last. His wrinkled hands folded on the desk, the kind eyes watching her.
         “I’m sorry, what’s done?”
         “Well, you had to be approved by St. Lucy before we could start our talk Sophia.”
         “St. Lucy? As in the patron saint of writers?”
         “Very good. Not many people know that.”
         “Thank you, but I have an unfair advantage.” She pulled the necklace she wore forward for him to see. A St. Lucy medal hung from the small silver chain.
         “I’m starting to understand why you were chosen,” he said with wry smile.
         “I still don’t understand. Chosen for what? What is this place?”
         “I’ll answer all your questions my dear. First, let me tell you about this room…” The old man paused, leaning back into the worn chair. His eyes closed for a moment. Soon his voice broke the quiet, begining with the story of the room. “The library is a well known place. It was built hundreds of years ago, in a time where only the very wealthy had access to books and proper education. It was to be a center of learning. A haven for the scholarly people of the world. Class didn’t matter to the founder of the library, a man we know only as The Teacher. The Teacher came to this hidden valley with the purpose of building this place. This particular part of the library,” he said, sweeping his arm around, including the whole room in his story, “was actually here when he arrived. A simple looking tower from the outside, he thought to attach the library to it. He’d thought the tower could serve as living quarters. When you leave here today, you’ll go look at it from the outside, just as I did when I was first invited into this room. It looks so normal. The Teacher thought so too. Until he came in here. You see, someone had already begun what The Teacher had come to do. There were already bookcases here. Nothing so expansive as what is here today, mind you. And there were already books here too. This room was so much more though, as The Teacher soon found. The more books he added, the more room there was for them. The room expanded to fit his ever growing collection. He knew then he had found something very special and very magical. So he went forward with his plans for the library, building it on to the tower. Adding the stained glass windows, making the building feel almost like a church.”
         “He did very well. It feels holy every time I come to visit.”
         “Time passed and The Teacher continued collecting books," the man continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Adding more to both this room and the library itself. Then one day, while working in here he discovered something amazing. He was on a ladder, looking for a specific book, it wasn’t where he’d thought it was. As he looked around he found it, just out of reach. As he strained toward it, arm outstretched, he said, joking, ‘Get over here book.’ To his shock, the book flew off the shelf and into his hand. Now, he knew the room to be magical, but to be able to do magic in the room, when he couldn’t do magic anywhere else, that was special. So he put a door on the room, making it private. He feared what would happen to the haven he’d created should the outside would find out the special powers this room held. As he neared his death, he appointed a guardian for the room. A person who only job was to look after this room and protect its secrets. A long line of people have followed that first person, his daughter Sarah. Every guardian knows when there turn is over. The room, the libray, picks the each guardian. I was told just a few days ago that you were to be mine."
         “What? Told by whom? And why me? I’m just a simple, normal person. I’m nothing special, just a school teacher. I’m not worthy of such a great trust.”
         “Oh, I’ve seen you Sophia. You’re not normal. I’ve see you reach for a book, just like The Teacher once did, and call it too you. You’ve got magic without this room. You’re the one this room needs now in these troubled times.”
         “I…I…I didn’t think anyone saw me doing that. I’ve spent my life hiding what I can do. Times are different than they were when this place was built. I’m a freak outside these walls. If the government knew what I can do, I’d end up in a lab somewhere, cut into bits and studied under microscopes. I just want to be a person here. Study in the library. Teach Literature at the school. Feed my cat. Walk by the sea. I don’t want to be someone with magic. I don’t want to be a guardian.”
         “Do you know who your parents are, Sophia?”
         If the abrupt change of subject startled her she didn’t show it, “No. I was abandoned as a baby. I’ve never been able to find out anything about them.”
         “You could find them here.”
         “What? How?”
         “Answers are often hidden where you least expect them. The might just be hidden in a magical room of a library that looks like a church.” He rose stiffly to his feet, coming around the desk. “I’ll let you think about what I’ve said here. You take your time. Come back when you are ready to talk more. I’m sure you will be once you’re processed all you’ve found out.”
         She rose, following him to the door. “Wait, you never told me why I was chosen.”
         “That my dear is not something you’re ready to hear yet. Trust me.” He opened the door, gently guiding her out. “Think. All you’ve learned today will help you to understand why.”
         The door closed as she turned, mouth open, ready to ask him why once again. She stood for a moment, glaring at the door, then she sighed. As she walked out of the library her mind was filled with all he’d told her. As she stepped outside she was surprised to see the morning gone. She felt she’d only been in the room for a few moments, but judging by the position of the sun she’d been in there for several hours.
         “What a strange day,” she told herself as she turned her car up the road toward town. As she rounded a hill leaving the valley she stopped, pulling to the side of the road. She got out and looked back toward the small, tree filled valley. Thick green trees where everywhere, patches of grass peaking though in random places. From time to time the dark gray ribbon of the road could be seen winding through the forest. Across the valley she could see the road rise up once more and drop below another hill, into another valley. Her eyes dropped back down to the valley, searching until they came to rest on the library. The blue gray slate room stood out above the trees. The walls of soft gray stone with the bright patches of the beautiful windows caught the afternoon sun, shining softly. Yes, from this point it did look like a church. But the tower, on the right side at the back, seemed to not quite fit the rest of the building. It seemed more to be a part of the valley than the library. It was as if it had risen up out of the ground, just happening to come up next to the library. She turned her back on the site, looking toward the town instead. The collection of brightly colored houses and shops clung to a hillside, marking the main part of town. More buildings sprawled out behind, slowly getting further and further apart, changing from neighborhoods into scattered farm houses. Not far from the town, the hillside dropped away into low cliffs that lead to the sea. From her vantage point she couldn’t see the pebble strewn beach below the cliff, but she knew even now there would be people there, walking dogs, playing in the waves. Wanting to go to the beach, but knowing she needed to home and grade papers, she climbed slowly back into her car.