I was sitting in the old writer, Fengolio's room. He was snoring loudly on his bed and I was sketching a fairy with a pencil I was given from Nikky a few months before. The calm, blue fairy that was modeling for me rested on a stack of papers. I paused to assess my drawing. I was getting better, I liked how the fairy's hair shined, I tried to create the same effect on the drawing, I was just having trouble trying to make her proportional, and somehow create the blue aura that she had.

When my pencil met with the paper again, I felt a strange vibration coming from my pocket, I panicked. There had been a lot of dangerous looking bugs around the area recently, I took a long deep breath, then smacked my pocket with enough force to kill a rock. I quickly received a pain in my hand and hip bone feeling the hard smooth shape of my cell phone. I sighed, a bit embarrassed of myself. I picked up my phone and read the text.

Hey Meggie! School just ended for the year, can I come over?

I smiled, I love it when Nikky and Farid come into the book from "reality". That may sound weird to anyone who hasn't actually read Inkheart, and for some people who have read Inkheart and have no idea why Farid isn't already in the book. It's a bit complicated.

Anyways, After I read the text I opened one of the drawers under the desk I was sitting at, pulled out the paper again, read over it a couple of times in my head, and finally read the words aloud. I didn't listen to myself say the words, but the sound of them, like music, I find that the power works a lot better when the words flow off of the page, into me, and then out again to make the words real. Nikky and Farid slipped through the pages of Inkheart and flowed into the room like the words did.

I got up and hugged Nikky, then Farid, "I missed you guys so much!" It's not that Doria is boring or something, I mean come on, he's my boyfriend, it's just that he is the only person in the book, besides them, that's about the same age as me, and Nikky is the only friend I have that's a girl besides my mom and Fengolio's landlady.

"We missed you too! I haven't seen you since spring break!" Nikky was smiling as wide as I was, "Farid took me to the dance!" Farid blushed.

"It was pretty fun actually," Farid said, embarrassed.

I laughed, I couldn't imagine Farid actually dancing. "Did you bring any books? I read through the last few that you gave me."

"Yeah, I brought To Kill a Mockingbird, Eragon, Rot and Ruin, and also..." Nikky dug through her bag, she quickly found what she was looking for, pulling it out she said, "Van Gogh, a Retrospective," the last book was very large, about a foot and a half tall, a width of about a foot, and it seemed to be about 5 inches thick.

"You carried that in your bag?" I asked, very surprised that the bag didn't come apart.

"Yeah, it wasn't very easy," She said, opening up the book, "it has pretty much every single detail ever recorded of Vincent Van Gogh, er, not every piece," regretfully, she continued, "it doesn't contain all of Vincent's letters, but it has a ton of quotations directly from them," she started flipping through the book, I saw glimpses of colors and figures from pages that showed different paintings and drawings, "read this!" She pointed to a section of the book and handed it to me.

The words she handed me swayed, I could tell that they were fighting the boundary of the paper, they sang out in a kind of desperation to be read aloud, so I did.

"Once back here I too still felt very saddened, and had continued to feel the storm that threatens you also weighing upon me. What can be done – you see I usually try to be quite good-humoured, but my life, too, is attacked at the very root, my step also is faltering. I feared – not completely – but a little nonetheless – that I was a danger to you, living at your expense – but Jo's letter clearly proves to me that you really feel that for my part I am working and suffering like you.

There – once back here I set to work again – the brush however almost falling from my hands and – knowing clearly what I wanted I've painted another three large canvases since then. They're immense stretches of wheatfields under turbulent skies, and I made a point of trying to express sadness, extreme loneliness. You'll see this soon, I hope – for I hope to bring them to you in Paris as soon as possible, since I'd almost believe that these canvases will tell you what I can't say in words, what I consider healthy and fortifying about the countryside."

The words had lifted off of the page like someone long asleep rising from their bed. Nikky, Farid, and I just looked at the ground, in awe of the words, someone tapped my shoulder.

I turned slowly, trying not to let the feeling that the words gave fade, I faced the person behind me, I wasn't really registering who the person was, it just seemed like a figure, nothing compared to the words, so I turned back to the letter, watching the freed words dance on the page.

"Excuse me madam," I heard a soft Dutch-accented voice behind me.

Annoyed at the intrusion, I turned around again, this time looking at the man behind me. He was tall, red headed, an orange beard and mustache, his eyes somewhere between blue and green. He also had freckles, which greatly contrasted with the rest of his appearance. He wore a blue canvas jacket that fit him in an odd way, every article of clothing was stained with bright blues, yellows, and reds, creating patterns that in themselves could be considered great works of art. Last, I noticed that one of his ears was missing a great chunk.

I could have guessed who he was because of the letter I just read, or his appearance, or the fact that there were three wet paintings in the room, but I couldn't believe it. I had no idea what this meant. I had always read aloud from fiction, I could transport people in the current time, I had never read something out of the past, let alone someone who had been dead for so many years. "Vincent?" I asked, hoping there had been some mistake.

"How do you know my name?" A look of confusion crossed his face, as he had no idea where he was.