Christina Edwards would describe herself as her teachers would have: "just a typically good well-rounded New York City 17 year-old."

Christina Edwards lived in the Flatbush neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City and her parents, Roberta Edwards and Keith Edwards, owned an Italian deli shop. She had lived on the floor above this deli shop her entire life. Due to this fact, Christina Edwards was therefore born and bred New Yorker and she was quite proud of that fact. Never had she been embarrassed by her accent or for her love of a good morning bagel and she was very boastful of her well-trained and acquired skill for navigating the complex subway system.

Her teachers liked Christina. As she had mentioned earlier they thought she was "well-rounded." Christina scored pretty average grades at her New York City high school, but she was rather skilled at track and field and she did know how to play the clarinet though she felt pretty neutral about that particular instrument. Plus, when she wasn't involved at school she was almost always helping out her parents at the deli shop selling sandwiches, making salads, or coffee and whatever other formalities occur at you know- a deli shop. And because she was so involved at her school and she had an adult part time job the teachers had bestowed upon her the title : "well-rounded." Christina thought it was a nice enough thing to be called.

Though for all of Christina's "well-roundedness," she did have one particular trait that made her stand out from the other kids her age: she loved to read and almost always had her nose in a book. She was currently reading Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. However, because she was always reading Christina really didn't have that many friends at school. Sure she had some- well, there was that boy she tutored in English (if you could count that as a friend at all) and well, there was the girl on the track team oh, what was her name- Emily something that was sometimes nice to her. Well, alright. Christina Edwards hadn't exactly won the High School Popularity Contest but her New York City school was big enough that she could just kind of blend into the background and go unnoticed. Except she couldn't go unnoticed by her teachers of course because they liked her "well-roundedness."

There was the issue of Mrs. Pevensie. Mrs. Pevensie was maybe around 30 years old and used to live in England but she moved to New York to study Russian Literature at Barnard College. Mrs. Pevensie was very keen on enhancing and encouraging Christina's literary talents and had been asking Christina to submit a piece of work to a writing competition.

Christina liked Mrs. Pevensie well enough and thought she was a nice and intelligent teacher, but she sometimes just wanted to be left alone with her books and not write them.

These were the morning thoughts racing through Christina Edward's mind as she hopped on a Subway train downtown to make a trip to her favorite bookstore. No- she hadn't yet finished reading Jane Eyre but she knew she would need another book at the ready for when she was finished with it.

Christina's favorite bookstore was a small independent store located on the corner of 800 Broadway Street it was called Currents and was owned by this old Polish man named Mr. Kowalski who had a graying beard and these ever -peculiar misting grey eyes. Christina liked the shop because the books were decently priced and so far she had never been disappointed by the recommendations that Mr. Kowalski gave her.

Christina wasn't entirely sure what kind of book she was interested but maybe she wanted to read some more work by Charlotte Bronte. So, she passed the familiar overflowing trashcans on the sidewalk and the hair salon as well as the one Irish pub until she rounded the corner and could see the run down sign pointing to Currents. She could see Mr. Kowalski hard at work at his big mahogany desk pouring over some papers and seeming to keep tabs or track of something- most like the inventory of his books. Christina went ahead and opened the door to the bookstore.

Mr. Kowalski looked up at her and smiled in delight when he saw her.

"Christina!" He said excitedly. And quickly put away his spectacles into a checkered shirt pocket and emerged from behind the desk.

"Hello Mr. Kowalski," Christina said, "I thought I'd stop by to pick up another book."

Mr. Kowalski looked down at Christina hand that was still holding unto a copy of Jane Eyre. He shook his head.

"You still haven't finished the book you have there!" He pointed but raised his hands in the air, "But who am I to turn down a sale, what do you have in mind for another read dear?"

"I was thinking something also a bit in the same genre as Jane Eyre what about Wuthering Heights?" Christina suggested. Mr. Kowalski shook his head vigorously.

"No, no, no, no," He said much to Christina's surprise, "What are you- a University English major? No you're a kid so have some fun. Why don't you ever read any fantasy? Have you heard of the Lord of the Rings?"

Christina rolled her eyes. Mr. Kowalski had been trying to get Christina to read fantasy forever but for some reason she just could never get into it. Usually he wasn't so insistent about pushing her to read it but it seemed he was in a bit of a mood today.

"I appreciate the thought," Christina said, "But I'd like to stick to the classics."

Mr. Kowalski grunted and disappeared behind the stacks and stacks of books. Christina jumped when she heard a big curplunk and thump from the back of the room and could only imagine it was Mr. Kowalski throwing books on the ground to get to Wuthering Heights. At last he emerged from the paper jungle of book stacks but in hands he was holding two books. He brought them over to the cash register to ring Christina out.

"Now before you protest," Mr. Kowalski said "I'll give you the Bronte book but you should really take a look at J.R.R. Tolkein- he's a legend. Now, my favorite is actually The Hobbit and I'm going to give it to you for free so you can't refuse to at least take the thing." He started to type away at the type- writer.

"But Mr. Kowalski that's fine really-" Christina interjected and stopped when Mr. Kowalski raised his hand.

"What else are you going to do on this Saturday afternoon?" Mr. Kowalski asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"I have track and field practice," Christina answered "and maybe I'll be meeting my English teacher later."

"What for?" Mr. Kowalski inquired.

"She wants me to start writing or something, " Christina shrugged, "I don't know if I can commit to anything though with running season."

Just as Christina finished her sentence she could hear the rain outside the bookstore begin to pour.

"Well," Christina continued as she took the book bag from and headed out the door, "I should probably go-"

Christina looked down as Mr. Kowalski grabbed Christina's wrist. She was taken aback. There seemed to be something wrong with his peculiar grey eyes too- they gleamed with a kind of intensity.

"Read The Hobbit," Mr. Kowalski said in a slightly raspy voice, "It will guide you through everything."

Feeling a little disturbed at Mr. Kowalski's words, Christina shook her wrist loose from his grip. Mr. Kowalski shook his head and his eyes went back to normal. Not knowing what to do, Christina ran out the door and didn't look back when she heard Mr. Kowalski calling her name.

Christina managed to catch the Q train back to the deli shop just in time and tried to make sense of what had just occurred at the bookstore. She hoped Mr. Kowalski was feeling alright but she was quite startled by that interaction nonetheless and she decided that maybe she should avoid the bookstore for a little bit there was always the New York City library she could go to – one of the best public libraries in the world- and she could even go exploring for new bookstores. Still unable to stop thinking about Mr. Kowalski's preoccupation with The Hobbit Christina finally reached into her bag and pulled out the book and flipped to the first page.

Christina started to read the first few pages of The Hobbit and was introduced to Bilbo Baggins and his hobbit hole but as was expected she just couldn't get into the fantasy novel. She sighed aloud on the train and put it back in the bag.

As she got off the train and started heading home she couldn't help but wonder about what a peculiar day it had been and about all the peculiar things that have happened to her. Little did Christina know that this was only the beginning of the peculiar happenings.