She is a book. A fantastical, whimsical book bound with leather, with gold inscriptions and designs swirling around the cover and spine. A bright blue page holder made of the silkiest ribbon peeks out of the top, pull on it and the book opens. The page specifically marked is chapter thirteen, entitled: "Yellow Stockings and Red Fezzes".
Around the chapter title swirls images of yellow and red. Her text is mesmorising, you only have to read the words to be dipped into her river of interesting things. So read them, but first flip to the title page. Flipping the pages, the scent of peppermint drifts up. The scent of the mysterious book pulls you in even more, and you are staring face to face with the title. A title that cannot be read.
It's made of circles, and lines representing numbers, letters and punctuation in a language long lost, from a world burned to ashes. Now flip back through the chapters, and explore to your hearts desire. Walk along the lines of the margins, run your fingers across the doodles of that long lost language, and immerse yourself in the story. She doesn't mind you peeking in for a while, after all, she is a book. A lonely book in a library the size of a planet, it's such a silent place. Four thousand people saved there, and she tells the story of it all.
She recounts in first person how everything happened, how she came to be in this world of books. Read on, read on. Caress the words lain neatly in rows, take time to understand them. She tells the story of it all.
Go to chapter one: "Man & Box". Its her favorite, she loves telling that story, she loves it when she can talk about him. She didn't know him, she wanted to know him, but she saw him and his adventures. She still sees them, they are her childhood. Her mind still plays amongst the dreams, wandering through the stars forever. She will gift you the knowledge of him, in which his story sings of burning suns and ice stars drifting through space, and shakespeare! Now she's got you wondering. I was wondering too. Well then, listen if you will, but listen through dreams.
She is real, but only on that silent planet with the four thousand who were saved. She is one of them. She is one of the books who tell a story, not yet old enough to be stuffy, and over read. She is the story of an impossible fairytale.
Now onto another chapter. "Here", she calls it. Its quite different from everything else. It is not a story of adventure, but a story of work. It is a story about her time here, with us, among us. It's funny though, both in humor and in reality. The story is still playing out. She is living it, right now, free from the lines of time. We are fortunate enough to have her here, as a book, in our minds. She was like us once, happy, and full of visible life, but those are spoilers. On the chance you see the yellow stockings or the red fez, be sure to say hello and tell her what a story she will be.
Now turn to another chapter, this is the last chapter. Eighty three chapters have gone by, eighty three stories, eighty three tragedies, and this is the last. The eighty fourth chapter is simple, so simple you see, that the title is just a readers thought at the end of any good book. Thats it. She doesn't like endings, but sadly if she hadn't written one, she wouldn't be here, safe and sound, legacy preseved. This eighty fourth chapter, story, tragedy is six words. Six words only, but it is unsettling. Unsettling thoughts in this silent library are not permitted, but they haven't found her yet. So take heed of her words before they disappear:
Beware the dark,
that is all.