Funny How Life Works 7
Okay readers! I just popped the movie in, and I have my copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by my side, let's see how this goes…
-Rebec's POV-
Walking up to the battered old wooden doors, I pushed them open, revealing the musky, curtain-windowed, dusty library.
I felt as if I had just arrived home.
Looking around, I saw the pretty girl from the car behind the reception desk. She was on the phone, a large, black, hand cranking machine, and was talking excitedly to someone on the other end.
Not wanting to interrupt her avid conversation, I tip-toed past her and the desk, eager to find my way to the fiction center and grab a new fairy-tale for Zacky. I myself wanted to set my hands on that juicy new copy of Oliver Twist.
The library already had a version of the tale of the orphaned boy, but it was so beat up if you opened to the first page, the rest of the novel fell to pieces.
And that's without having to try and read it, but you get my point, so I'll just leave it at that.
Setting Rapunzel, last night's story aside, I wandered my way around the enormous bookshelves. Titles of my favorites stood out, like A Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick, Great Expectations, King Solomon's Mines, and even Little Women.
But right now I wasn't into the classics, no, I was looking for the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Hansel and Gretel, and Cinderella.
Surprisingly for a boy, Zacky loved the fairytales of older times full of magic and adventure, and sometimes a little romance. (Like Cinderella and Rapunzel)
I can still hear our discussion after finishing King Arthur.
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"Becky," I looked up at him from the cover of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. "I wanna be just like Arthur when I grow up. I want to find a Camelot and rule it alongside my best followers."
"You can be whatever you want to be Zacky." I said smiling up at him from the closed cover.
"And you'll come along with me won't you?" He opened his eyes up wide, giving me a pleading gaze.
I sighed, but kept smiling. "What use will I be to such a great king, Zacky? I can't be your queen, 'cuz I'm your sister, and I can't very well be a brave knight either because I'm a girl." I paused. "So you tell me, what can I be to you?"
Thinking for a moment, he came up with his answer. "You can be whatever you want to be, Becky!"
"Well then… How about I be…" I trailed off. "Head of Security. That way I'm close to you and your knights and I can do what I do best, defense."
His eyes went wide. "Oh, that's great! Why didn't I think of that? I'm supposed to be king, so I have to come up with all the good ideas!"
The few clocks we had around the house chimed nine bells then: nine o'clock.
I grabbed him and held him close, hugging him to my chest. "There's plenty of time for that Zacky, but right now, it's time to go to bed."
He grumbled and wormed him way out of my grip, getting ready to go to sleep. Tucking himself in, he fell into dreams full of knights on shining steeds and rescuing princesses to his hearts delight.
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Sighing to myself, I heard someone sneeze at the end of the aisle with a big "AH-CHOO". Jumping slightly in instinct, I turned to see who it was.
Peering from around the shelf furthest away, was the lady from the desk.
"Oh, hello there! I didn't mean to scare you, this library's just so dusty, sometimes I can't keep myself from sneezing." She smiled, walked over to me, and held out her hand. "I'm Kristie Kirke, the new librarian working here."
Hesitating for just a moment, I took her in. She didn't seem like she meant any harm, and if she worked in my safe haven then it would be wise to trust her.
"Rebec Barron, I come here to read a lot." I replied, shaking her hand.
"Rebec?" She paused. "Is that short for Rebecca?"
"Yeah," I let go of her hand. "I don't like Rebecca, so people just call me Rebec."
"Well then, since you're here so often, I think you'll agree with me that this place needs a bit of cleaning up. I mean, look around, there's dust everywhere!" She pulled aside one of the curtains, letting a blast of sunlight burst through the window. Along with the light, came an explosion of dust, proving her point.
Gazing around for the first real time, I found she was right. Scattered all over everything were piles of dust, which you couldn't see at all in the dark.
"Yeah," I agreed. "This place does need a good cleaning."
She chuckled. "I'm glad you think so too, I plan to give this old place a make-over! Starting with all of this disgusting dust!"
Walking away, I watched her as she crept along between the shelves. Silently, I had an internal debate with myself, before sliding the book I was holding back on the shelf and catching up with her.
"Do you need any help?"
-Lucy's POV-
"Hissssh!"
Peter slid open the cabin door with a hiss. Hustling me inside, he took my suitcase and pushed it atop a rack that hung over the seats.
He went to help Ed too, but with Ed being the moody brother he is, he shook away Peter and hefted his bag up all by himself. He's always been cranky like that since Dad went away to the war. Dad had a soft spot for Ed and gave him special attention, but when he went away, the Edmund I knew did too.
I tried to look around the cabin, but at that moment, the train passed through a tunnel, and so the whole compartment was filled with darkness for a few minutes.
When the black had receded again, it revealed two other kids just like us. One was a girl older than me, but younger than Edmund. She wore a reddish-brown hat and coat, with a red plaid collar poking out of a white sweater. The other was a boy, younger than me, in a grey coat, a white shirt, and a grey tie.
Sitting down in the seat across from them and next to grumpy Ed, who was looking out the window, I played with my stuffed puppy Mum had let me bring along. Peter sat alongside the two children, and they seemed a little intimidated by him.
"His name is Scruffy," I spoke, mostly to the boy, in spite of my usual shyness. "Would you like to play with him?"
He gave a small sad smile, before shaking his head and sinking into the seat. I think he did want to play with Scruffy, but was just too timid to say so.
After a few long hours, it became early afternoon, and the train stopped for a moment.
"Goosey station. Goosey station!" Someone, probably a conductor, announced.
The two other children stood up and grabbed what little they had to carry. I felt bad to see them off, but when they exited the cabin, the unknown tension seemed to relax.
Peering around Edmund, I silently watched them as they were taken away by some very grumpy old people. They looked so sad, I wanted to run out and demand that those adults leave them alone. But, I couldn't, all I could do was watch, and so the children were carted away by the old people like animals.
Peter, seemingly glad the other two had gone away, settled himself across the now empty seat and began to read a book.
I found myself relaxing a bit more too, and soon I was cuddled into Edmund. He didn't seem to like me being there, but he let me stay that way nonetheless.
The train kept pushing on, and the minutes kept ticking away until finally we came to our stop. Trying to get everything together at the last second, we almost missed getting off, but we made it just in time. And the train sped away, leaving us stranded at what could hardly be considered a station.
All it was was a wooden deck. With a few scattered white walls along the sides, it waited for us, completely empty of people.
"HONK HONK!" A car spluttered in the distance.
Racing each other down the small flight of stairs, we made a dash for the road, hoping with all our might that it was the people come to take care of us. I wished they were nice, but as long as they didn't make us work like slaves, I was happy.
Sadly, our hopes were for nothing and the black bumper car sped past, still blaring his horn, and leaving us sprayed with mud behind.
Blinking in astonishment, we stood there like idiots for quite some time.
"The Professor knew we were coming." Susan said.
"Perhaps we were incorrectly labeled." Edmund wondered aloud, almost seeming happy about it.
It was only a few seconds later when we got our answer, in the form of a white horse trotting up the road to the station.
"C'mon HUP!"
The horse was pulling a small carriage driven by a stern lady with a whip.
"And whoa, whoa." The horse stopped at the lady's command.
"Mrs. Macready?" Peter asked hesitantly.
"I'm afraid so." She sounded like she had a sense of humor, but with her back sitting up ramrod straight and her sour expression, she sure didn't look like it.
Edmund cracked a smile out of the corner of my eye; he would be up to no good while we were here.
"Is this it then? Haven't you brought anything else?" Her face softened, but just a little.
"No Ma'am." Peter spoke the bitter truth. "It's just us."
I nodded, backing him up, and Mrs. Macready pityingly gazed at us. "Small favors." She motioned for us to get in the back of the carriage. When we had, she set off to our new "home".
-Rebec's POV-
I never realized just how big the library was, until I started helping Kristie.
She was a happy worker, always humming or singing as she dusted and scrubbed. And sometimes she would ask me questions about myself. I managed to skirt around the ones involving family, excepting Zacky. She loved hearing about him and wanted to meet him as soon as his school let out for the day.
It wasn't until the church bells tolled 3:00 that I realized something was wrong. Zacky usually got here to help me pick out the next book around 2:50 p.m. and he wasn't here yet.
Peeking out the window at the front, I peered out to try and look for him. Luckily, he was just on the sidewalk, but unluckily, "Dickie" was out there too.
Richard and his band of gorillas had managed to get a hold of Zacky's book-bag and were holding it above his head and making him jump for it. It was a vicious game of cat-and-mouse; Richard always kept the bag just out of reach and his posse circled around him, cheering him on.
Letting out a little gasp that made Kristie look up in concern, I raced out the door and onto the sidewalk.
I saw nothing but red.
Racing blind with rage, I sprinted towards the first bully in sight. Before either him, or the others could blink, I had him down on the ground clutching a crimson nose.
Ignoring the others, I snatched "Dickie" by the collar of his shirt and looked him straight in the eyes.
"H-h-hey l-l-look who decided to show up, it's Reject!" He managed to stammer, nervously.
"Put Zacky's book-bag down." I ordered. When he didn't, I clenched his collar tighter in my fist and gave him my best evil-eye.
The bag dropped to my feet a second later.
Aside of me, I heard Zacky picked it up and slung it over his shoulder.
"Listen up, you!" I yelled in Richard's face, even though he was right in front of me. "You can pick on me all you want, but if you mess with my little brother ever again, I'm gonna knock your block off. You hear me?"
He nodded his head so fast, it looked like it was a blur.
Adding to the affect, Zacky crossed his arms and gave "Dickie" his best glower.
Releasing him, I gave him a punch to the gut for good measure.
"Now scram! All of you!" I pointed away from the library, and they ran off like a flock of startled birds.
Once the bullies were out of sight, Zacky said. "Thanks Becky."
I grabbed him into a hug until he complained. "Becky let me go."
"Come on, there is someone who wants to meet you." I motioned towards the library.
Excitedly, he bounded up the steps and I followed, purposely ignoring the open stares from the window.