A Sacrifice of Names

Chapter 1

"That is my name, yes?"

"Then I got a parcel for you, miss."

Moving away from the door phone for a second or two Earie allowed a soft chuckle to flee past her lips. He was certainly not the first who seemed to struggle with the pronunciation of her name. A new guy, obviously. Pity, she had actually really liked the old one. It had only taken him four tries before he got her name right. At least her last name, Fiddes, remained fairly easy to pronounce.

"Of course. Can you just leave it by the door?"

"Will do, nice day."

She smiled but did not bother replying before quickly turning off the intercom. Her socks, Earie's eyes darted across the floor to locate them.

Adulting could be dreadful, sometimes.

Two stairs down, two stairs up. All for a small box. It were times like these that the brunette chided herself for ever having given up on that gym subscription. But how else was she going to pay her school fees? Students never were that lucky, and the opportunity of a part-time job hadn't yet presented itself to her. Time was scarce.

Running up and down the stairs was worth it, though.

Inside the box was another book from her parents, with a small note attached. It had gotten a bit of a bi-monthly tradition to send her a gift ever since they had moved to another continent two years ago. Her mother had begged her to join them, but by then Earie had already been living on her own for almost three years. She hadn't been too keen on changing universities either. She could have, easily perhaps even. Earie had always been told she was a good student and a quick learner. An ideal doctor, her father had always joked, but Earie had never felt any interest in studying something she knew would disinterest her in the long term.

Books. As cliche as it sounded, that was exactly where her interests laid. However, knowing that she would probably end up in a stuffy library somewhere Earie decided at a young age she wasn't too keen on being employed under someone else who would boss her around all day either. And although she had dreamt of becoming a writer as a child, whenever she sat in front of her laptop the words just wouldn't come to her. Sadly this was also the case with those dreadful essays she was forced to write almost weekly. No career as a novelist either, that much was obvious. She had never dared to call herself creative.

Thus she had decided to pursue a masters degree in management sciences. Who knew? She didn't dream too big, but what would be more lovely than to open up a chain of small bookstores some day.

Well, if she ever got the funds for it.

A hint of a smile danced on her lips as she flipped through the pages, taking in that distinctive smell. The book looked old enough, and was written in a language she wouldn't even bother to decipher, but it would definitely look amazing on her shelves, that was for sure.

✒

"Hi Mom, the book just came in." Earie stared at the screen on her phone, despite the lack of video from her parents. It was the internet connection, they always told her. Not altogether surprising knowing they had bought themselves an old farm somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

"Oh wonderful, how do you like it?"

"It looks amazing. No clue what it is about, but the cover looks absolutely stunning." She ran her fingers across it. It felt so delicate. It had probably already seen some owners judging by its age, but remained in great shape.

"We found it here at one of the markets and immediately knew you would love it. According to your father it is an old history book of the region here, should you ever be interested in looking up a translation."