The Experience of Being Alive

Chapter Five

"I know it's only my second day, but I think I'm getting used to this," Binny said as the whoosh of the book closing punctuated her entrance back into the Library. She'd even managed to catch the book in both hands. She used it to punctuate her sentence.

Binny and Hermione had appeared in a room that was completely round. It was not the room in which they'd entered their books that morning. Packed bookshelves went all the way up to the very top of the domed ceiling, coming short only by a couple of feet where a circle in the exact center of the dome was covered in stained glass. The colored panes of glass depicted a book with wings.

"Well, you'll have plenty of practice, so there's no need to be in such a rush to get good at it," Hermione said.

"You've got a lot of practice, don't you," Binny said quietly to Hermione as Arya and Katniss whooshed into existence.

Hermione looked at Binny for a moment looking like she was thinking of what to say. "I guess." And then, "We should get going."

Binny trailed the three girls trying not to lose them in the thick crowd of characters whooshing out of their books everywhere one looked. When the spectacle of characters popping out of books in a library the size of a small city had become commonplace for Binny, she wasn't sure. That said, in her book Binny had a sister with a superpower. Binny wasn't certain which of her lives was stranger.

Not only had Binny started to get used to the peculiar practices in the Stacks, but she'd even started thinking about what she did every day in The Madrona Heroes Register as going 'inside' rather than going 'home' as she'd first thought of it.

When Binny was inside, she had no memory of the Stacks, but when she was in the Stacks she could remember everything that happened inside.

Whoosh! A couple of aisles to Binny's right, a thin boy popped into existence. It was Michel, from the previous night's communal meal; the boy whose clam design was dumped by his tablemates. He looked just as miserable as he had the previous evening. Binny wanted to talk to him.

Binny decided to take a risk. It felt strange, like she was doing something that was out of character. But then nothing she did in this place felt quite like her.

"Hey, Hermione." Binny grabbed Hermione's shoulder before she disappeared into the crowd in front of her. "I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?"

"But, what about dinner? And finding your way back?" Hermione said.

Binny tried to keep an eye on the boy as she spoke to Hermione. He'd let his book drop to the floor. "I'll just look for the door home and I'll find it right?" Binny said hurriedly.

"I guess so. If you're sure." Hermione seemed unconvinced.

"I can do it. I promise. Go on without me. I'll see you before dinner," Binny said.

Hermione thought for a second, "OK. But don't' be too long." Hermione took one last look and then turned on her heel to follow Katniss and Arya who had already started heading out.

Binny waited another second making sure Hermione wasn't watching and rushed over to where the boy was, but he was already gone. Binny rescued the book from the floor right before it was about to be trampled by a succession of characters. Binny didn't think One would approve of just leaving a book on the floor.

Binny surveyed the crowd and saw the boy, Michel, heading towards a staircase. Binny tucked his book against her chest and followed.

Binny wasn't quite sure why she'd decided to follow the boy. He seemed sad certainly, but what could she really do about it? He was sixteen, and she was ten. He probably would think of her as a kid. And doubly so, since she'd just appeared in the Stacks a day earlier. Though, who knew how long he'd been here. Binny trailed the boy.