Chapter 1
Carmen Stevenson’s weathered hands swept along one of the many bookshelves that filled the hallway of Alex’s house. There was nothing else but books in every room of the house, which is why some people called it a library, but – in fact – it was in no way like a library. It wasn’t neatly organised, there were no order or arrangement to the books, the books had no names, or authors, and – most of all – it was definitely not open to the public.
“I hired a skip to chuck them all away, but something stopped me from taking them out of the door.”
Carmen stopped in her step. “I see your problem exactly, Mr Jetson.”
“Well what are you going to do?”
“I’ll hire a skip for next Thursday.” Then she continued her speedy walk down the corridor.
“You don’t understand,” he picked up his speed into a steady jog, managing to stop her at the top of the stairs. “you can’t take them out with a skip, I tried that and they wouldn’t let me out of the door!”
“They?”
He hesitated. “The books.”
She gave a loud snort and opened the front door. “Well I’m trying the skip anyway.”
He tried to hide his smirk. “If a professional wrestler can’t carry a load of books into a skip, then I don’t think you can, Mrs Stevenson.”
“Excuse me? Wrestler?”
“I started lessons last month…”
“Professional?”
“I have an axe.”
Mrs Stevenson flinched. “I don’t think you understand the concept of wrestling, dear.”
He was just about to reply, but was silenced by the sound of the door slamming in his face.
