True Colors

16. A Journal

The boy rolled his eyes, "Same thing." But his friend seemed very interested. 

"The point Is," Crystal said, "this belonged to someone living during that time. It could be really helpful. The last entry isn't too far from the end, so it must be packed with information." 

Kira politely took the journal and passed her hand over the cover. There was a part of it in the middle, popping up ever so slightly. A glass oval, looking like a locket of some sort. But there was nothing showing through the glass, as it was just a glossy black. The cover itself was a dark muted blue, almost teal colored soft leather, with an intricately engraved border starting near the edges and traveling in toward the center where the oval was, but not touching it. The glass had a metal border of its own, and on one side, looked a little strange. An indent and a cut going through the design. Straight down, and extending out into a square piece separated from the rest of it.

She opened to the slightly browned and tattered paper. "No name. If only we could find out who this belonged to." 

"How would that help us? We got info, let's get out of here." Jake started inching away from the girls toward the entrance, hoping they would follow. 

"Not so fast," The older female stopped him. "We still need to check out. And hopefully, if we play our cards right, they'll let us keep it."

They shuffled their way to the librarian's desk And slid it toward her. "We'd like to check this out please," Kira shot the lady her friendliest smile. She glanced at the name tag sign on the desk. Miriam. She looked back at the woman, bringing back the bright grin. 

Miriam had medium toned reddish brown hair, that curled up and didn't go past her chin. It puffed out, giving her head somewhat of a mushroom appearance. She looked quite stylish with her detailed blouse, makeup, jewelry and pointy wine colored fingernails that demanded attention. Miriam seemed to have a very autumnal pallet. The woman looked to be about in her forties. She reached up and looked over the dark red frame of her pointy cat-eyed glasses, setting them slightly lower on her nose.

"This book," she started, "shouldn't have been in the 'books to check out' sections of this library." Crystal made herself look busy by picking at her nails and looking anywhere but in the direction of the desk.

"Ohh, really? That's weird..." Kira stammered. 

The librarian slid the book toward herself and flipped through it. "Why would you even want this? It's basically a diary."

Jake puffed his cheeks and snorted. "Told you" he said quietly. 

"No author to speak of," She shut it again. "And no title either,"

"I just thought it looked interesting" Kira looked to the side and grabbed her upper arm nervously, furrowing her eyebrows slightly. 

Miriam sighed and shook her head, pressing her heavily made up dark lips together. "I don't even know how you got your hands on this. It was brought in a while ago, but it looks like the thing should be in a museum or something."

"Oh, Miriam, let her have the book." An older woman with shockingly frosty dark grey hair made her presence known. She glided over and swiped the book up elegantly. She had blue, almost grey eyes, and her hair was straight, reaching the middle of her back. The woman didn't seem  take her appearance into as much consideration as did her friend, yet, she had such a natural beauty in her face and a welcoming aura in the way she presented herself. 

An irritated sigh escaped Miriam's lips as she pressed her finger tips into her temple. "Carol, there is absolutely no reason anyone other than someone related to the person it belonged to should have it."

Carol looked straight at Kira and smiled warmly. "Here you go, hon. You can keep it." She handed her the journal and turned to Miriam. "It's not like we have anything to do with that book anyway. Lighten up." 

"Thank you so much," Shiro held the book close and glanced quickly at her friends, smiling. 

The older woman nodded and observed Kira with kind wintry eyes. "You all run along now."

The three of them scuttled out of the front doors and started on their walk toward Crystal's Car.

~

They were about halfway home and Kira couldn't keep still. She didn't want to read anything yet, since she figured it would be something to do while she's settled down and safe in her house. In her pajamas on her couch, drinking tea and... cuddled up with a blanket, Silver snoring on the other side...

"Are you going to open that little glass case on the cover?" Jake pulled her out of her thoughts. He wasn't really interested, or that's how it seemed since he only stared out of the window with a bored expression on his face.

She shook her head quickly to readjust herself and looked at the front of the journal. "Huh?" Her friend reached over and pushed in the square cut out in the metal. Click, the oval pops open to reveal a suede interior. And a note.