A sniffle, a shuddering breath and a quiet laugh eased its way into my ears while I was walking down the street. I turned to see if there was something in the darkness but there was just emptiness there and that started a shiver in my nerves.
Normally I am quite brave and jump into the fire kind of girl, but today was different, today felt wrong, today I felt the release of adrenaline in my bloodstream, waiting for the chance to escape from whatever was coming.
There it was again!! I heard that quiet laugh, a few whispered words, a quiet warning, a quiet sniffle which made it's way into my ear and made me shudder. It was a rather lonely night to be walking home in my poorly lit neighbourhood. I always returned this late from the book meet which was held once a week at my friends place.
I heard quiet footsteps and another shuddering breath which made me clutch my duffle bag tight to my heaving chest. I hadn't realised that I had completely stopped walking, my legs felt like jelly and for the first time in my life I prayed to Po from the movie Kung Fu Panda to give me strength, as the smell of pine and winter invaded my senses with a hint of rot.
Earlier in the day...
I had just finished the last chapter of the fantasy book selected for the month by our book club, it was 11am and I was proud of myself for keeping up with the deadlines for all my assignments and reports.
I decided to visit the urban bookstore before I did anything else for the rest of the day. My neighbourhood has this crafty and tiny urban bookstore, where the owner, who is an old, chubby and cute woman, handpicks all the books personally that she sells at her store. I am always satisfied with whatever book she gives me to read, as it almost always has a fantasy background with a dusting of romance.
As I entered the shop, I couldn't find her at the desk, hence I decide to walk around the shelves and look around the store. As the shelves grabbed my attention with their vintage coloured spines, I was completely engrossed in the "makes you swoon shelf" when I heard a soft laugh.
I turned around so quick, I almost twisted my neck and I looked around but saw no one. I dismissed the laugh when Dana, the owner came through the entrance with the accompanying jingle of a tiny bell.
Dana, the chubby, cute old woman was one of my closest friends in town. She saw me and lightened up, barrelling into me, she caught me up in one of her warmest hugs. I loved her as I loved my departed mother and she had been my caretaker when I was all alone after my parents died in a car accident. She pulled me towards her desk which was now washed in the afternoon sunlight.
She put a stack of old vintage books on the table and gave me a mischievous smile, I was used to her smiles and a giggle escaped out of me and I asked her why she was smiling.
"Take this!" she almost shrieked and passed me a dark wood brown hardcover book, the spine was filled with letters and they spelled 'GLIMMER'.
"What is this? A fairy tale? You know I don't like such stuff" I whined and she just looked at me with the motherly care look "Trust me sweetheart, just read it"
I never said no to her choices so I just took the book and the first thing I did was smell the pages and oh my bookshelves!! It smelled heavenly and there was something different about this book. It had that well read smell and yet the smell of fresh snow and pine filled my senses.
I looked at Dana with a smile and then stuffed the book in my duffle bag.
I was early to the café, as always, the staff knew me well and as I took a seat at the corner table beside the window to wait, Julia brought the special coffee for the day, gave me a friendly wink when I tried to pay for it and went away.
I smiled and tentatively took a sip and was hit with a load of flavours from vanilla to the dusty chocolate on top.
That's when I noticed the cafe owner Robert looking at me eagerly with his bald head shining in the sun, I smiled at him and said in a loud voice "This coffee has got magic in it! It reminds me of a toasty warm nap" Hence, that became the name of the coffee for the day "Toasty warm magic coffee".
I decided to read the book Dana had given me, while I waited for the club members to arrive, I dug through my bag and removed the book, it looked so heavy but it felt as light as the cool breeze that kept rustling my hair. I opened the book and flipped through the first few blank pages, the dedication sent a flutter through my heart, it said...
'To all the souls who prefer jumping into fire or ice
To all the souls who do not shy away from adventure
To all the souls who have more good in them than bad'
A surreal silence swept over all my surroundings and I was forced to look up and around. The dust looked so pretty in the sunlight, the entire café was basked in its beautiful light.
There was a kind of glimmer everywhere...
"It's beautiful isn't it? Said a soft voice from right behind me, I obviously panicked like a stricken cat and almost broke my neck again, trying to see behind me.
There she was a dainty, prim creature seated on the coloured stairs inside the café. She was dream like with the whitest and most spotless shoes I'd ever seen.
"Ummm..."was my great response and the creature laughed, at least I think that's what she did as her laugh sounded like the sweetest music I'd ever heard. I saw her opening her fist, I should have done something, like shout, scream or a SOS call would be good, but I just kept looking at her and a blizzard of the twinkling dust engulfed me and the next thing I know I was lying in a grass field.
I know the smell of grass but this was a different kind of smell, it looked green but smelled just too familiar, but my mind couldn't decide what the smell reminded me of.
I felt my heart thundering in my chest trying to come out of my rib cage and I forced myself to take deep breaths and to calm down, I pushed myself off the ground, stood up and let my eyes adjust to the eerie brightness.
As soon as my eyes adjusted, I gasped, it was the same café I was coming to for 23 years but it had grass and a lot of the dainty, prim creatures that I saw earlier, they were everywhere, on the wooden counters, the bill section and the tables literally everywhere.
I almost wet my pants when one of them grabbed my arm and said "Come on! Let's get out of here" I snapped out of my dumb state and pulled my arm away and tried to sound stern
"What the hell is happening? Am I dreaming? What is this place? I’m sorry..." all this didn't come out sternly it came out mainly as a weak wheeze and I almost cried during my blabber.
The entire café went silent and one of them came and stood in front of me though she was only as tall as my hip, I recognised her as the one from the café stairs, I spotted her spotless shoes. Now that I paid attention they all had spotless shoes of various colours.
I was really scared and awe mixed with fear was unhinging my jaw “Is this something like Jumanji? Do I have only three lives? Will I die fighting a dark force? Do I have to help you all like in Narnia? I don’t know how. Can I please go back?”
"Now now darling, you've read and watched too many strange books and movies, of course it isn't like Narnia or Jumanji but even better like maybe beauty and the beast?" she looked around and all of them nodded at her words with full wide achingly beautiful smiles.
I almost fainted "Beauty and the beast? What do you mean? I've got to fall in love with a beast? Fight off bad men? Kiss the beast at the end? Watch a rose die? I don't even have a father who will go looking for a rose in the first place!"
I was short of breath, this was madness, I was hyperventilating, maybe there was LSD in the coffee, and maybe these were early signs of schizophrenia?
"Just send her back!" said a rude voice and this girl looked strange compared to the rest of them, with a permanent scowl and angry eyebrows. White shoes gasped and my heart jumped into my throat, "Everyone run!" she opened both her fists this time and the gold dust started pouring out.
They say that reality hits you at the most inconvenient time, for me it was then and there... when angry eyes started coming towards me with black dust pouring out of her open palms "Give me the book!" She shouted.
While my human brain was processing if I really had schizophrenia white shoes yelled right in my face "She found you but don’t worry and wait for just a minute!"
I thought of running away right then and there and my heart reminded my stupid brain that, it was always the wrong thing to do and a lot of books and movies were proof enough.
It was like an earthquake had struck the café and I did the next best thing I could think of, I hid under the table.
They weren't just fighting with the weird dust but the gold dust was fighting the black one too and the sight was just too beautiful and scary.
I kept seeing the fight awed by it and then a small hand caught my arm and my heart almost stopped, almost "Are you guys trying to give me a heart attack?" I screeched.
This girl was smaller than the others and she had pink shoes, she just smiled at me and said "I'm sorry we usually aren't like this, it's just that Romana has wanted to escape to your world lately and we all have been keeping her away from the library which forms the portal to your world”
"Wait!! What library? Why the library? Is it like a real portal thing that works between worlds?" again she gave me that small smile, "June here, is the keeper of books" she said, I realised she was talking about white shoes.
A blast of gold hit our table and a scream escaped me. "It's alright June can fend her off, well the library isn't exactly the portal but the books are, hasn't Dana told you about them?"
Okay, my brain decided that she was definitely trying to give me a heart attack. "Dana?" I asked almost in a whisper.
"Yes, she was one of us before, you see the books in our library have to be read to keep our world alive and keep us good, it's been too long since someone read Romana's book, she can just appear again with a new book that comes into the world but she refuses to accept that and that is why she rots now" well that explained the black dust.
"So Dana made me read those cool but strange books for this?" I asked in a very small whisper, poking at the gold dust that floated around me. She then looked at me with such truthful eyes that it was hard to not believe and trust her or her words.
"We are keeper of books in the entire universe, we are the souls of the books that are existing and being read. If a book isn't given love then one of us just disappears and appears later connected to another book but if we start being greedy and want to pollute the love you shower on us we turn out like her" she said pointing to Romana.
A blast sounded right beside my ear and I looked up from the table to see June smiling at me hesitantly, Romana was nowhere to be seen "Sorry darling, these are happening often nowadays, I was a fool to bring you here, let me send you back"
I just looked at her and all the other shoes who were watching me carefully like I was missing my pants, I just lightly touched my jeans to make sure I was wearing them.
My voice was almost a whisper "When you said this is better like beauty and the beast, did you mean the library?"
June let out a jingle of laugh at that and I realised, that it was the same laugh I heard while browsing the shelves today.
I looked at her and said in a suddenly confident voice "Lead the way show me all the books you are made of”
It was nowhere lacking to the library from beauty and the beast as it had almost every book in existence.
June looked at me and took my hands in hers "Dana brings up books to your world which have been lost but have a great story to tell and we give them to her. It isn't a legacy or a game but trust and love of those who read" I smiled at her and she sent a puff of dust into my eyes.
I blinked and I was back at the café sitting by the window with the book on my lap, it was closed with the scent of pine and winter from the other world still lingering around me.
I was surprised to see the club members arrive and we had a great time. As the clock struck 10pm we all realised that the day had flown by and spent well with catching up talk, social media stresses, good food and coffee.
We all went our separate ways after promising to meet the next month.
I packed up my things in the duffle and put Glimmer into it too. A small smile graced my lips as I said my farewell to the coffee shop owner, the streets were quiet at this time and I walked with a spring in my step and at a fast pace.
A sniffle, a shuddering breath and a quiet laugh eased its way into my ears while I was walking down the street. I turned to see if there was something in the darkness but there was just emptiness there and that started a shiver in my nerves.
I heard quiet footsteps and another shuddering breath which made me clutch my duffle bag tight to my heaving chest. I hadn't realised that I had completely stopped walking, my legs felt like jelly. The smell of pine and winter invaded my senses with a hint of rot.
Now you know why I prayed to Po in the beginning.