Misha Speede

April 22, 2021

The library tucked away in the edge of town is a library of curiosity waiting to bloom from the most unexpected occurrences. On March 3rd, I discovered something extraordinary from this library. 

March 3rd began with a touch of March normality- the kind where you wouldn’t be able to tell what time of the year it was because it was either 70 degrees or 30 degrees outside. The wind always blows in March, and the occasional party of gentle rain passes by. But the most unusual part of March 3rd was the thunderstorm that unexpectedly crept out from the edge of town and swept everyone into a building, locking them up inside for the rest of the afternoon. 

I began my day by sweeping the front porch of the shop, then later, opening the shop. Business was unusually slow today, so I spent my day baking and icing lonely cakes that may never find a partner. At 7 pm sharp, I closed the shop. I had only gotten out twelve orders today, three of them being big orders and the rest being small ones. I labeled this as the first, highly unusual occurrence of today. 

Sighing, I rode my bicycle to the edge of town, to my safe dwelling, the library. As I entered the library, the thunderstorm began. I labeled this as the second, highly unusual occurrence of today. Thunderstorms never happened in this town. In fact, I had never experienced a thunderstorm in my whole life, and this experience was completely new to me. In fact, when the lights went out in the library, I thought that this occurrence was just a part of the whole “thunderstorm” experience. 

Trudging to the very back of the library, where my reading nest sits, I clambered up the ladder and looked at the reading table. Usually, books would be stacked on top of each other, creating a wall of fairy tales, fables, and fantasy arcs, but today, one book lay in its place. Curious, I gently grabbed the book and settled in the comfort of my beanbag chair. There was no title for the book, there was no author, all that was written on the cover of the book was my full name. I labeled this as the third, highly unusual occurrence of today. My name is very rare, and for it to be found in a book was highly unusual and puzzling. 

Prying the book open, I see a faint glow and smudged ink in the form of a poem.

Pursue the book’s blue beat 

Feel the heart wake from sleep

Hear the hum beyond the shadow

And become magic’s final left

The book began to hum in my hands after I read the poem, and a blue dot on the page began to fade in and out, almost rhythmically. Maybe it wanted me to play a game of Marco Polo. Getting up, I lowered myself down the ladder and began my trek through the library. Walking past the nonfiction section made the blue dot fade into almost nothing, but the closer I got to the fiction section, the more the blue dot blinked. Walking into the fable section almost broke the blue dot. Instead of blinking it was now shining a blue so bright, it was blinding. Stepping in front of the mossy cobblestone wall in the fable section broke the blue light, it faded. Removing the fake vines from the mossy cobblestone wall, I see a message fade into existence.

“The world goes through 2000 year natural cycles of magic and non-magic. The non-magical cycle is about to end today.”

Staring at the message, I drop my book in disbelief, and drop straight through the floor, falling into a cave with endless stalagmites and stalactites covered in a rainbow of colorful powder.