Pre-elected story. Literature Competition 2010.

The Hidden Section.

Before I start, I would like to say that this really happened to a friend of mine, Austin. He is a shy guy who hasn’t got many friends. His head is small and his nose is very big.
As usual, he was walking to the National Library, his favourite place in London. There, he could spend hours studying.
But that day was going to be quite unusual. When he arrived, he greeted the librarian and then disappeared behind the bookshelves. He was walking slowly, trying to read as many titles as possible, when suddenly he got to a section where he had never been before. It seemed to be kind of abandoned. The shelves were full of dust and there were cobwebs everywhere. Austin approached it and stared at it. There were strange titles such as “Cinderella was born and died as a slave” or “Alice: analysis of her madness”. Another interesting one was “The lies of the ‘fantastic world’”, in which it was claimed that all the fantastic and traditional tales had actually happened, but without the magic and the fantasy they generally described.
He picked that book, put it into his bag and started running towards the librarian, Etelvina. He told Etelvina what he had seen, but she wouldn’t believe him, so she asked him to take her to the place, and so he did. They walked toward the section, but it wasn’t there anymore. Instead, there was the end of the corridor and a window, through which they could see the park.
‘This can’t be possible’ Austin said. ‘It was right here.’
‘Oh dear, why do you have to waste my time in childish things?’ she asked as if she was talking to a child.
‘But I swear it was right over here! I can’t understand it. Look, I even took a book.’ He looked into his bag, but there was no book inside it. ‘I took a book and put it in my bag! Why on earth is it not here?”
‘Austin, maybe you are a bit stressed. Let’s go back to our work. I have a lot of phone calls to make’.
Quiet and thoughtful, he returned to the main room and tried to study. But he couldn’t; he kept wondering: “Was that section real? Or had he imagined it? What happened with the book he had taken?”
Time went by quickly and it was eight o’clock before he could tell. The librarian asked him to leave in order to close the library. Austin put his notes and papers in his bag. Then he went towards Etelvina and opened his mouth in order to say something. But he didn’t, so he turned round and left.
Etelvina turned the lights off and closed the library. While she was walking back home she thought, “How could I’ve been so irresponsible? That section has been kept hidden for years… and I almost mess it up. I’ll have to be more careful from now on…”



Pen name: Dr. Edward Kuwan
Category B