Mr.
Linden’s Library
Sofia Bicego
5th/6th hour
10/22/2012
The smell of dust and perfume hung in the air. The halls were empty. The sky roof was clanking from the rain and
hail. It was a new school, Golden Hale
Middle School, a rich and snobby school, full of over-privileged kids. It was going to be hard. To fit in, to be the only girl that isn’t
rich, and the only one that doesn’t live in a huge mansion, the only one that wears
Converse and hand-me-downs. Mellie
thought this as she walked down these hallways.
She looked up at the ceiling, but just as she did,
Mellie ran into someone.
“Oh, hello,” said the strange man.
“Hi. Sorry for
bumping into you,” Mellie said quietly.
“That’s quite all right.
It was my fault, but my eyes aren’t quite what they used to be,” the man
said chuckling, “I haven’t introduced myself.
I am Mr. Rupert Linden, the school librarian.” Mr. Linden was old, probably in his sixties. He was wearing khakis with brown shoes with a
button-down shirt and an overcoat. He
was probably the oddest-looking man Mellie had ever seen.
“I’m Mellie. Uh…a
new student here.” She didn’t talk too
well in front of strangers. She would
often stutter and look at the ground.
“Well, Mellie, I look forward to seeing you.” The old librarian walked away, smiling.
Mellie thought about him, how nice he was, how different
he was from the nasty principal, how the principal treated her and her family
like dirt. But the librarian, Mr.
Linden, was kind and wonderful. She
finally knew someone, someone who cared about her, or at least acted like they
did.
Soon the bells rang, and the kids filled the hallway
like a river that broke its dam. Mellie
was overwhelmed. She ran down the wide
hallway, against the crowd, and ran into the bathroom. It was as big as two classrooms at her old
school combined. She saw the room, with
the dark marble counters, and cried.
“Isn’t this what I always wanted? To go to a good school?” She said quietly to
herself as she cried. But she started
laughing hysterically, because it was just so stupid, to be crying over
something as stupid as this. Just
because she’s the complete opposite of all of them, Mellie was fine being
herself. In fact, she was always
standing up for herself and other people for who they are. She didn’t have the money they had, but she
had the personality they didn’t.
Mellie thought about it for a while, but she wasn’t the
only different one; Mr. Linden.
She stood up, wiped the tears off her face, and
sighed. She walked to the door and
opened it slowly, and shut it behind her.
The halls were quiet again. Since it was her first day, Mellie was
allowed to walk anywhere, take a tour by herself, of the huge school. She walked down the halls to the library. She opened the dark, oak doors and walked in.
It was gorgeous.
There were more than twenty shelves full of beautiful, hard covered
books. There were buckled leather
journals, with golden writing on the covers.
There also was a small fountain in the middle of the library. There were big pillows on the floor. The library was so huge that Mellie couldn’t
even see all of it.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The smell was amazing. It was musty and old; it was books, one of
the things in Mellie’s world that was meaningful to her. She could taste it, the books, the pages, the
contents on the pages, the wood which the dusty shelves were made from. She heard the voices of the books calling
her.
Mellie walked up the creaking stairs into the balcony of
the library. The balcony stretched
across the whole library. It had a
gorgeous dark oak railing, with small designs carved into each of the poles
holding it up. She slowly rubbed her
fingertips on each one.
Mellie walked slowly around the balcony, walking with
one hand to the side and one hand on the railing, taking in deep breaths, with
her eyes closed.
“Why, hello again,” said a familiar voice from behind
her.
Mellie slowly opened her eyes and turned.
“Do you like the library? Barely anyone comes in here, unless they have
to.” Mr. Linden smiled while he was
talking. Mellie liked how happy, and how
he always talked right at her, and not looking somewhere else.
“Oh, yes I love the library, it’s…it’s bigger than any
library I’ve ever seen,” Mellie said this quietly, but instead of looking at
the floor, she looked at him in the eye, just as all of her teachers had told
her to do.
“Why thank you, I’m glad you love it. Sometimes I mistake it for my actual
home!” The odd librarian often laughed
at himself, including now. He walked
over to Mellie and guided her down the stairs.
“Mellie, when do you start your classes?” asked Mr.
Linden.
“Next Wednesday. They’re giving me some time to settle
in,” Mellie said in a sigh. “Do…do, do
you mind if I stay in here until next Wednesday?” she asked with a crooked
smile.
“Oh, of course you can!
I sometimes talk to myself when I’m alone. It’ll be nice having someone else around!”
Mr. Linden chuckled. Mellie liked the
way he would always joke around with himself.
The bell rang and Mellie looked at the clock.
“Oh well. I gotta
go, bye! See you tomorrow,” she said and
smiled.
“Okay, have a wonderful evening! See you tomorrow,” the old librarian said
happily as they walked toward the doors.
Just after Mellie walked out the big doors, she waved
through the tiny square window with a smile on her pale face. Mr. Linden smiled, his old, odd smile, and
waved back.
The next morning, Mellie woke up to a sharp pain on the
muscle of her arm. Her little brothers
were standing right by her bed, with their fingernails gouged in her arm. She saw this and slapped both of them. They raced out of her room into the kitchen.
She opened her dresser and pulled out her school
uniform. The skirt and sweater were
uncomfortable, and itchy. She slipped
into the uniform, and headed into the kitchen.
After Mellie ate, she walked to school and waited in the
library.
“Hey,” Mellie said to Mr. Linden.
“Why hello there,” Mr. Linden said with a smile.
“Well, what should I do here, read? Sit?
Shelve books?” Mellie asked. She
was nervous. She never had a friend that
was a teacher, and she had never spent the whole day in a library.
“Ah, hmmm…you could do those things, or we could talk,”
Mr. Linden smiled, like he always did.
Whenever he did smile, his eyes lit up like a pumpkin when its candle is
lit on Halloween. All of the wrinkles on
his face became deeper. His old, square
teeth peeked out between his old, skinny lips.
“Okay, I guess we can talk,” Mellie said while taking a
seat on one of the chairs by the fountain.
They talked all day.
Mr. Linden talked about his best friend when he was a boy, and how they
built a tree house, all on their own, and how he met his future wife when he
was thirteen years old. How he proposed
to her when he was twenty-seven, how he hid the ring in her evening tea, and
asked her on one knee. He talked about
when he and his wife had a daughter when they were thirty-two years old, and
all of the happy and funny memories in between.
Mr. Linden told Mellie about all of the sad memories, too, which were
told with tears and listened to with tears.
He told about how his wife died from breast cancer, and how his daughter
moved away when her mother died. And how
he has only talked to her five times since.
He spoke about how his best friend died in the Viet Nam war.
Tears from laughter and tears from sorrow rolled down
Mellie and Mr. Linden’s cheeks. Mellie
wanted to hug him when he spoke of his past, she only knew him for a couple of
days; she felt like she knew him for years.
“Next time, I get to learn about you,” Mr. Linden said,
and then sniffed, and wiped his eyes.
“Okay, I have lots of stories to tell,” Mellie
laughed. She wiped away her tears also,
and gave Mr. Linden a huge hug. She felt
bad for him, all of his bad memories, but happy for all of his happy memories.
The hug was long and Mellie needed a long hug, and so
did Mr. Linden. He hadn’t had a big hug
in years, and Mellie had, but she needed one after her told her about his life.
Just before the bell rang, Mr. Linden walked over to the
counter and took out a leather-covered book.
It had a small silver title on the cover. He walked back over to Mellie and handed it
to her.
“Here, keep it, but be careful with it,” Mr. Linden told
her as she looked down at it in her hands.
“Okay, thanks.
But why do I have to be careful with this?” she said back to Mr. Linden.
“It,” he paused, “it is dangerous. If it’s left open for too long, well…it’ll,”
he paused again, “it bends the whole world out of control.” He was not longer smiling, but frowning a
cautious frown, and looking straight into Mellie’s eyes with trust, and they
weren’t lit up, like usual. They were
stiff.
“How?” Mellie asked with a worried mind. She was afraid. “Why is he giving me this, if it is dangerous?” Mellie thought to
herself. Her heart was pounding like the
ground beneath an oncoming train.
“This book contains a great vine, but if it escapes, it
will lock in everyone and everything on this earth, and beyond. It is an amazing book, with powerful words,
and I want you to have it. But don’t
fall asleep with the book open. If you
do, the vine’s gate will be left open, and it’ll escape.” His eyes were still stiff. Mr. Linden’s eyes were still stiff. That frightened Mellie even more.
“Oh, well, if I don’t fall asleep, I’ll be okay, right?”
Mellie asked with fear in her voice.
“Yes, I do believe so,” Mr. Linden forced out a
smile. He knew that Mellie was worried,
so he tried to smile.
The bell rang.
“Well, I have to go,” Mellie said with a small smile.
She walked down the crowded halls and out the
doors. She felt as though everyone was
staring at her, judging her. Mellie
walked on with her head down, staring at the book.
She arrived at home and went straight into her
room. She didn’t say “Hi” to anyone; she
just went to her room.
Just as Mellie opened the small, leather book, dinner
was ready. She shut the book and walked
into an atmosphere of roasted chicken smell.
Her father was standing in his apron by the stove, just finishing the
vegetables. He slowly walked over to the
table with the pot and placed it on a hot plate.
“Voila, dinner is served,” Mellie’s dad said smiling
with pride.
“Looks…good,” Mellie said. She wasn’t very hungry, due to the fact that
she had the most dangerous book on earth.
“Why the sad face?
Did you make any new friends? Oh, and your mom is going to be working
late tonight,” he said as he looked at Mellie.
Her two brothers sniffed the pot full of veggies and
made vomiting gestures. The twins always
overreacted to the smell (or sight) of vegetables.
“Oh, friends?” said Mellie. “Well, there is the school librarian who is
pretty cool,” Mellie said with a smile.
She thought back to his smile and how many memories he has.
“That’s nice,” said her dad.
“Can I go to my room?
I’m not really hungry.” Mellie
wanted to read the book. She thought
about the caution she had to take, but she knew it would be a spectacular read.
“Sure, go ahead,” her dad said. Her brothers’ squinty little eyes stared at
her. She despised them, for they lived
to make her life miserable. They were
hyper, loud, and very annoying. They
climbed on everything, and destroyed everything, (including the computer).
Mellie walked down the hallway into her room. She lay down on her bed, and slowly opened
the book. On the title page it read,
“Jamous Baxter”. It didn’t say who it
was written by, but Mellie was still curious about what was in the book.
Time went by like a tide in the ocean. Mellie read.
The book was so good, she couldn’t stop reading, the book was pulling
her in word by word, until her eyes couldn’t read any more, and she fell
asleep.
He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late. The vine crept out of the
fold of the book. It covered the
delicate paper pages, and onto the bed.
Mellie felt something creep on her arm, and she shot open her eyes and
looked down at the covered arm. She
screamed and ripped the vines off her arm, and tried to shut the book, but she
couldn’t. The huge tangle of plant
knotted and twisted nearly around the whole room.
She slammed the door, which woke up all of her
family. They ran out of their rooms and
turned on the light in the hallway. They
looked annoyed and worried. Then a huge
vine crashed out of the wall. Screaming
from five frightened people filled the house as they all ran out the door, with
no shoes or coats.
“We have to go to Mr. Linden’s library!” Mellie shouted
while they were running.
“Who is Mr. Linden?” Her mom shouted to Mellie.
“The school librarian!
He’s the one who gave me the book that the vines came out of!” Mellie
shouted back.
Mellie felt guilty for falling asleep. She knew what would happen if she did, but
she was so tired, and she thought she closed it, but she didn’t.
They finally arrived at the huge school. Mellie hated it more at night than in the day
time. It was dark and empty and
locked. Her mother, father, and her
brothers were pounding on the door, yelling.
And so was Mellie. Until a
janitor came by.
“What do ya want?” the janitor asked, grouchily.
“Please let us in, we need to speak to Rupert Linden,”
Mellie said.
The old janitor opened the door and the family of five
walked in, and ran to the library. The
floor was cold and smooth as their feet pounded on it.
In what seemed like forever, the library’s door handle
was in their reach. Mellie swung it open
and entered with her family. She shouted
for the librarian, and he came out of his office, running.
“What’s all the fuss about?” Mr. Linden saw their
faces. “Oh no, oh no, Mellie. Please tell me it didn’t happen,” he said,
worried and sad.
“I’m so sorry. I
didn’t mean to,” Mellie was crying.
Tears ran from her eyes to her chin, and dripped off, onto her
shirt. Mr. Linden walked over to her and
gave her a hug, and everyone else one too.
“What about our house?” one of the twins asked
quietly. The two boys felt empty inside.
“Oh my, I’m so sorry,” Mr. Linden apologized. “I will find a way to stop this and I swear
that I will.”
“What did you do to our family? What did you do?!” Mellie’s mother shouted.
Mellie was sobbing now.
She felt horrible and not only for what she did but for her family and
the librarian. Her eyes were red and her
head was throbbing.
Mr. Linden told them what he had done and what he had
given Mellie. He promised them that he
would find a way to stop it, and how it was all his fault. He told them to help him research on how to
stop the vine, but he didn’t know if it would help at all.
They started one book each, but quickly it moved up to
ten. Mr. Linden turned on the television
to the news channel, and it was pure chaos.
One of their neighbors had a baby boy, and when they were having a cup
of coffee, watching their son sleep, vines wrapped around the house and trapped
them inside. The vine was growing, house
to house, but Mellie, her brothers, Mr. Linden, and her parents couldn’t find a
solution.
Until one of the twins found something.
“Hey! I found
something!” he shouted.
“What is it?” Mellie asked.
“It says that if you burn the root of the vine, then the
rest will disappear forever,” he read.
“The root?” Mellie asked. “What’s that?”
“It must be the book,” Mr. Linden said. He sounded certain, and he smiled.
“Well, that’s good, right?” asked Mellie’s dad.
“It is, but I don’t know how we’re going to get to the
book. It’s trapped inside,” Mr. Linden
looked as though he were thinking about it.
“One moment,” he went in his office and came out. “Here we are.” The old school librarian came
out with a chain saw in one hand.
“What? Why do you
have a chain saw in your office?” asked Mellie’s mom.
“I once had to cut down a tree in front of the school,
but that’s a whole different story,” said Mr. Linden with a wink and a smile.
They all walked down the halls and out the doors. They ran about three blocks to their house
and saw the whole street tangled in the vines.
The sound of the chainsaw added to all of the news reporters and the
police sirens. People stared at their
homes, crying, with grey wool blankets wrapped around them.
Mr. Linden cut through the vines, one by one, until he
let out the neighbors and their baby. He
kept cutting until a woman had a knife and started cutting with him. The whole community stood up, one by one, and
started cutting the vine. Police
officers, fire fighters, civilians, and everyone else joined in on the freeing
of the homes.
They finally cut through so much vine that they reached
Mellie’s house, and cut through the living room, kitchen, and hallway, and
reached into Mellie’s room and lit a match onto the book. Orange flames turned green, and then blue,
until the whole book turned to ash and the fire went out.
All of the vines disappeared, and homes were back to
normal. All of the holes in the walls
and holes in brick had grown back to normal.
The six people looked at one another and smiled.
“It’s finally over,” said Mellie; she was relieved. It had been a long night since it all had
started.
“Yeah,” they all said at once.
“But Mr. Linden, I have one more question,” Mellie told
Mr. Linden.
“What is it, dear?” he asked.
“Why did you pick me to keep the book?” Mellie looked at
him with shock and curiosity.
“Hmmm…I’ll tell you Monday,” Mr. Linden smiled and
winked, then walked away.
