For Eleanor, who chose "lamppost".
The librarian had been reading about magical realms for years, but never though to actually discover one. She had been visiting a friend who worked at a historic home, and it was the evening of the house's annual Holiday Party. The librarian was not much for loud groups of strangers, so she took her time looking through the upstairs bedrooms. There was a particularly fine wardrobe in one of the rooms, just the kind that looked perfectly suited to harbouring a gateway to another realm.
The librarian, up to this point a perfectly law-abiding citizen, looked around her to make sure that no one else was around, then stepped over the red velvet rope and gently opened the wardrobe door. She didn't even have to step in before she knew something was up. A gust of wind blew a handful of snow out of the small opening, and there was nothing else for it - she had to go in now. She tentatively stepped into the wardrobe and felt her way through the rows of fur coats. She was soon be exactly where she had expected to be - in a snow covered clearing with a gleaming lamppost in the centre.
"I knew it," the librarian exclaimed softly, looking around her with delighted eyes.
"I wonder if Mr. Tumnus is around."
The librarian waited a few minutes and then she saw a silhouette coming towards her.
"Hello?" she called out.
"Hello!" a voice answered her. But instead of a fawn, it was a penguin who greeted her, complete with a red scarf and an umbrella.
The librarian was a very smart woman. She knew something was terribly wrong and started to make her way back towards the wardrobe.
"Oh, I'm sorry," the librarian started to say, "I think I've stumbled into the wrong magical realm."
The penguin smiled in a rather disconcerting way.
"Oh, but we've been expecting you. We could use a good librarian..."
This librarian had heard enough and turned on her heel and ran back to the wardrobe and firmly closed the door behind her. She paused a moment to catch her breath, then stepped over the red rope and went back downstairs where she was greeted by her friend.
"There you are! I was beginning to think you had gotten stuck in a closet or something."
The librarian put her arm on her friend's and walked with her to the room where the party was.
"Do me a favour?" she asked.
"Make sure that wardrobe in the spare bedroom stays locked. Trust me on this one."
~fin
No comments:
Post a Comment