The Story Will Choose You

Aisley drifted idly between the aisles of the library, allowing the rows of books to embrace her in a big bear hug. What book would choose her next? How would it tell her? It was a beautiful thing to be chosen by a book. Sometimes they jumped off the shelves. Other times they vibrated with excitement as you drew near. Other times, you turned a corner and you just knew. That one on the bottom left.

Today’s book was being mysterious. She had haunted the rows of books for over an hour already and had found nothing but silence. She sighed and peeked out towards the entrance. Most of her friends had already found theirs and had gathered together at some of the large tables.

“Argh,” she sighed. Then something truly awful occurred to her. What if no book had chosen her today? Was it even possible? She had never heard of such a thing, but maybe she really truly was that boring.

She shut her eyes and curled her fists. No. A great book was choosing her today, it was just waiting for the right time, that’s all.

She decided she needed some air so she rounded the corner and began her long walk of shame back to her friends. Her timing was perfect as Marcus had just sat down with a new book and was opening it to the first page. The pages glowed blue as he opened them to horizontal, and then the words lifted off the page and began to spiral. Faster they spun until a well of black formed over the centre of the book.

Aisley held her breath. This was the best part. A tiny paw reached out of the dark well and planted itself, then another and soon a head was emerging and then the book had birthed a great dane. It was small, only a few inches wide, allowing it to walk freely on the open pages. It turned and barked and sure enough two hands emerged and a man dressed in furs climbed out and looked about with his hands on his hips.

Aisley smiled. A story about a man and his dog. Perhaps a survival story? Part of her was already captivated, and wanted to sit down and read with Marcus and she had just about made up her mind to do that when the double front doors of the library burst open. A great gust of wind flew through the library causing characters to hang on for dear life. Several blew right off the pages, and as soon as the great doors slammed shut they scrambled back to their books as fast as they could.

Aisley scowled as she noted the cause of the disturbance. A man stood there looking absolutely ridiculous in his bright red shirt and corduroy pants. His hair was unkempt and his chin was clean shaven, giving him a young, wild look. What kind of man shaved his beard?

But Aisley’s eyes were drawn to the stack of books he clutched in his hands. There was nothing overly notable about any of them other than the one in the middle was glowing. It shuddered under the weight of the others as if trying to escape from its unfortunate position in the pile. The strange man didn’t notice because it wasn’t calling to him. It was calling to Aisley.

Her book had arrived.

The man had that hopeless look about him that suggested he was desperate for some sort of help. Aisley was happy to oblige.

“Hello sir, welcome to our library. Can I help you?” Aisley appeared before him and presented her sweetest most innocent smile. Definitely no agenda here.

“Ah, yes, hello.” the man stammered. “I’m uh…I’m uh” he looked left and right as if he just now realized he was in fact in a library. He leaned forward.

“Where am I?”

“Why, you are in the City Library.”

“I see. Yes, well…”

“Did you by chance come in here to drop off some books?”

The man glanced down and blinked. “Yes…yes these books. These are mine, well actually I found them, and I was just driving through here and saw the sign and thought perfect, this is exactly the type of place where a stack of books belong.”

Aisley nodded, barely able to contain her excitement. Her book was absolutely vibrating in his hands.

“Tell you what, why don’t you hand me those.” She reached out to grab the stack which the man gratefully relinquished. Her feet started to move on their own accord but she stopped and turned, noticing that the man had followed her.

“Will there be anything else?” she inquired politely, not quite succeeding in masking her annoyance.

“Well, ummm, I suppose while I’m here I should have a look at the books?” The last bit of the sentence ended with an inflection presenting it in the form of a question.

“I suppose that’s what people do in a library, perhaps you’d like to…” But Aisley trailed off as the stranger turned wide eyed at the group of kids reading at the table.

His mouth hung open while his whole body seemed to freeze as he half pointed and fully stared at the characters hopping around on the pages.

Aisley slowly leaned over into his field of view.

“Have you never been to a library?”

“Are those…what are…what is happening exactly?” he finally managed to blurt out.

Aisley set the pile of books on a table, careful to slide out her book which shuddered in appreciation.

“What do you mean? We are reading?”

The man looked at her. Aisley pursed her lips. This was not going the way she had imagined.

“Come with me.”

She turned on her heel and found an empty table with two chairs. The man followed, but not before tripping over someone’s foot as he tried to look everywhere at once except for where he was stepping.

He eased into the chair opposite her and sank down in his chair.

Aisley sighed and put her book on the table. She brushed the front cover lovingly then tenderly pried it open to the first page.

The man’s eyes widened and he leaned forward as the words drifted off the page. When they began to swirl his hand came to his mouth and when a dark hand reached out of the well he yelped and jumped up, knocking over his chair.

Aisley was beyond caring. This was her book! It was, after all, her captivation and joy that fueled the story, and she was far away in another world.

The character that crawled out was dressed all in black and a dark hood hid his face. He moved in smooth graceful steps, never pausing in place for long. From an outsider’s point of view he danced back and forth, bowing and waving at anyone and anything. But from Aisley’s eyes, he was the star of another world entirely.

The sky was dark with stormclouds. It wasn’t raining yet, but the light had a flat quality to it and the air was still. The street was deserted except for a lone man dressed all in black, like a shadow. He walked casually, completely unconcerned with the looming storm. He stopped abruptly and cocked his head, listening to a signal only he could hear. Then he nodded once and began to dance. He glided down the street springing from one side to the other, completely unhurried and indifferent.

Faces appeared in windows and then the first door opened and a young woman ran down her front steps and joined him in the street, matching his movements exactly. Another door opened and then another and soon the street was filled with dancing people, all moving to his rhythm.

When the clouds opened up and the rain fell no one slowed or broke time, and when lightning flashed above them not a single soul even batted an eye.

When lightning struck down the first person in an explosion of light and sound, they just danced over the body. The rain poured harder and like bolts being thrown from the heavens lightning rained down on the people again and again. For every body that dropped, two more emerged from houses and buildings as the parade continued toward the centre of town.

At last the crowd, led by the shadow man reached the centre of town where a large, pillared building stood boldly and proud. The words Central Library were emblazoned in large gold script. The shadow man hopped on to the first step and turned and stopped. The crowd of thousands immediately froze leaving an eerie stillness to what should have been a loud event.

Then the shadow man raised his chin and his eyes blazed red from within the darkness of his hood.

“Oh my God!” Aisley cried out and pulled out from the reality of the story all at once causing her to fall backwards from her chair.

“Oh no, no, no, no” she shook her head. Something was wrong. She turned to address the stranger but he was no longer beside her. She didn’t have to wait long however as a commotion snapped her head around, and sure enough he was at the centre of it.

He stood in one of the aisles arguing with one of the librarians. Aisley gasped. Around him, strewn about all over the ground were discarded books. One did not treat these precious stories like that. She marched on over and caught the middle of the conversation.

“Sir, these are priceless items you absolutely cannot treat them with such abandon!” the librarian was saying.

“They’re not working!” The man sounded frantic. “Where are the characters?”

The librarian bristled at such an absurd statement.

“It’s okay.” Aisley chimed in. “He’s not from here.”

She touched her hand to his shoulder and bent to pick up the books.

“The story will choose you.”

“Which story?” The man was exasperated and his face fell.

Aisley gave him her warmest smile. “Patience. You cannot force it.”

The man brightened. “That’s it!” he chuckled to himself as he bounded over to the library counter. He leaned over and fished around with his hands before finding a stack of paper and a pen.

He slid into a chair and began furiously writing.

“What on earth?” Aisley thought but then her eyes widened.

“Sir, you cannot!” She had enough. The library was a sacred space and this man had defiled the space. Not to mention that her book gave her the heebie jeebies and now he would dare break their most sacred rule? The entire library stopped and more than a few eyebrows shot up.

“You must stop.” Aisley grabbed the pen out of his hands. “Storytelling is for the priests. It is a sacred art and requires the utmost care. You dare scribble your own story? Just who do you think you are?”

The man stammered. “I just…the magic…it’s so beautiful.”

But the damage was done. The few sentences he had scribbled on the page were enough. They lifted off the paper and began to swirl and out of the dark well came a giant blue hand. Then it was red. Then orange. Then polka dots. A goofy looking monster pulled itself out but its form was blurred. Like an unfinished idea.

Aisley’s mouth dropped. One of the librarians dropped a stack of books and soon a crowd had gathered. The monster continued to glitch, like an unfinished idea. Then, it did the unthinkable. It hopped over to another book on the other side of the table.

That character was a white unicorn that reared up in response. But the monster simply mounted it and rode it on to the next book where it barrelled into three mice dancing in a circle.

In turn the mice panicked and ran off their pages which then startled other pages and soon the whole library was alive with characters running to and fro.

“This is not right.” Aisley whispered. “Oh no. The shadow man!” She bounded over to her book, but sure enough, the shadow man was gone.

There was a loud bang as the library door burst open and a hoard of characters poured out of the library into the street, followed by most of the patrons until at last it was only Aisley, the stranger and the librarian.

The librarian simply looked at the mess, then wiped tears from the corner of her eyes. She ran her hand lovingly over the nearest book, but it was cold and lifeless.

Aisley whispered quietly. “What’s going to happen now?”

The librarian was visibly shaking. “We are writing our own story now.”

The stranger frowned. “How could it be any different?”