The Notebook of Worlds

Kathryn hadn’t meant to get caught staring at the man on the train. In fact, she hadn’t even meant to start staring in the first place, but the man was humming so very loud and she couldn’t focus on the project she was supposed to be reviewing. So really, the stare had started off as a glare, which had quickly shifted to genuine curiosity.

“He cannot possibly be real,” she thought to herself as her eyes took in the man standing across the aisle. The man looked like he had come from a rehearsal of Newsies. His outfit was that of a 1920’s New Yorker, complete with an ancient looking leather satchel bouncing against his waist.

“I guess that explains the humming,” Kathryn thought and tried desperately to return her attention to the papers on her lap. Except her eyes kept fluttering up to the man, his eyes closed as he hummed to himself, his mouth pulled up in a soft smile. She shook her head angrily, trying to dislodge the thoughts of asking him for a cup of coffee. It was the shaking that attracted his attention.

He shuffled closer and in his most polite outdoor voice said, “Hello! Kathryn, right?”

Kathryn immediately panicked, she most certainly did not know this man, had only just noticed him two stations back. He smiled and nodded as if having a discussion of his own before he swung into the seat next to her, careful to keep from getting too close.

He extended his hand, “Name’s Johnny Bones, well fake name is anyway. We take the same writing course at Uni.”

Kathryn hesitated, but accepted his hand, her brain assuring her that she must have seen him someplace before. “Ryn, that’s my fake name.”

“Oh! A traveler then?” He glanced down at the papers in her lap with a hopeful glance.

“Yes.” Kathryn paused and shuffled the papers into her bag between her legs. “Though it interferes with my writing.”

The man looked at her studiously, before nodding. “Ah, yes. I know we only really just met, Ryn, but I was wondering if you’d watch my bag? I have to run to the bathroom, and I don’t want it banging around in there, but I also don’t want to just leave it lying about.”

Kathryn glanced around the nearly empty train car and then back to Johnny’s hopeful expression. “Sure, Johnny Bones. Just don’t disappear on me.”

He broke out into the biggest smile yet and dropped the exceptionally heavy satchel on her lap. Then he was racing in the direction of the bathroom and Kathryn was fighting the curiosity to peer inside the bag. The train rolled steadily along, the English countryside passing in a blur that made her eyes heavy and soft melodies danced through her head.

Kathryn shook herself out of her daze and looked towards the bathroom, the occupied sign was still lit. She sighed and tucked the satchel behind her head as a pillow. Johnny Bones surely wouldn’t mind her using it to take a few moments of rest. Her eyes fluttered closed and the last thing she knew was the sun kissing the edge of the world.

“Ma’am?” The voice startled Kathryn awake. At first the figure in front of her was cloaked in shadow, the sun having set, but he held up a torch and she squinted in the sudden glare.

“Have we reached Edinburgh?” Her voice cracked from disuse and she coughed to clear it before repeating the question.

“I suppose so,” the man responded and something electric sparked its way down Kathryn’s neck.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kathryn stood and grabbed her bag and then, after a moment of hesitation, Johnny Bones’ bag. Heavier than before she grunted at the effort of lifting it onto her shoulder.

“Well, we’ve reached the end of the line,” the man said, “But it’s not…what did you call it…Edinburgh? Where even is that?”

The man chuckled as though Kathryn had made some exceptional joke. It took her a moment to process his questions before worry settled into Kathryn’s stomach.

“Edinburgh? It’s in Scotland…it’s…” Kathryn stumbled and turned to read the sign of the station just beyond the train window, but the night was so thick she couldn’t make it out.

“Scotland? Ma’am are you feeling alright?” The man grabbed her arm as she turned back to look at the bathroom.

“I…I don’t understand.” The words fell from her lips like mist from the clouds, soft and nearly imperceptible. “I got on the train in London. It was headed for Edinburgh, Scotland. Where…where are we now?”

The man gave her a soft shove and together they moved towards the exit onto the platform. “Ma’am, I don’t know any of those places. This train started in Helsa, Kilsand and it has delivered you safe to Likan, Grenslund.”

“Those aren’t real places!” Kathryn protested as the man guided her onto the platform. She tore her arm from his grip and rushed towards the sign on the station entrance. Her eyes widened in shock as the sign spelled out H-E-L-S-A in bright white letters against a black background. She spun in a circle. There! A map on the wall was lit up by a solitary light and she rushed over to it, only to find that instead of the United Kingdom map she had memorized in Primary School, there was an unfamiliar blob with jutting edges and a dozen unknown names.

“Ma’am?” The man had reappeared at her side, “Are you looking for someone?”

“Yes,” Kathryn gasped, trying to control her panic, though it was winning, “He was on the train with me. He…he went to the bathroom…I have his bag.”

“You were the only one left on the train,” the man glanced over his shoulder at the now dark train car, “Maybe he got off? It’s not unusual for thieves to run this particular game. Did you get his name?”

Kathryn ran a sweaty hand through her brown curls, “He said his fake name was Johnny Bones.”

The man let out a loud, bellowing laugh. “Johnny Bones? That’s one for the books. Ma’am if I were you, I’d take that bag straight to the investigators.”

“I don’t understand.” Kathryn mumbled it more to herself than the man, but he gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

“It’s alright, it happens to the best and most observant of us.” He pointed inside the station to the one place still bursting with light. “That’ll be the investigators, they might be able to put things straight again.”

She gave a soft whisper of thanks before she opened the doors and walked towards the lights. She was nearly in the office when somebody called her name.

“Ryn!” It was a shout, and it was right at her side. She spun towards it, but no one was there. Then it came again, sounding almost annoyed this time and it was coming from inside Johnny Bones’ bag. Kathryn pulled the bag off and let it drop in the light from the investigator’s office. She wrenched open the top and inside found yet another bag, a box of tissues, and a single shiny black notebook.

“Ryn,” the voice was teasing this time and it sounded almost pleased. And it was definitely coming from the notebook. Trembling she reached inside and pulled out the notebook, which weighed about thirty pounds if she was being honest.

“Why is this thing so heavy?” She demanded as she let it flop open on the floor.

“Because it contains worlds,” the voice whispered, and the book started to vibrate. It swirled around her kneeling body and when it reappeared in front of her it had transformed into the figure of a Victorian lady. The lady was entirely made out of paper with words darkening her features, her eyes swirling with stories and her lips filled with novels and poems. Her hair was in curls with speeches highlighting pieces.

Kathryn tried to hide her shock, but a small gasp escaped her. “Maybe I should ask that train man to pinch me.”

The book lady chuckled, “I’m afraid that won’t work. This notebook has rules, just like all magic things. Of course, it comes with its rewards as well.” With this she gestured to the other bag in the satchel.

“Explain. Please.” Kathryn could feel the frustrating tears pooling in her eyes, the tightness in her throat restricting her breathing.

“The Notebook of Worlds,” the woman began, “is a transferable magic item that can be exchanged between worlds and universes. It comes with a reward equal to about twenty-thousand of that world’s currency. For you, dear Ryn, that’s twenty-thousand US dollars. Here, however, it’s twenty-thousand silver pieces.

“Now the notebook itself contains the stories of all those who hold it. It writes itself. Documenting everything you do and say without you having to lift a pen. Please, if you have the time read the other stories in here. The rules are simple, go through your story here and then at the end, the notebook will tell you the name of its next story. You simply give it to the person that’s named, and you will be sent back to your own world. Or you can choose to stay if that is what you want.”

“I want to go home now!” Kathryn yelled, her frustration overpowering every other sense.

The woman of words hissed, “So did I, Ryn, and I didn’t have someone like me to help explain. You will be able to return home, but only once the story is done. Those are the rules.”

“Please.” Kathryn reached for the lady, but she backed away and the paper began to fold back together.

“Read the stories, Ryn, they will help.” The words floated up from the now returned notebook and Kathryn gripped it tightly to her chest. She let the sobs pour from her throat as she tucked herself against the brick wall of the station.

A gentle hand on her shoulder jolted her out of her despair and the pit of sleep it had sent her into. The man attached to it gave her a gentle and comforting smile. His eyes were such a perfect storm grey that Kathryn knew he was going to play an important part in her story.

“Are you alright?” His voice was filled with promises and she could feel the notebook humming against her chest.

“Yes, just…” she hesitated, wondering how to describe what she was, “just lost. Could you point me the way to town?”

“I’m headed that way now,” he said and helped her to her feet, “I’ll give you a ride.”

Kathryn gave him a gentle smile, her eyes red from crying. “That would be great thank you, Mister?”

The man waited for her to gather up her bags before answering, “Kylian Crest, and you?”

Kathryn bit down on her actual name before it could slip past her lips, “Ryn. Just Ryn.”

Kylian laughed, “Well it’s nice to meet you Ryn, is this your first time in Grenslund?”

“Yes, and it feels like I’m in an entirely new world,” Ryn said, and as she followed him outside the light of morning cut across the edge of the world and the notebook sang from inside her bag. A new world, a new story, those were the rules.