The Moments I Recall

CHAPTER FIVE

The ringing of the school bell wakes me from my trance. I already knew the time we would wake from the daze, but I couldn't help but glance up at the clock each time I woke. How exactly we'd read and obtain all knowledge in the space of an hour was still a mystery, but my glossy, pastel yellow book continued to grow with nothing in it's pages.

"Come on Ly, we can lay on the field before lunch." Harper prompts rushing out with the rest of the children. I exchange a glance with Theo then run after her. The day is warm, and the sky is clear, but the days here are always like that. Harper waits a few meters away from the school.

"Three more than usual." She tells me when I catch up, but she does not face me as she says this. She looks out towards the field. Two girls and three boys stand in a line just before the fence. They stand perfectly still, backs towards us, looking out at the open field beyond the fence.

The field may seem empty to us, but I know what they saw, I know what their trigger was. Harper never saw the childcare centre. We believe when she arrived at age twelve, she was too old to see it. I stopped seeing it about the age of ten and Theo, at nine.

For some reason the scene reminds me of something I read about a boy who ended his own life. As if death was a better escape. His mind was poisoned it said, him removing himself was a blessing in disguise. He relieved himself from his own nightmare and abandoned the lives of everyone he knew, what is there to make of this?

"Hey, where's chubs?" Harper asks as two men in navy overalls walk across and collect each one of them.

"I don't know." I reply.

"We should just go to the hall, I'm actually starving." She says pulling me away.

When we enter, Theo is already seated.

"You two up for the library after?" He says from across the table.

"Whoa, slow down there nerd," Harper replies, "We just got here." A smile grows across my face.

"I think what she meant was we'll go after lunch." I tell him.

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The library appeared the day we turned 14. We were leaving school that day and we noticed a small building a few meters away from the school.

"Was that always there?" I asked

"No that's definitely new." Theo replied

"Well, let's go check it out." I insisted.

"I don't think..."

"Come on, don't be such a downer." Harper interrupted.

When we reached the flaky building, we stared at the open entrance. All I could see was the faint light at the end of the hallway that led into the building.

"Ok wimps, I'll go first." Harper said entering the building, I followed closely behind her. The hallway led to a large room, larger than the building had appeared to be. The room had dozens of shelves occupied with hundreds of books. A large aisle created the middle between the cream coloured metal shelves. The room was lit by skylights that shone especially bright that day.

"Great, just what we needed." Harper complained, "Nerd central."

"Maybe we can find some information about this place." I said.

"None of these books have titles." Theo said from across the room, he must have snuck off. "And look there are two other rooms, I think they're just filled with more books."