Alice's day progressed on, just as her mother had planned. Her father's friend arrived at eight, bringing his family, which included twins, completely alike. Everyone had a very delicious dinner, and perfect puddings to finish it off. At around ten, all the guests left with many 'goodbyes' and 'see you soon'. Mr.Turner, Alice's father, retired to his study at eleven, leaving Mrs.Turner, Alice's mother, and Alice to finish cleaning. As the clock struck twelve, both Alice and her mother were in their rooms, Mrs.Turner asleep.
Alice however, had no intention of sleeping. She was going to read in her library tonight! Alice picked up the golden chain from around her neck. Keeping it on, she opened a book locket, and pressed the letter 'L' from the beginning of a story hardly visible inside. Suddenly, the room vanished in a mixture of place and colour. When it stopped spinning, Alice was taken from her dark room into the place she thought was the best in the world: The library, her library. The books were all placed one over the other, to form a long staircase that stretched on further than Alice's visibility, like a long, never ending steam train. Golden, dancing sunlight bathed the library, making it very pleasant. Alice knew she had hours, days to read. Today was Friday and there was no school tomorrow, or the day after. Alice chose to spend the 6 hours remaining of the night before sunrise, meaning she would return home at six in the morning. Then, she would sleep for as long as she wanted, for her mother let her sleep long on Saturdays. Alice sat down under the shade of a Red Oak tree and relaxed.The soft, springy grass and moss on the floor was better than any bed in the world. She had been dreaming of coming here when she was at her Aunt Maple's house and somehow, the real thing was ten times better than the dreams. Alice turned her thoughts to how she had come to discover her library. It was a curious story, which Alice thought no one would believe; one of her reasons for not telling anyone about her library.
Five years ago when she was six year old, Alice found an old house which looked centuries old. She had gone inside and explored, when she found an old, yet very beautiful locket with a pendant shaped like a book. Alice took the necklace home with her. Then, when she opened the locket, she saw what was clearly the beginning of a story. Alice could only recognise one letter, 'L'. Then, touching it with a long finger, she accidentally pushed it down and saw, for the first time in her life, the place where she loved to be, more than any other in the world.
Throughout the years, she had learned valuable information, such as the fact that if a book had a torn page, dented cover or had been soaked, it returned to its original state at once. That was why all the books looked brand new. She also learned that by shouting out a book's title, she would be taken instantly to its stair. Another important information that Alice learned was how to read a book. It wasn't just the normal way of simply picking up a book and reading it, Alice could do that for years. No, the way to read a book in Alice's secret library was to rub the title and put your head through the book, which Alice, feeling quite excited now, decided to do.
