Summoning

Chapter 6

Aaron released a heavy breath as he looked around his room. The small bedroom seemed cramped after staying in his grandfather's house for several weeks. He really wished his mother hadn't made the decision to sell it, even if he understood it wasn't feasible to keep it. What it must cost just to maintain a huge place like that, not to mention how far away it was.

He was glad, however, that the university where he attended and his grandfather had been a professor decided to buy it. The man who had come to take a look at his grandfather's huge collection of old and rare books had asked about it. His mother agreed quickly. It felt like something his grandfather would approve of.

Leaning down, Aaron opened the large, plastic box on the floor. It contained the things he had salvaged from the house and the musty smell of the place blossomed out of it. Specifically, it was the odor of the library: Aaron's favorite room and where the items came from. One by one Aaron removed them and their newspaper wrappings.

First was an old mirror with a carved wooden frame. It depicted an oak tree on one side infested with mistletoe, which then wrapped around the rest of the mirror. His grandfather had once told him the frame was in fact oak and mistletoe. He had also said it was a gateway to another world. Aaron smiled with amused fondness as he recalled how easy it was to be wrapped up by his grandfather's stories.

Aaron put the mirror on the bed and then moved to his desk. He removed a Lord of the Rings poster featuring Aragon, Legolas and Gimli and leaned it against the wall. Picking up the mirror again, he hung it on the now vacant nail. He glanced at the poster and decided to take that with him when he returned to the dorms in August. Though, he might have to take it out of the frame to hang it there as they weren't supposed to put nails in the walls.

Returning to the box, he uncovered several small, stone statutes and placed them on the top of his bookshelf. A dragon, a griffin and a phoenix all depicted in extraordinary detail for being only five inches tall. He often wondered at what kind of stone they were. Polished so smooth the black stone was reflective, he had once thought marble but it was doubtful. Sometimes light would reflect red, purple or blue and he'd never heard of marble doing that.

The interesting stone was not why he took them. His grandfather's stories had included these creatures and Aaron had spent many afternoons on adventures to find and capture them. Every time he came to visit, they would be tucked somewhere different for him to find. He could almost hear an echo of his grandfather's laugh as the man watched him from the leather chair.

With its pieces separated and the glass wrapped with special care, Aaron next took out the kerosene lamp. The base was darkened brass and thick to resist being knocked over. Gently, Aaron placed the red glass bowl into what looked like brambles stylized to be symmetrical. Then he fit the metal piece containing the wick and knob into the brass burner and then those on the base. Finally, he fit the red glass chimney on the lamp.

His grandfather had said the red light was perfect to read by because it didn't strain the eyes, though he had never actually seen his grandfather use the lamp. However, as the wick was lightly charred and the glass carried a familiar, musky aroma, he must have.

Leaving the lamp on his desk, Aaron returned to the box and took out the last items: books. He hadn't taken many; most were so old he was afraid he would hurt them trying to do anything more than dust their covers. But there were a few beautifully preserved books he had to take. A collection of Grimm's fairy tales with beautiful engravings illustrating each story was on top. Then there were a few classics like Swiss Family Robinson and Gulliver's Travels that he remembered listening to his grandfather read aloud. Finally, there were some leather-bound religious texts that had been in their family for generations. Neither he nor his mother had been raised with anything more than the bare traditions, but he had to keep those if only because it felt wrong to let them go.