MAGISTAN

Chapter 15: A Backwards Future

Chapter 15

Elem stared at the Box of Dreams while chunks of gray stone fell all around her. Her pulse quickened. Her breath shortened. Hurry. Write something down. She reached into her cloak and pulled out a small notebook and a pen. She jotted down seven words, "May the twin-peaked castle always stand tall." Elem rolled the paper up tightly. She slipped it through keyhole into the Box of Dreams.

The ground suddenly stopped trembling.

Elem glanced up at a gray stone pillar beside her. It was cracked and crumbling a moment ago. Now it appeared perfectly shaped and intact.

Relieved, Elem sighed. She picked up the Box of Dreams. Look at it now. It's so small, small enough to fit in the palms of my hands. Elem ran her fingers along the diagonal patterns carved into the wood. She recalled a day that happened ten years ago. Elem was only 15 when Tobias first gave her the Box of Dreams....

It was a warm summer afternoon. Elem was in her bedroom sitting in front of an easel. She dipped her paintbrush in to a pallet of assorted colors and began to shade in the red leaves on the Chestnut trees, when she heard a loud distinctive knock at the front door - two quick knocks, then a long pause, followed by three more knocks. Elem suddenly stopped painting. She put the pallet of colors and the paintbrush on the table. She hopped out of her chair. It tipped backwards and landed on a mound of junk. There were chipped glasses and unmatched silverware. There were cracked picture frames and torn paintings. There were broken shovels, brooms without bristles, faceless clocks and blackened oil lamps. There were headless hammers, rusted screws, bent nails and stripped bolts. Out of all the junk in Elem's room, only five items actually belonged to her: the pale blue nightgown beside her bed and the faded white and green dress, gray sox and scuffed leather boots she was wearing.

"I got it," Elem hollered. She headed out of her bedroom door when her foot caught a ball of yarn that was lying on the floor. She tripped and fell sideways on a stack of crates. The top crate tipped over. Bottles of glue, tubes of paint and an assortment of brushes fell on the floor. Elem paid no attention to the clanking objects. She quickly got up. She continued down the hallway.

"Elem!" her mother, Juju called out from inside the hallway.

Elem paused. She looked back.

Juju poked her head out of the closet. Her overgrown bangs streaked with gray covered much of her face. She tucked some of them into her daisy print headband. "Where are you off to now?" Juju asked.

"He has something to show me." Elem said, excitedly.

"At this hour? Can't it wait?"

"No mother. It can't." Elem snapped back.

"For heavens sake. Your father will be home soon. What about dinner?"

"I'll eat when I get back. He's always late." Elem continued down the staircase.

"And what about your room?"

Elem smirked while eyeing the cluttered living room filled with miscellaneous junk her father had collected over the past few months. "As soon as I get back."

There was another distinctive knock at the door.

Elem spun around. Her elbow caught the side of a stack of teetering books on top of some dirty clothes. The books toppled onto the floor. Elem ignored the mess she just created. She raced down the staircase brushing against the cardboard boxes that lined the stairwell. She jumped off the last step. She ran towards the front door kicking a stack of old newspapers and torn magazines out of the way.