Puddles

Chapter 5: A Strange Scene

"Brian! Caleb! Where are you?" Vicky Cloude called as she walked around several bookcases. The lights had come back on, but in the brief darkness she had lost track of her two brothers. Had she read the sign right? She was sure it said 'Comics' in bold red letters. Then Brian came speeding around a corner, saw the source of the annoying hollering, and picked up his little sister. When it came to Vicky, Brian's big brother nature kicked in and he was generally a sweet thirteen year old. Caleb ran around the corner just after his older brother, nearly slamming into him. As to the "big brother nature," Caleb still had quite a while to go.

"My word, Vicky! We're in a library; would you quit yelling? Someone might think you're two again!!"

"Stop it, Caleb. You're close to yelling yourself. Vicky didn't know where we were and she was scared," Brian reprimanded his brother firmly. Vicky snuggled against her big brother's warm jacket. She was rather small for an eight-year old, reaching a height of exactly three feet. Brian held her easily in his strong arms, as if he carried a doll weighing no more than a few pounds. "Now Vicky, why were you looking for us? Did Uncle say it's time to go already? Or did you just want to come with us?"

Vicky whispered in her quietest library voice, which wasn't impressively soft, "I can't find Erin." But her brothers hardly looked concerned. Erin loved reading; she'd probably discovered some warm window seat and hadn't left since. 

"Aren't you guys worried? People don't just disappear!"

"Erin does when its her turn to empty the dishwasher," Caleb muttered contemptuously.

"Caleb..."Brian let a warning note slip into his voice.

"You know its true, Brian."

Brian turned to Vicky again. "She probably found a new hermitage, Vicky. She'll turn up when its time."

"Fine. You know what? I'll just go look myself. You guys stay here and keep looking at your junky Bulk comics." Vicky stalked off around a corner none too quietly.

"Hulk."

"Whatever!"

The two boys followerd her advice, and kept flipping through the floppy pages. But something in Vicky's voice still bothered Brian. "You don't think, you know, someone actually-"

"Come ON, Brian. You too?" Caleb gave his older brother the hairy eyeball, silencing him immediately, but not dispensing doubt.

The room Vicky had stumbled upon was painted a deep shade of blue, with a sofa and two chairs a lighter version of that color.  The door warded off any possible venturers with a cautionary sign. A circular table lay overturned between the room's two chairs. Vicky walked over to sit on the inviting couches to rest only a few minutes. A small book lay on the cushion next to hers. She picked up the large tome. The cover certainly did not look promising, and the pages had collected gallons of dust and a gazillion yellow stains.

I'll only rest for a few minutes, she told herself repeatedly as she drifted off. The day had been packed, and surely the search could wait a few minutes.

~ ~ ~ ~

A few minutes stretched into twenty, and then thirty, until Vicky had been sleeping for an entire hour. Her brothers started worrying, just realizing how long Vicky had been gone. The library was big, but not huge. Their search stretched on longer than they'd intended it to. Then Caleb called his brother over to a random door that warned all customers away from its contents. But Brian, not unlike his sister, crept in quietly and cautiously. He saw a small form laying asleep on the couch, her chest rising and falling slowly. Brian rushed over to Vicky, shook her gently as he whispered soothing words, and finally asked her why she had come into this room. She knew how to read, and surely she had seen the sign on the door? She had, of course, but felt an urge to walk through the door. Brian nodded appealingly, motioned her back the way they had come.

Vicky, unhappy to have arisen without finding Erin, refused and turned around, heading straight for another exit they had all missed on first entering the queer room. Brian reluctantly strode over to the heavy door and flung it open, sure that he would convince his pressing sister that Erin was not on the other side of that door. Both brothers stepped onto a sidewalk riddled with rippling grey puddles. Vicky turned this way and that, her face only screwing up with greater determination. "You'd think this would be her first choice," Vicky murmured to nobody in particular.

True, the odd room and the sidewalk beyond, when it was pouring rain, were in Erin's opinion the library's best features. Vicky had followed her solitary sister on more than one occasion, watching closely her every move, yet never speaking a word to anyone. But only the street greeted them, as cars rushed by in frenzied races. Vicky knew Erin was here, or at least had come this way. In her child's mind she reasoned, Where else would Erin go? The little girl splashed across several puddles, trying to think. Then one mass of growing water seemed to swallow her up, taking her away from her brothers' urgent and panicked cries. Without hesitation the boys jumped into, and somehow through, the puddle after their sister. The cars on the street rushed by, oblivious to the strange scene. The rain poured down as hard as ever, as if to cover up the tracks of the three children. They had gone, and the world did not appear to miss them.