Cara Evelyn

Chapter-3

~Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.~
-Anna Quindlen-

The night was filled with sheer serenity as the cab traveled all the way down the narrow road from the station to drop us two to the center of the Earth; our universe. The air carried a faded scent of the forest as it rushed in through the rolled down windows. Once over with our silent journey, I paid the driver and led the foreign girl towards the familiar building. With quiet steps, I entered inside and then stretched my arms after putting the heavy carton on one of the tables by the main entrance of the library. An overhead bulb shone dimly in the darkness of the night for the convenience of my tired eyes.

"Don't tell me this is your home!" I heard excitement drooling in her voice as she ran ahead of me between the high bookshelves, her hands lingering over the books which were neatly displayed in rows and columns all around us. I felt myself getting envious of her bubbling energy after such a long journey.

"Well, it is." A light smile colored my lips as I saw her little silhouette spring here and there between the floor-to-ceiling wooden racks. Taking out an old copy of Wuthering Heights, she inhaled the nostalgic scent of the paper that I had grown to adore a lot over time.

"Unbelievable." She turned around and whispered. I noticed that her eyes were wide like a little kid's who saw a shooting star for the first time in his life. She held the book close to her heart as if hugging it dearly.

"You like it?" My hopes perked up a slight notch.

A cute smile spread on her face as I saw her ocean eyes go wider and blink so many times before she opened her mouth to answer. Bemusedly, I took in her bright features surrounded by her silver hair that perked out in every direction possible. She seemed to be evaluating her words before letting them out of her rosy lips.

"You know, there are stages of this. When we say we like something, we mean to say that we are fond of that thing but then there's this word love that transforms that fondness to something called obsession. It's complicated. Yeah? So..well, I neither like it nor do I love it. I guess I would just say that I'm on a journey around the world and I'm excited as hell to make the most of it! Umm..that's my answer..yeah." She raised a finger to seal her words and turned around to place Wuthering Heights back while balancing herself adroitly on tiptoes. I wondered that without her boots, she won't be able to take it out again. Maybe I'd place it somewhere lower since it was the first book she took out and might want to give it a read.

"Don't worry, I have my ways." The right corner of her lip lifted up slightly as she noticed my eyes scanning her boots. By now, I had understood that she was quite observant and could perceive mere expressions as whole sentences. "By the way, I don't reread books." She shook off her hand dismissively and turned the corner to walk into another alley full of books.

I frowned and followed her. "Why don't you reread?" I felt stupid for asking this question but I needed to know if she had a theory behind it too. By now, she was sitting on the floor, balancing her weight on one of her bent knees and the other on her boot. I could see her midnight eyes searching the lower cases as an almost-invisible-to-be-noticed crease sketched itself on her forehead.

"You want the long answer or the short one?" Her casual voice floated towards me over the homey scent of old books as she dug in further into the lower shelf.

"The long one." An amused smile appeared on my face as I went to take a seat by her on the floor, my back resting against the book case. My reply was a bit odd, provided the amount of travelling I had done, but all I wanted was to hear her tonight.