Book of Secrets

Chapter 5

Kylie's jaw drops as she takes in the intricate drawings that are on the page. I slowly drag my fingers over the watercolor marks as if checking that they were real. They were.

There is a date in the lower left corner, and in a language unknown to me, there is a caption written in nearly perfect print across the top of the page. I squint at the lettering, hoping it will somehow magically change into English.

"It's French," Kylie whispers so quietly that at first I don't even catch it.

"What?" I quietly ask. I don't know why I feel like I have to whisper about it. It's just a book of drawings after all. But somehow, I feel that what lies in the pages of this book are guarded secrets.

Kylie repeats herself in a low voice, "All these captions are in French." She flipped a few pages and put her index finger on the foreign words.

"I don't know any French," I sadly say, still running my fingers over the paper.

"Vallouis," Kylie reads. "That's a commune in France." She flips the page. "Hier soir on a eu droit a' un concerto d'eclairs en guise de bienvenue, j'ai vu une boule de faillure!!" Kylie drums her fingers on the table, takes a sip of her soda, and gets back to business. "Emma, when I had to take a language in school, I picked French. I've always wanted to go to France, so I've done an unbelievable amount of research on the country. I know most cities and landmarks, but only a bit of the launguage."

"Ok, Kylie. So, what does that say?"

She bites the corner of her mouth. "We were treated to a something delcaring our something. I have seen a ball something to Earth," she translates, replacing unknown words with 'something.'

I pull my iPhone out of my pocket, click on the Google Translate app, and copy the unknown words onto my phone. I read them off in order, "Concerto, welcome, and fall. I think ball is bolt. Look at the picture!"

Kylie examines the picture on the page. It is of a beautiful water color mountain scene, with storm clouds above. In the biggest cloud there is a black outlined figure shooting a thunderbolt from his hand, Where the bolt meets the land, there is a small flame.

"Yeah, that's probably it," Kylie agrees.

We continue to decode the messages. There are all sorts of messages. Some personal, like anniversary notes, some random, like a picture of a moon with a superhero's mask, and some travel related.

Kylie and I are about in the middle of the black journal now, but the pictures just stop. I reach for the book and flip through the rest of the pages quickly, but they are only plain and empty.

"No," I whisper. "Well, I think we should keep the book. We are the only people here, and there is no chance of finding the owner in D.C. is nearly one in a million."

 Kylie looks dissapointed. She continues to flip through, until she's at the back cover. There is one drawing we missed. It's right next to the back cover and it's a small, light pencil sketch of a cross.

Kylie picks up the book to put in her bag, but a slip of paper slides out from the book. She looks at it. Her breath catches. "Emma, look at this!"

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Ok, the highest this book has been is #25 on all Spiritual books. I would be proud, but I have no idea how many spiritual books there are! LOL. :) Ok, so this is kind of based on a true story. I went to D.C., I found a French journal full of drawings and captions in a Subway restaurant. The captions and drawings I refer to are from the real book. Except that no slip of paper slides out. And I still haven't found the owner, even though I continue trying. And I didn't become Christian through all of this, because I already am Christian! :) Ok, so thanks for reading and stuff! Sorry I haven't been posting! 3 more things: If you are reading this, please comment with the word COW. I'm trying to see who actually reads my rambling author's notes. The second thing is please vote this book up! And the third thing is read my other book the Big Break! It's feeling lonely! No one reads it! :'( Yup, that was my self-promotion time. Ok, adios readers! ;)

-fantastically