Lost Together

Chapter 5

Even though the three knew where the train station was now, they didn't exactly know how to get there. And besides that, they didn't even know where to go by train.
But Jack had a plan. Well—not really a plan, but if it was one thing he knew—then it was to get away from their parents as far as possible. Somewhere, where they couldn't find them.

Although, Alma and Myron were happy back at their old home—Jack wasn't.
And it was this very moment when Jack got the chance to run away from home.
He waited for this to happen, even though he never really wanted it to happen. But it was the best chance to leave together with his brother and sister, who Jack could've never left behind. They were probably the most important people in his life. The only important people.

//

Myron stopped when they came along a building and pointed at it, saying: „Wait!"
„I know we should hurry, but—can we pay our local library a short visit? It could be useful."
Now both, Alma and Myron, were looking at their older brother.
„I don't know, Myron. We really shouldn't waste ti—"
Jack couldn't even finish his sentence, when he noticed Myron disappearing inside the library, Alma following him quickly.
His eyes widened and he immediately took the same way his siblings did. Into the building.

The first room, they entered, looked very welcoming.
To the right was a counter with a little lamp on top of it and a librarian sitting behind it, reading a book. It was an elderly woman, wearing reading glasses and a light purple knit sweater.
The rest of the room already had some huge shelfs filled with books and some passages, which led to other rooms.

Jack finally caught up with his siblings, who were now gazing at all the filled book shelfs.
Myron was downright astonished at everything and Jack had to admit, that he was too—like his siblings, he liked books a lot.
"Just one moment, okay?" said Myron, when he saw his brother walking up to him and Alma.
"Fine, alright." Jack replied, smiling a bit and watched Myron hurry off to another room with Alma.

When Myron uses the word moment, it usually means an hour—or even more than that.

To shorten the time, Jack walked upstairs, to the section he mostly went to, when they were at the library. The section with old books.
The smell of very old and dusty books was in the air, most of them almost likely to fall apart if you just touch them.
Almost no one was there, except for an old man, who read the newspaper.
The man lowered it a bit to take a look at Jack, peeking over the big bunch of paper.
He had a long white beard and his head was bald. He wore a black vest and a white sweater underneath it.
When Jack went over to a shelf and started eyeing some of the books, the man cleared his throat, shook his newspaper carefully and decided to continue reading it.

Jack ran his fingers over the book covers as he looked at every one of them.
Suddenly he stopped and slowly, so that nothing falls apart, picked up one of the books.
It was big and heavy, had a dark green tone and, with golden letters, Tales Of The Peculiar was written on its cover.

"If I was you, I would put that book back down." the old man said with an oily kind of voice.
"What?" Jack asked and looked up from the book, over to the man.
"What I mean is, that you should put it back. It's kind of dangerous and no young man like you should read it." he explained, while putting the newspaper on his lap.
"Thanks, but I think I know what I'm doing here." Jack replied and opened the book, while he heard the man laugh at what he just said. But Jack ignored him.

He kept on turning the pages and came across many tales like The Splendid Cannibals, The First Ymbryne, The Locust or Cocobolo. Every one of them seemed to have an extraordinary title.
But one tale caught his eye the most and he stopped abruptly, his eyes fixed on the title.
The Legend of the Lost Loop was written down on the page.
Jack flipped through the chapter and only read some parts of it. But that was already enough for him to tell what the tale was about.

It was about a library many people fought for and lost their lives in a terrible battle. People as tall as giants, trying to kill each other and eventually the winner took over this library.
Those things reminded him of something. Something he and his siblings used to do together.

//

Alma was crouching underneath a chair, wearing a pink dress and a small tiara.
On top of the chair stood Jack, holding a huge blanket behind his back and having two horn-like scraps of paper stuck in his hair.
They were playing pretend.
"Help!" Alma cried out. "A dragon trapped me here!"
Suddenly, the door slammed open and Myron entered the room with a wooden sword in his hands and a paper crown on his head.
"Let the princess go, you beast!" Myron said to Jack and pointed his sword at him.
Jack laughed. "No! I'll keep her here and then I will take over your kingdom!"
After that Myron ran towards his brother and pretended to stab him, but Jack was too fast and already hopped down from the chair, moving out of the way.
„I'll defeat you!" said Jack, grinning at Myron and hitting him with the blanket, that represented wings.
While they pretended to fight each other, Alma crawled away from underneath the chair and jumped onto her bed, cheering for Myron.

After some time, Jack sunk to his knees and the tip of Myron's sword was pressed against his chest.
„Oh no! You killed me! Now I have to die..." Jack said, his voice having an overacted tone.
Then he slowly laid down and played dead.
„Awesome!" said Alma cheerfully, clapping her hands.
All three ended their game and laughed together.

//

Jack read more of the tale and stopped, when he saw a drawing of something. Or rather someone.
That person looked like some monster, only his worst nightmares could make up.
It had long horns and his hands were huge, with fingers like gnarly roots and arms like tree trunks. But at the same time it wasn't so terrifying as Jack thought it was at first.
The monster was smiling down at a large crowd of people. Everyone seemed happy.

Caul.
That was the word, or name, what was written down under the drawing.

He didn't know why, but this name meant something to Jack.
Jack had never heard of it before, but it still sounded familiar. As if it was the perfect name for him. He began to really like it.

He left the book open and put it down. Then Jack hurried over to where the old man was sitting and grabbed a notepaper and a pencil.
Jack couldn't borrow anything from this kind of section in the library, because the books were too old and brittle for people to take them with them.
So he wrote the name Caul down on the notepaper.

The old man leaned over, to see what Jack was writing. „Caul, huh?" he said and Jack slowly nodded at him. „Well, I could tell you tiny bit about that man, my boy."