The Library Girl

Chapter 37

December 25, 2015

This cannot be happening again. Honestly, this cannot be happening again. How many times will I have to lose my home?

I think I should explain. I'll start from where I left off last time. Back when I was still drunk with excitement from the Christmas celebrations, unsuspecting of what was to come. After I stopped writing in my diary, we turned off the lights and talked all night. It was wonderful.

The next morning we all had breakfast together at Emma'sand then went our separate ways. I started off back to the library,happy because the Christmas celebration had been wonderful and I thought I was going back home to all the books and the rest of the day spent reading all alone in the library. What I didn't expect was that when I arrived, the library would no longer be standing tall and erect to welcome me into its warm and loving arms. Instead, the library was a blaze of glowing orange and yellow. Flames licked the white walls like the tongues of some venomous creature, and all the while the fire was growing bigger,sending sparks crackling into the sky like fireworks, and quickly devouring my home.

The library was burning down.

Yes, my home was burning down for the second time this year, but I had learnt something from last time. This time, I would not simply look on and do nothing to save my home. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me down the road and into the nearest shop, which happened to be a little corner store. I asked to use their phone and the man behind the counter, seeing how distressed I was, passed it across the counter to me. My hand trembled as I found the number "1" and pressed it once, twice,three times. I could hear myself breathing heavily into the receiver as I waited for someone to pick up. Finally, I heard the familiar click of a phone being picked up from the other end, and a calm voice asking me how they could help.

"The library is burning down," I said, my voice sounding small and thin. "I need a fire engine as soon as possible." 

Then I gave them the address of the library and hung up.I left the shop and returned to the library. The fire had grown significantly, and had consumed most of the building. It wasn't long before I heard the high-pitched wail of the fire sirens,starting faint in the distance and growing louder and louder until at last two bright red fire engines sped into sight and stopped in front of the library. I watched the firemen in yellow suits as they climbed down from the vehicles and began to unravel the long hoses. Although the firemen were moving as fast as they could, I still began to feel impatient. It seemed like forever before they were finally ready, and the hoses were all pointed towards the library. They turned them all on at once, and water came gushing out of the powerful hoses, drenching the fire, which sizzled and died. 

Tears pricked my eyes as I looked at the remains of the library. It was too late.It isn't as bad as my first home had been, for there are still a few walls left standing, the leftover tendrils of smoke rising from the site and twirling up into the brilliant blue cloudless summer sky, where they dissolved into nothing. But a few walls are nothing. I can no longer live here now that everything else is gone. The roof above my head and the floor under my feet are gone. So are the bookshelves and every piece of furniture. But worst of all, the wonderful books have all been reduced to ashes.And so has the story that I have been working on for so long, that I have been so proud of, and that I was planning to publish someday. But now it will never be published. No one will ever read it again, for now it is gone. Gone, just like everything else here. Gone forever.