A weird thing happened this week:
Something of mine disappeared right under my nose.
Now, it’s true I’m a mom and distracted by all things kid and puppy related, but that doesn’t explain this. I’ve got mom-radar. Other moms might recognize what I’m talking about here: kid drops small (but in their eyes priceless) trinket while out. Mom-radar goes off, alerting you to a sound and flash of motion no one should have the mental prowess to identify amidst the chaos. Tiny trinket recovered. Sobbing child averted.
I was baffled, but forced to move on with the day. (Hungry babies, grumpy toddlers and unwritten fiction necessitate such decisions). But after I got home, the idea of something disappearing under close watch stuck with me.
I’m definitely not sad about it, because from that thought, this short was born:
Tome of Ancient Perils
Jill N. Davies
“It was right here. I just put it down!” Elmyra huffed, slamming her hand on the heavy wooden table.
Vinny flinched at the sound. He could imagine puffs of dust shooting into the air then wafting, suspended by electrostatic repulsion, in the library’s currents. This was the exact sort of library that ought to have massive piles of dust everywhere. It was old. All the books were ancient, including the one that had just vanished.
“I told you how valuable it was before I released it into your possession,” the angular librarian hissed.
Vinny knew what the old crow must’ve thought about Elmyra. It was written on her derisive look. Little girl. Little irresponsible girl. But Elmyra was far from any of those things. She might look twelve, but she was sixteen. Elmyra was skinny as a rail and short as a half-stack of pancakes, but what she lacked in size, she made up for with intelligence and ferocity. The librarian was about to get a taste.
“Young lady, books don’t grow legs and walk off. That’s something little girls do,” the librarian scolded.
“I’m not a little girl!” Elmyra hissed. She held her shoulders back so that she stood her full 4’9” and set her eyes on the adult. There was a way she had of looking that made adults pay attention. Vinny figured it’d come from years of practice. It must be hard to be that small in such a big world. “And only lizards grow legs. The rest of us are either made with legs or not. I’d suspect a librarian knows how much words matter.”
The librarian’s jaw dropped. Vinny would describe it later as one of those cartoon moments that necessitated a goofy sound effect.
“She’s not lyin’,” he piped in, “I’ve been with her this whole time and the book really was there.”
The librarian glanced over at Vinny, whose hulking shoulders were slumped forward where he sat, meaty forearms resting on the table. Vinny wondered if she was measuring the size of his arms against her memory of the book, like she thought he was hiding it.
Not likely. The Tome of Ancient Perils took up the better half of the table… before it disappeared.
“Well!” The librarian huffed, straightening her glasses to the bridge of her exceedingly narrow nose. “How do you explain its disappearance?”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it? A book like that shouldn’t just disappear,” Elmyra said.
“Did someone take it?” The librarian asks.
“There’s no one else here,” Elmyra said.
“Yeah, it’s not like the Library of Historical Chronicles is a popular destination!” Vinny snorted.
Elmyra gave him a scathing glance. It was gone for her face before anyone else might notice, but Vinny did, and he knew what it meant.
You promised you wouldn’t make fun of this!
He had promised, and he meant to honor his word. Truth was that this was Elmyra’s thing. Vinny was only along for a ride. (And to score a few extra points with her.)
“How do you explain this then?” The librarian asked, waving her hands through the invisible dust, swirling it into a mystical haze in Vinny’s mind’s eye.
“I can’t. That’s the problem isn’t it?” Elmyra said. She crossed her arms, which should have made her smaller, but it had the opposite effect.
“What you’re suggesting is impossible,” the librarian said.
“It happened,” Vinny said. The moment he affirmed the situation was the first moment it occurred to him how unimaginable the situation was. In that moment, he couldn’t believe he was buying into the situation—but what option did he have?
“The Tome is irreplaceable,” the librarian said.
A light flashed behind the rich chocolate of Elmyra’s eyes. Vinny knew she was on to something. “Has this ever happened before?” she asked.
The librarian got a far-away look on her face. Wherever she was while considering this question, it was far from here.
“Once, but I was certain they were thieves. Our insurance paid out on the claim, but the book reappeared three days after the check was cashed. Our reputation was nearly ruined,” she said in almost a whisper.
“I think that’s happening again,” Elmyra said. She was excited now, and her energy was seeping into Vinny.
“What’s happening again?” the librarian asked. She was back in what she and Vinny might’ve considered reality if the circumstances were normal.
“Whatever happened that time!” She said as a smile of wild whimsy spread her lips.
Vinny loved those lips…
“This is nonsense! I’m alerting the authorities,” The librarian said, turning away from them. She took two steps before whirling around and pointing her finger at the pair of them. “Don’t either of you move an inch!”
Vinny watched her disappear behind the rows of dusty-smelling books. It was a smell Elmyra had likened to heaven, but Vinny would have just categorized as a varietal of paper.
“You believe me, don’t you?” Elmyra asked, pulling Vinny’s attention away from the retreating librarian. Her voice was low, so as not to alert the librarian, or anyone else who might be lingering in their vicinity.
“Of course I do!” he whispered back, without having a clue what she was referring to. That she didn’t steal the book? Of course. That the book somehow magically vanished? He wasn’t so sure of that…
“Good. Take my hand,” she said, reaching for him.
Vinny ran his hand self-consciously across his jean-clad thigh before putting the massive thing into her dainty grip. His head swirled at the contact and he felt what could only be described as an electric buzz that originated with their contact before traveling up his arm, lifting the hairs at the base of his neck.
“Close your eyes,” Elmyra said.
Vinny did. She gave his arm a slight tug so that he felt himself falling, tethered to her, toward whatever nothing she willed them toward.
They vanished to wherever the book had gone.
The End
Check out my video reading of the piece on IGTV
Want something with a bit more meat on the bones? I write short stories for reedsy. You can check out my entries:
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