Neringa and the house of books.


Prologue

Eventually the woman died. Her magic faded, but he child she was carrying survived. It was caught by magic itself, wrapped in the cocoon of time, like a butterfly. But unlike a butterfly the embryo did not develop. She just existed, caught in the web of time. Ensnared in the threads of hours, minutes and seconds; rocked to sleep by the song of the future, the past and the present. There she rested for centuries until one day a magic of the new ages broke the spell. The foster was only in its fifth month therefore it needed a new place where it could feed and develop until it was ready to enter the world. The magic brought the child to a young human woman, who was already with child. It killed her baby and replaced it with the magician’s infant.


Chapter I

Neringa

”beep, beep!” The sound of an alarm clock could be heard all over the house of nr. 3 Lullaby Street. An arm reached out from under a quilt and pressed the button for off. Then it fell to the floor with sloppiness. A door cracked open and someone entered the room. Curtains were pulled back and suddenly light were pouring in from the window. A moan was heard from underneath the quilt. The quilt was pulled off and revealed a teenage girl. A woman stood bent over the bed and observed her only daughter.
“Rise and shine, darling.” She said. “It’s time to go to school.” Another moan came from the girl. She’d put her arm over her face to protect the eyes from the garish sunlight.
“Neringa!” said the woman strictly. “If you don’t go up now you’ll be late again. I don’t want more calls from your headmaster. Understood?” The girl gave a sight.
“I am up mother.” Neringa said.
“Good.” Answered her mother. “I’ll prepare breakfast.” The woman left the room. Neringa was sitting up in her bed now. She yawned. She rose from her be and shivered when her bare feet touched the cold floor. It was already April and yet the weather was freezing. The snow had gone but as Neringa looked through the window she saw a layer of frost on the ground and I the trees. It glittered in the light of the sun. She turned towards her wardrobe while she was thinking of what to wear for the day. After she’d rummaged a little she found a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, blue with silver butterflies. “This’ll do.” She thought. She put her clothes on and went to search for her hairbrush. At the moment her room was a mess and she had to look long before she found the hairbrush. When she was done she went to the kitchen, where her mother sat waiting at the table with an angry look upon her face.
“What took you so long?” she asked. “It has been 15 minutes already.” Neringa didn’t answer. She just sat down opposite her mother and grabbed a sandwich and the butter. She ate without speaking to her mother. When she’d finished she went back to her room, grabbed her school bag and went towards the front door. Her mother called.
“Don’t forget this.” She said. Neringa stared at the gadget in her mother’s hand. It was a coin.
“I want you to buy a stamp for me. I am writing a very important letter.”
“Why don’t you go buy it yourself?” Neringa shouted. “I am tired of being your slave.” Neringa knew very well that this upset her mother. At the moment she did not care. She was tired of having a mother that did not leave the house. Neringa was to do all the shopping, buy food, and even buy clothes for her mother. Nevertheless she took the coin and put it into her pocket. The she turned around and marched out of the house.
When Neringa was walking to school she was angry and it didn’t get better when she arrived. Her teacher in maths told the class that they were going to have an unprepared test. When the bell finally ran for break Neringa knew she’d done badly on the test. In fact she’d not done so well at all lately. Everything had started the day her father died. Her mother who’d loved him more than anything had got a breakdown. In the beginning she’d been unable to care for herself. Neringa who’d been only 15 had to care for cooking, washing and everything. Nowadays her mother did the house duties. If only she’d go out again...
“Hey, Neringa, over here.” Neringa was interrupted in her thoughts by her friend Laureena Dusseldorf. Laureena stood by the old tree in the other end of the yard. Neringa went to her. They spent the break talking. Really it was Laureena who did the talking. Neringa just listened and at right moments she muttered, mm, okay and so on. The next lesson was history. Neringa liked his subject; she liked to read about medieval castles and kings. Today they were reading about Louis XIV. The sun king, he who lived in a beautiful barrock castle in Versailles.

When the day was over Neringa was quick to leave the building. She didn’t want to be interrupted by any of the other girls. She didn’t feel like talking. She just wanted to be alone to think. She did not take the ordinary way home. She went the road which led to the forest. Then she remembered that she was supposed to buy a stamp but she’d already reached so far that she didn’t care to go back. She just kept walking. On and on she hardly realised that she’d went very far into the forest. The forest was many miles wide. It got darker as the trees grew closer to each other. This was a path not often walked by other people. Suddenly Neringa’d arrived to a huge glade. No trees were growing there. There was grass like a small meadow on either side of a stone path. The path led to a black gate. The gate belonged to a house. It was the most curious house Neringa had ever seen. It was made out of wood. It was long and on the left side there was a tower. Behind the tower one could see something that looked like a huge bubble of glass. Neringa was amazed. She’d never seen the house. Spellbound she walked towards the gate. As she got closer she could see that word were written on the gate, written in white. These were the words to be read:

In Quoecunque libro anima qui liberala est imaginatione lectoris.

Neringa didn’t understand the words, but she was convinced that they meant something special. Something important. Then suddenly she felt such strong desire to see what was inside but she was afraid to enter. This might be someone’s house. She could not just barge in uninvited. Then without knowing why her hands pulled and the gate opened.