Terracotta

The Hidden Treasures of Time: A Chance Encounter in the Library

we hurried in a fantastic way as to not be removed from the school due to our age. atop the green curves there lay a brown cuboid spire that stretched an open hand with glossy windows to the sky, adorned with a bronze, oxidizing statue. Two wings flourished from this: both laden with heavy foundations sneaking into view, racks for bikes rudimentaly placed there and most importantly: students of age older than ours, we crept into the double doors and the sheer size of the bookshelves blew us away. Century old ladders, books from over half a millennium and the people were sadly older than the residents of the school as if it was a clique, needing two decades sufficing it's need for trust of these books, but amidst the undeserving rowdy duos and trios, there someone lay with tattered book without a designation to the library. It seemed a teacher from the school had swiftly left the child alone. She bore a close-to-the-temple long bob, jet black and over conditioned, she turned, the hair moved against the air, and she expressed a hope to read such an old book that the boy was possessing. He seemed not timid but contemplating and having difficulty focusing on the novel he fondled; shortly he stared at the maroon ceiling and the borders that skirted the shelves and numerous divisional murky windows. Leo without thought went up to the boy, He seemed troubled by presence of someone in our range of years but still spoke in perfect English guessing our nationality somewhat close: "Deusch? English?" he grazed again the rows of parchment and thin ink "I did study Latin......I don't want to thrust the book at you two, but if you were looking at it like that art teacher, I suppose you do want to read it." Before I could reason that we weren't, Leo sharply inquired. "Is there a date on it?" The boy fleetingly grinned and showed a prowess for research, grabbed his odd folder that lay on the floor and skimmed drawings of obelisks, trims of Italian newspapers, the bland page of his research, "I looked up the German translator and when she did her job for this book and pitched to my art folder that it was drawn from the presses from 18 72"we shared a look then to companions, that this 14-15 year old could quite help in our domain here.