DARK WIZARD

4

Gabriel arrived one night at the boarding house, and doña Zara handed him an envelope. He no longer doubted who the letter could be from, and a strange sensation indicated to him that this would be the beginning of great changes in his life. He went up to his room. He wasted no time. The first thing he did was tear open the envelope. The letter, like the previous ones, was very concise but significant in its words:

Dear Gabriel,

The moment has come, and there is no time to lose. It is necessary that we meet urgently. I am living ten blocks from the boarding house. The address is 320 Azcuénaga Street.

Don Anselmo

Nothing more. No further explanation. He wasted no time. He called a taxi and headed to the indicated address.

He found himself in front of an old building, on whose facade with faded letters read: "Watch Workshop." The front of the business was unlit; at that hour, most of the shops had already closed their doors. He looked through the window, through a tattered plastic curtain, and could see a faint light coming from the back. He knocked on the door, and a hoarse voice responded from inside: "Come in!"

The place was shrouded in darkness. Hundreds of ticking sounds of different tones and noises of oiled gears welcomed him into a room crowded with old clocks of all kinds. In the background, a silhouette of a man's back could be seen, sitting and leaning over a desk. A single light from a wall lamp illuminated the man's workplace.

—Come closer. Don't be afraid. —said the man without turning around.

Gabriel approached and could see an elderly man with gray hair. A strong sweet scent permeated the air.

—How are you, Gabriel? It's nice to see you again —he added, turning around.

At first, the young man didn't recognize him. But soon he realized who the elderly man with thick glasses, wide nose, rosy cheeks, and thick eyebrows peeking over his glasses was. A lit pipe rested on the work desk; it was emitting the aroma that filled the room.

—You've grown quite a bit

—Are you...?

—Don Anselmo. You can call me Don Anselmo.

—¡Yes, yes! But what I meant is, are you the man I met when I was a child?

—At don Carlos' store. Exactly.

Gabriel was amazed. It was the same old man who hadn't changed at all over all these years. One could argue that when one gets old, they stop aging, but this man remained just as vital as he did eighteen years ago.

He remembered the comment made by the old man while waiting to be attended by don Carlos: "Good book that one! Old Verne listened to me!"

—J.V. Now I remember.  —Said Gabriel, thinking out loud and returning to reality.

—How so, Gabriel?

—J.V. Julio Verne?

—Exactly. I thought you'd remember me.

—To be honest, I didn't remember you, and those postscripts at the end of each letter drove me crazy: 'J.V.'s friend.' Quite funny of you.

—Funny?

—Well, if someone claims to be a friend of a person who lived in the nineteenth century, it's funny, and a bit foolish, I'd say.

—You'd be surprised to know how many people I've met.

—I'd like to understand what all this is about. You've been sending me books since I was in the orphanage. Are you perhaps a distant relative of mine?

—Not at all, lad."

—Then what is the reason for all this? What are you looking for?

—Everything has an explanation, but the best explanation I can give you about all this will seem unbelievable to you. I just want to ask you to give me the chance to clarify the matter for you. Then you can decide.

—I'm listening, then.

—Good, but not here. I want to show you something.

Don Anselmo stood up.

—Come, follow me. —He said, approaching the center of the room.

He pushed aside a rug that covered part of the wooden floor. Underneath it hid a small door leading to a basement. The basement was lit. A somewhat rickety staircase led down.

—Be careful going down, Gabriel, the steps are a bit loose.

They began to descend. Using the staircase as a reference, on their left side, attached to the wall, stood a very rustic contraption of ancient polished wood, which formed a strange combination: it was both a library and a bed. It had four shelves where dusty books were piled, which were only a part of the total, and, almost level with the floor, under these shelves and serving as support for the entire construction, a wooden plank was attached as if it were another shelf, but with the particularity of being slightly wider than the others. This part of the furniture served as a spring upon which a mattress collapsed with a couple of blankets on top. To the right of the staircase, on the other wall, hung an immense painting in which the imposing figure of a unicorn standing on its hind legs stood out, in a defiant and majestic attitude. In the center of the basement was a large table made of the same wood as the "library-bed" (such was the name that had occurred to Gabriel from the first moment he saw that piece of furniture). On this table, in great disorder, there were books, various notes, and miscellaneous objects. At the back of the basement, lost in the shadows on the floor, without apparent order, and stacked up to the ceiling, there were hundreds more books, and some relics to which don Anselmo provided care and refused to part with. The room was completed with a pantry, full of rustic utensils, and a kitchen; the bathroom was upstairs.