The Book

By Swagata Maji

In one evening of the Winters,

tourists were travelling by

a city in the midst of whose

a library stood, very high.

A tourist went to library

as he had heard a lot

of decor, luxury and its books’

collection and what not!

While he was there in library,

a boy came up to him

from a corner of the library

which seemed to be quite dim.

The boy had brought a book with him

whose title was “THE BOOK”,

he handed it and left the place

ignoring tourist’s look.

That night the tourist opened it

and found it to be strange,

the only thing he saw in it

was a picture of a grange.

The house was dusty, old and cracked

with webs all over the gable,

some broken stairs it had in front

and attached to it was a stable.

A nameplate carved “Shootover Grange”

was hanging from its door,

the tourist now remembered he

had heard the name before.

He searched the internet and found

two newspaper articles

and both of them had the picture of

the boy with the incunable.

The first one said, “Young sorcerer,

Jacob Shootover manages

to get his house, Shootover Grange,

imprisoned in THE BOOK’s pages”.

The next one said, “An old businessman

murders Shootover family

for the sake of their house” and both incidents

had taken place twenty years early.

Suddenly THE BOOK’s pages then

started to turn rapidly,

from nowhere in the tourist’s room

did Jacob appear shortly.

He looked at the tourist angrily,

said “Pay for your father’s sin!”,

then the tourist was flown up in the air

and thrashed at the open tin bin.

On hearing the loud thud sounds in the room

the neighbours tried to forcefully enter,

astonished were they as the found the room

all messy and the resident disappeared.

A woman from the gathering picked up

“THE BOOK” that lay near her feet

and she could not know how its page depict

the tourist that her eyes did meet.

By Swagata Maji