I coiled my fingers around the door handle of the adjoining library doors and then twisted it in the downward direction with a satisfying click as the door opened on the inside. A thick cloud of coarse dust blasted on my face, making my nose twitch that instant, and making me cough harshly. Not a greeting which I expected.

I set my foot inside the library, and my leather boot made a quick heavy sound as the heel hit the marble floor; the only sound in the exceeding and the haunting silence of the hushed building. Inside, a still and an eerie darkness subjected that the library was abandoned and somebody had turned off the lights. I could not even think at that time that it was closed, because no one would close a library before locking it from the outside.

I grabbed the door handle and then slightly closed the door. The festive music and the noisy chaterring of townsfolk seemed to die out behind the door and the library walls. If someone was inside, I wanted them to know that I was here, so I cupped my hands around my mouth and then hailed out in the darkness, "HELLO? ANYONE THERE?" but deep down, I knew that no one would answer.

I cocked my head to a side to search for a light switch. It was the same feeling which I had felt when I had entered inside my favourite childhood place... My grandmother's manor... I began to feel the same way when I was greeted with darkness upon my arrival and I tried to find a light switch. Thinking this, a horrible shudder traced up to my spine, but I dug my hand into the pitch-black darkness.

Please there be a light switch. Please there be a light switch.

The thought repeated in my head over and over as my fingers traced the wall with uncertainty; years and years of thick and filthy dust on the wall's surface started to get effaced by the tips of my fingers. There was no sign of any light switch.

"I should better leave", I muttered, turning back towards the door. Just as I grabbed the door handle, I heard someone's quaint and rapid footsteps just coming my way from the behind! Suddenly, the lights flickered on, illuminating the whole room in an amber light.

I slowly slowly, along with shaking uncontrollably, turned around, and my eyes locked with a serious-looking man dressed in a long black gown reaching to the end of his toes. He had long, curly hair which was either coloured white or was naturally white, and from behind a black-framed pair of glasses, stared at me red-rimmed and dull cold grey eyes which did not gave even the slightest hint of life. His lips were turned into an angry scowl and his eyebrows were furrowed, giving me a cold gaze.

He had a long, narrow blue register in his one hand and the other hand was on his waist. Behind him, long narrow shelves stretched till the end of the halls with books lined in several rows. The crystalline chandelier above the scowling man shone in the most haunting manner. It's light wasn't yellow, orange or amber. It was a dazzling ruby-red colour which created a red spiral around the man. The man's scowled lips turned up into a tedious smile.

"Aaaaaahh... You must be the new librarian", the man said. He had a husky and a rough voice, a voice which would mostly suit a grumpy moody schoolmaster who always had the habit of yelling at the schoolchildren, sometimes for a reason and sometimes for no reason. "... I already told that scum Mr Cartwright that the new librarian must be an amateur. Aaah... By just looking at you, I can tell that you are forced to work-"

I could feel the anger rising in my chest! It was an insult! I knew that he was mistaking me as the new librarian... An AMETEUR NON-SERIOUS LIBRARIAN... and he was also insulting my looks, that I looked like an amateur who was forced to work here in order to earn some money to support my family or whatever! I balled my hands into tight fists and stomped my foot onto the marble floor!

"STOP! I AM not the new librarian that you have been expecting! I demand that you say sorry to me this instant!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, my nostrils flaring. I believed that my angry attitude would make that rascal in front of me apologize to me but in response, he began to laugh sarcastically, and that sarcastic laughter soon turned into mighty guffaws.

"Me... And apologize to you...? Are you mad? Your completely out of your mind!" The man bellowed, and laughed some more.

"I just came here to pick up a good book, but I think that I'll leave!" I cried furiously before once again turning back towards the door and grabbing the door handle, twisting it quickly in the downward direction and slightly opening the door. Once again, the cheerful sounds of the townsfolk and the festive music became alive again, and the man behind me gave a low grunt, and then cried, "Stop! Which book do you want?"

I took out my pocket watch and then looked at the time. It was nearly eleven o clock.

"No thank you!" I cried, still turned towards the door. "But you already wasted my time. I'm in a hurry. Some other day perhaps!"

"Suit yourself!"
   
                                ***
It didn't took me long to find the flower shop in the town of Marlinspike, because as Ma had told me, there was only one flower shop in the whole town. With the help of some strangers and the town's residents, I was able to locate the small elegant flower shop; several pots with stunning and gorgeous flowers were displayed outside the shop. It's windows were covered with blue wooden shutters and it had a sky blue roof which exactly matched with the sky's colour.

It had a thin and a narrow sign fixed on the top of the roof: Caroline's flower boutique.

Just as I was about to advance toward the flower shop, the wooden blue door of the shop opened on the outside and unexpectedly, Ma stepped out. She had a cardboard shopping bag in her one hand, and in the other she clenched a plastic transparent shopping bag so tightly, that it was already tore from the top despite all the clenching.

I again looked at my pocket watch, and saw the time. It was ten forty-five. She had told me to come there at eleven. Guess she had changed her mind. I waved to her with my both hands, shouting to her, but I didn't think that she noticed me. She just stood there, starting ahead with a rigid face and an expression which mostly suited a possessed person.

I finally stopped waving and went to her. She suddenly looked at me, snapping out of her incessant gaze. "Oh!" She said as she noticed me. "Ready to go back to the church?"

"What's that in your shopping bags?" I asked, pointing towards the cardboard shopping bag, and then towards the plastic shopping bag. Two wooden stakes with pointy tops half-emerged from the cardboard bag, and in the plastic bag, a couple of heavy books.

"I will tell you when we reach the church", She answered, pursing her lips afterwards. And with saying this, we both started walking.