Page 41 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
“How do you know who I am?” I asked.
He set down his fork. When he made full, unwavering eye contact with me, I had the most overwhelming feeling of being seen. Truly seen. “How couldn’t I know about the young woman who works in the Library, taking care of all our books?” he said softly. “Just because our paths were not allowed to cross, doesn’t mean I couldn’t recognize a kindred spirit from afar.”
I don’t know what I had expected him to say, but it wasn’t that. We just stared at each other for a while in quiet understanding.
“I’m sorry about your collection,” I finally said around the lump in my throat. “It must have been painful to have to leave it behind.”
He nodded. “It was. So was leaving behind my friends and neighbors. Everyone I’ve ever known.” He removed his glasses to wipe moisture from his eye.
I didn’t know what to say to that. What Icouldsay to that. So I asked instead, “What did you mean when you said some of your books might be burned?”
The chair creaked as he leaned against the backrest. “You’re young, so the books you’ve seen and read are all you’ve ever known. But there used to be others.” His gaze drifted above my head, as if he could see them just over my shoulder. “Books about anything and everything under the sun. Anything you’ve ever thought, anything you’ve ever wanted to learn…there was a book for it. Multiple books, even.”
“What happened to all of them?”
He sighed. “Anything that could incite rebellion…anything that could give citizens ‘ideas’ of any sort…those were all burned. Except for a few that some of us stubborn old people have heldonto over the years.” He resumed eating. Yellow pieces of egg were visible in his mouth as he spoke again. “I bet Cato made certain you didn’t come across any books like that.”
Apparently. I certainly hadn’t seen any.
“The piles we separated the books into,” I explained, “were books to add to the Knowledge Center and books to share with the public.” This had him pausing mid-bite. I continued, “Cato said there’s no point in going to all this effort to preserve the books in the Library if we’re not raising another generation to take over for us when we’re gone.”
George’s eyes became glassy again. “I agree wholeheartedly.”
I felt a gentle touch on my arm. I had nearly forgotten that Nya was sitting beside me. Now she was beginning to stand.
“We have to go,” she said, her voice low and apologetic.
I followed her gaze beyond the bonfire, where a group of around twenty people had gathered, all young and able-bodied. I spotted Kieran, Cecil, and Xiomara among them.
George followed our eyes, too, then smiled kindly. “You kids have fun. If you two join me for breakfast again sometime, I’ll tell you all about what it was like before The Awakening.” He added with a snort, “From a child’s perspective, anyway! But then, what better perspective is there?”
As we made our way through the sea of chairs to the rest of the group, two images kept circling through my mind.
A room full of books.
And an old man, alone by the fire.
CHAPTER NINE
According to Nya, the hike to the beach would take several hours. Even though it felt like we were backtracking the same way we had come the previous night, we eventually turned to head further south.
The landscape was much the same as what we had traversed before, but seeing everything during the day was a whole new experience. Thick forest surrounded us in every shade of green. We shouldered through fields of giant foxtail, pushed through clusters of palm fronds, and passed through clearings where the surrounding trees were so tall, they blocked out the sunlight. The hum of cicadas sounded all around us.
Cecil and Kieran led the pack, with me, Nya, and Xiomara trailing close behind. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the order the rest of the group walked in.
Besides taking in the beauty of the plant life, I kept my eyes peeled for any other creatures that dared make an appearance. So far on our journey, I had seen a swarm of gnats, a warty toad, a single ladybug, and about a million mosquitoes. But as wereached the peak of a hill dense with scrub, I spotted something in a clearing to our right that made me gasp.
Cecil and Kieran whipped around, on high alert.
“A hamina!”
Cecil roared with laughter, and Kieran’s eyes softened.
“You all go on ahead,” Kieran said, falling out of step with Cecil and motioning for me to follow him. “We’ll catch up.”
Nya waved as I passed by her. When I crossed in front of Xiomara, I caught her sneering.
I trailed Kieran through the foliage, mimicking his movements. When he crouched low to the ground, I crouched also. We moved slowly through the tall grass and weeds, trying to make our footsteps noiseless.
