Chapter Eight
Luna's numbing fingertips and frozen stomach had been warmed by the soup. She was helping herself to another bowl when Mrs. Chandler offered her bread. The girl delightfully accepted and carefully dipped one side of the bread to the warm soup. Luna felt a sudden warmth on her tongue when she bit on the bread. She squinted as the bread burnt the tip of her tongue.
“Careful dear,” Mrs. Chandler said as her magnifying spectacles fogged with the steam.
Mrs. Chandler removed her glasses to wipe out the fog as Luna blew steam from her spoonful of soup. Luna paused from blowing away the steam when she saw Mrs. Chandler's unmagnified eyes. The girl was shocked by what she saw. Mrs. Chandler looked ordinary and she was not scary at all. There were wrinkles around her gray eyes and her usual stern expression turned soft. Luna stared at Mrs. Chandler as the old woman placed her glasses back on. The old woman noticed the girl staring but she ignored it.
The longer Luna stared at Mrs. Chandler, the more she noticed the features of the old woman. Her hair was tied in a bun and it appeared to be tight but Luna noticed that there were a few rebel hairs which untangled from the bun. Mrs. Chandler's tight bun was actually quite loose. Her face was not stern at all and there was nothing scary about her, except for her voice.
“Are you finding something wonderful on my face dear?” Mrs. Chandler finally said as she looked at the girl.
“Oh. I'm sorry, ma'am,” Luna replied, looking back at her bowl of soup.
“Do I scare you?” the old woman asked, taking a sip from her tea.
Luna thought about her answer for a while. She did not want to offend the old woman, just in case she was the scary woman she thought Mrs. Chandler had always been. Luna bit her lower lip as she contemplated on her answer. When she finally made up her mind, she was surprised to realize that she was already nodding.
“Quite a bit, ma'am. I don't know why though, but I sometimes feel like you might get mad at me or something,” Luna said, as if it was not her who spoke.
Luna covered her mouth in panic, and then she slowly looked up at the old woman. Mrs. Chandler's eyes had been magnified by her glasses as she stared at Luna. At first, the old woman seemed to be angry, but the longer Luna stared at her the more she realized that the old woman was not angry at all but was smiling.
“I think I always look angry because of these.” Mrs. Chandler smiled, pointing at her glasses. “Don't you worry about it dear,” Mrs. Chandler added, and then she started laughing.
Mrs. Chandler's laughter was that of a little girl's laugh. Her laughter was quite contagious and so the girl started giggling as well, although she did not know what they were laughing at exactly. For a whole five minutes, the two of them just sat there, laughing at the unknown. When their laughter finally settled, Mrs. Chandler gulped down her tea. Luna followed her as she ignored her unacquired taste for the so-called soothing beverage.
“I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that,” Luna said, placing down her teacup.
“No worries dear. I quite think that if I was in your position, I'd be scared of me too.”
Luna smiled at this and then they continued to eat. They were able to finish their pot of hot soup with a little bit of push from their will. Mrs. Chandler seemed to have cooked too much for two people. The girl helped the old woman clean the table. She carried the bowls and the pot as the old woman brought the tea set in a small room just behind her desk. Luna followed her.
The room was a small cozy office. The floor was covered with a fading emerald green carpet and its small window was draped with lacy curtains the same shade as that of the carpet. There was a table at the center of the rug and a couple of peach bean bags around it. On one corner, there was a stove and some pots, utensils, cups, a loaf of bread and spices. Luna felt warmer inside the room.
“Welcome to my lair.” Mrs. Chandler giggled.
Luna found the room interesting. It was the tiger's private office. This was where the old woman was eating her lunch and spending most of her time. It truly surprised Luna on how warm the place was. She originally thought that it would somewhat look like a dungeon but instead it appeared like a small cottage on top of a mountain. At some point, Luna had a feeling that she would hear the ocean. Apparently, she heard rain splashing on the roof. That's close enough.
“Take a seat there dear. I'll just boil us another teapot,” Mrs. Chandler said while she set a small kettle on the stove. “It's quite relaxing to read on this cold rainy day with a warm tea... or would you prefer a coco?” she added as she picked up a set of small glass jars from a cabinet on top of the stove.
“Coco would be nice, ma'am,” Luna replied, remembering her distaste of tea.
Mrs. Chandler waited for the water to boil and then poured on two teacups. On one teacup she placed three teaspoons of chocolate powder and on the other she placed a teabag. She went over to the table with the two cups, spilling a few drops on the table.
“Those cups are too hot,” she said, blowing her hands. “Drink up, dear.”
Luna blew over the steam of her cup. She smelled the sweetness of the chocolate then took one sip. She took her sip quite fast for her tongue felt like it was burnt. She stuck out her tongue to cool it down as Mrs. Chandler took a slow sip on her tea. The old woman smiled at the girl as Luna tried to control her reaction.
“Careful there,” Mrs. Chandler said, smiling at Luna.
Luna smiled back and slowly took a sip on her cup. There was silence between them but, unlike before, Luna did not feel awkward. She, surprisingly, felt comfortable with Mrs. Chandler and for some unexplainable reason, Luna felt safe around the tiger.
“You seem to be enjoying your book, dear,” Mrs. Chandler spoke, placing a couple of white sugar cubes on her tea.
“I like it, I think,” Luna replied.
“Haven't you read it before? I mean, I do understand that children your age would have gotten that in the internet.”
“I did download it. But, I don't know, I just like reading it, as it is, here.”
“That's nice then,” Mrs. Chandler ended and then looked at her brown wristwatch. “Oh, I think I need to go out now. If you want to stay here longer it's okay.”
“Mrs. Chandler, why do you keep on coming back here when no one comes here?” Luna said before the old woman could even stand.
“You're here dear,” the old woman replied, smiling at the girl.
“No, I mean, you know, not including me,” Luna heard herself say before she could stop herself.
“Oh. Let me see.” The old woman squinted her eyes, although they were still magnified. “I'm just preserving what has been so that no one will forget, even though I think they're quite forgotten already.” Mrs. Chandler thoughtfully answered, smiling once again.
Luna's eyebrows went closer to each other. She did not understand the point of the old woman. The old woman noticed the confusion on the child's face. She took a sip of her tea then opened her mouth but she closed them again, thinking that she might be getting ahead of herself.
“What exactly are you preserving? The books? But people are still reading them,” Luna asked, biting her inner lip.
“Yes, dear. I am preserving the books. How the books feel on your hands, how they smell and how each page makes my fingertips alive. I think I'm preserving that.”
Luna looked at the old woman. In one part of her, she understood what Mrs. Chandler was pointing out. She understood that feeling when she first picked out a book from the rows of books in the library. She felt her fingertips pulsate when she first touched that book. The girl looked at her small hands and noticed the lines on them as she felt a sudden brush of a page over it. Luna smiled. The old woman was preserving this and she felt like she wanted to preserve it as well. She wanted to continue feeling the warmth of each page on her numb hands and how her mind becomes more alive with every page she flipped. She understood now why she liked going back to the library.
“Would you like to continue
reading for grandma, my little one?” Luna heard, and then she looked at the direction of the voice. Luna saw Mrs. Chandler looking at her with kind magnified eyes. The girl did not speak and she felt a lump forming on her throat. She bit her lip as her eyes became blurry with tears swelling on them.
“Is there a problem, dear?” Mrs. Chandler asked, drawing her graying eyebrows together.
“Wha—what did you s—s—say? I mean be—before that last one?” Luna stuttered as she tried to stop her tears from tracing down her face.
“Oh. I said, would you like to continue reading now?” Mrs. Chandler replied as she placed one warm wrinkly hand over Luna's hand.
“Oh. I thought...” Luna trailed off as her tears finally fell from her eyes. “I'm sorry, ma'am. It's just that I though I heard my grandmother,” she explained amidst her tears.
“Don't worry about it dear. I understand how you feel.”
Mrs. Chandler watched as Luna cried. The old woman held the girl's hand and did not let go until the girl had stopped crying. Mrs. Chandler brought out her flowery handkerchief and held it out for the girl. Luna took it and for a few minutes the two of them just sat there in silence except for the rain spattering on the windows and the roof of the building. The old woman held the girl's hand as the girl sobbed.