Chapter Three
Mrs. Chandler looked at the girl on the floor and before she could even open her mouth, Luna stood up. The old woman's eyes fell on the book that the girl was clutching on one hand. Luna tried to hide the book behind her but it was too late. Mrs. Chandler's eyes went back to Luna.
“You're supposed to be reading that on one of the tables over there,” Mrs. Chandler said, pointing at the direction of the long tables near the high windows. “The floor's dirty and cold, you might not feel comfortable.” And then the old woman left.
Luna was surprised at this. She was expecting a scolding, instead, she received a soft roar from the tiger. She walked slowly out of the bookshelves then went over to the tables. She placed the book on the table and pulled one wooden chair as quietly as she could. Just as she was about to sit , her pocket started to vibrate. She received a text message.
Where are you? It's almost lunch. Come back now.
It was from her mother. Come to think of it, Luna did not have her breakfast and it was nearly lunch time and yet she was not that hungry. She wanted to reply and say that she wanted to stay out a little longer but she had to go home or else her parents might find out that she wandered a little too far from their neighborhood. She went back to where she got the book then placed it back on the shelf. She slowly walked towards the door and just as she was about to head out, Mrs. Chandler looked up from her desk and called her.
“Come back tomorrow and finish the story,” the old woman said as she seemed to be examining Luna with her glasses hanging over the bridge of her nose.
Luna nodded and offered a smile, and then she walked briskly out of the door. Mrs. Chandler still gave Luna a jumpy feeling and so the girl walked away as fast as she could and crossed the street. She passed by the dress shop that Mrs. Chandler was looking at that morning and passed by the coffee stall where the old woman bought her morning tea. She crossed to another street and turned to the curb where she first chased after Mrs. Chandler, and then she brought her mobile phone out to send out a reply to her mother.
I'm coming mom.
Luna passed by a few houses and waved at familiar old neighbors, and then she was again, walking on their front lawn. Her father was no longer sprawled on the green grass, instead, she found him on their couch, reading something from the online news. Luna closed the door behind her, half hoping that her father would look up from his laptop, but, as always, he continued to read. Luna sighed at this. Her father had always been like that, even when Grandma Sandy was alive. He had always been busy working either at home or in his office. He, however, rarely goes to office now. Ever since he was transferred to online marketing, he had been at home for most of the week.
Luna went to the kitchen to show her mother that she is back from her walk. Mrs. Robbins was nearly done cooking the spaghetti sauce and now, she was carefully swiping on her iPad. She had copied another recipe online. It probably had something to do with the greens she placed in a bowl in front of her.
“I'm home mom,” Luna said as she waved a hand in between her mother and the iPad.
“Oh sorry dear, I was reading on how to make a proper dressing for this salad. Lunch will be ready in a few,” Mrs. Robbins said, still looking at the instructions on the iPad, “Can you fix the table please?” she added, looking at Luna.
Luna shrugged and smiled, and then she went over the kitchen cabinets to pull out three plates and three forks. She placed the plates and the forks on top of their long round dining table then went back to the kitchen to get three green handmade rectangular placemats. She went back to the dining table and placed the placemats carefully around. She placed one on the head of the table and one on its left and the other on its right. She then placed one plate and fork on top of each placemat. She went back to the kitchen to get three glasses then went back to the table to put one glass on each placemat.
After preparing the table, Luna went to the living room to call her father. Mr. Robbins did not notice Luna standing next to him until Luna tapped his shoulder. He was now busy making a report for his boss. When Luna tapped him, he finished typing one sentence and then he turned his head to look up at her. He raised both thick black eyebrows and looked at Luna as if he was asking her why.
“Lunch,” Luna simply said, pointing at the dining table with her thumb.
“Okay, five minutes,” Mr. Robbins replied then went back to typing.
Luna nodded then trodded back to the dining table. She sat on her usual place—the left seat from the head of the table—and simply waited for her parents. It took Mrs. Robbins ten more minutes to finish what she was cooking, and then she brought the food from the kitchen to the table. Mr. Robbins took fifteen minutes before he went to the table to join them. Mrs. Robbins still had her iPad on as she looked at some clothes online while Mr. Robbins had his laptop as he reread his report. Luna turned her iPod volume a little higher, and then she ate.
This was the usual dining set-up in the Robbins' house after Grandma Sandy died. Before, when they were eating, Grandma Sandy would ask her son and his wife to put their gadgets away as they ate. She would often amuse little Luna with stories and Luna would laugh or smile in awe as Grandma Sandy gave her a forkful of pasta or a spoonful of mashed potato. Luna thought of those days, and then she removed her earphones and took a swig of orange juice to dampen her throat and clear her mouth.
“Uhmm...mom? Dad?” she started, looking at her plate of spaghetti.
Luna's parents seem to not have heard her as they continued to do what they were doing. Luna thought that her voice was just probably too small and soft that they were not able to hear her. She cleared her throat and tried again.
“Mom? Dad?” she said again, this time louder and clearer as she looked at them.
“Hm?” her mother said as her father simply lifted his eyebrows.
“Have you guys been to the town library?” she asked, thinking of telling them about her morning adventure.
“Yeah,” Mr. Robbins said, as Mrs. Robbins nodded.
“But it was ages ago. I don't even remember much about it,” Mrs. Robbins added, forking out a green leaf from her plate. “Why?” she asked, looking at Luna as she chewed.
“Nothing. I just thought of it,” Luna replied, twisting her fork on the pasta.
“That building's old and I think it's about to collapse so don't go playing around there, okay?” Mr. Robbins said as he looked at Luna.
But it's still fine, it's just old, Luna thought as she nodded. Her parents might get mad at her if they knew that she spent her morning there, so she just kept it to herself.
On the remainder of lunch, Luna ate in silence as her mother showed her father some new stylish furniture that would seem to look good in their house. Mr. Robbins smiled in agreement then asked his wife to read his report and check for any mistake. Luna watched her parents for a while then went up to her room.
She shut the door behind her and leaned on the door, sighing. She looked up and saw her computer still switched off. Luna went over to her bed and removed her sneakers. She turned off her iPod and placed it back on her bedside table. She stretched on her bed for a few moments, thinking about the book she was reading earlier. She closed her eyes and saw the dust images floating in her mind. It was as though the gold, brown and gray dust came to life in her mind and magically formed the images she had been thinking of that morning. Cool, she thought and the soothing voice came back to her mind's ear, whispering her thought. She smiled at the thought of the radio-announcer voice reading to her.
“Am I crazy?” she said out loud as she got up and sat on her wheeled-chair.
She kicked the floor a few times, here and there, and then she was in front of her computer again. She turned it on and waited for her computer to set up. She was playing with her computer mouse when her computer finished setting up. Her desktop was a picture of a tree that was once outside their house. They had to cut it off for the wifi connection in their house was getting disrupte
d. She activated her chatbox and then started to click on a group conversation she had with her friends the night before.
looneyluna12: anyone awake yet?
bratpittsk23: yep
hi luna
what's up?
looneyluna12: have you been to the library?
77goferme34: oh, you mean the one across Martina's?
samanthawright: the one that creepy mrs. tiger is running?
bratpittsk23: isn't that place like going to crash like any moment?
looneyluna12: that's what my dad said
samanthawright: that place is creepy
and so is the librarian
lol ;-))
looneyluna12: so, did any of you go there?
77goferme34: you mean like actually enter it?
looneyluna12: yep
77goferme34: nope, not a chance
bratpittsk23: why would i want to go there?
samanthawright: i might die there
the books might suffocate me
or the boredom
or mrs. tiger might bite me
rofl :-)) :-)) :-))
bratpittsk23: btw
have you seen the new Ryan Higa vid?
it's funny!
Luna closed the window as her friends began talking about other things she was usually interested about, but, for this particular day, she just wanted to tell someone about her day in the library. Apparently, her friends are the type of people who would make fun of her for even entering the library, more so if they knew she read something from it. Luna looked at her chatbox list of online friends. She found no one sensible to talk to, or at least, she did not see 18phoeb2014, she's probably asleep, Luna thought, as she closed her chatbox window and opened a new window. She logged in her blog and then she clicked a button to add a new post.
I feel alone at the moment. I have no one to tell this to, so I'll say it to you.
Do you remember that woman who lives near the corner to Mr. Bennings' house? She's called Mrs. Chandler. Anyway, she smiled at me this morning, I think. But I was too scared to smile back or anything. I don't exactly know what came to me but I followed her. I followed her all across town to that scary library that she works in.
I never thought that place still worked. I had this thought that it was probably haunted. Well, she's scary after all.
I was just there, avoiding her and then I picked up a book. Would you believe that? I picked up a book. And then, I started reading it. It was weird though. I mean, I already know the story but then I just read it and I found it... interesting, I guess.
If any of my friends from school knew, they'd laugh at me. So please don't tell anybody. Anyway, I think I won't go back there anymore. Mrs. Chandler scares me too much plus, I already have a copy of that book in my ebook reader so, I'll just read it from there.