Mr. Linden's Library

All her life, she had heard the same rumors about Mr. Linden’s library. Anna grew up never knowing if the rumors were true. The suspense and the mystery of it all were killing her. She would walk by Mr. Linden’s library everyday and stop to look in the large glass window but never actually go inside. In all honesty, she was afraid. The rumors she had heard when she was younger were scary and now she wasn’t sure if she really should find out if they were real.

No, she had to. It was now or never. She didn’t want to go through the rest of her life and never know if what she heard was true or not.

The bell on the top of the wooden door jingled as she pushed it open. The old man behind the reference desk smiled at her as she walked by and she returned the small gesture. She made her way to the back room, roaming through the aisles with stacks of books arranged on the shelves on either side of her. She scanned the spines of the books as she walked along, waiting for a title to jump out at her.

She had reached the last aisle and still nothing caught her interest. She sighed as she stopped at the end of the aisle, glancing over the books on the shelf once more.

She had no idea why everyone had said such horrible rumors about Mr. Linden’s library. It appeared to be a normal library. There didn’t seem to be anything unusual about it—until the gold writing on the side of a book on the shelf began to glow.

The Secret Garden the side of the book read. She reached for it and pulled it off the shelf. She knew this story. She had read it a few times before. But when she opened the book, she noticed that this wasn’t the same story she knew. The story was slightly altered. She figured that maybe this was a different version of the story. She loved the original version so much that she wanted to see if this altered version did it justice.

She placed the book on the desk and slid it over to the man on the other side whom he assumed to be Mr. Linden. The man looked down at the dark green book and unfolded the stems of his glasses, hooking the ends around his ears and sliding them up higher on his nose.

There was a sharp intake of breath as the book smacked against the wood and Mr. Linden stepped back.

“Are you sure you want this one?” He questioned.

Anna looked from the book to Mr. Linden’s fear-stricken face. “Yes, I’m sure.” She said confidently.

Mr. Linden furrowed his graying eyebrows as he flipped open the front cover and scanned the barcode on the front page.

He let out a defeated sigh as he slid the book back over to her. “Okay,” He said. “But be careful with this book. Don’t leave it open for too long unattended.”

“Okay.” She assured him.

She tucked the book under her arm and continued on her way home. She began to wonder what he meant by ‘don’t leave it open for too long unattended’. But Mr. Linden was getting old and she didn’t think he was in his right mind anymore.

Later that night, she sat in bed, reading the new book she had gotten from Mr. Linden’s library. She quite enjoyed the alternate version of the story. It was different, but a good different.

After she got to the end of the page she was reading, she glanced over at the clock on the bedside table. It was already ten o’clock but she couldn’t stop reading. She was so wrapped up in the story.

But she could feel her eyelids growing heavier with every passing minute and sleep pricked her eyes. She put the open book down next to her and placed her head down on the pillow.

I’ll just rest my eyes for a few minutes and then I’ll continue reading. She told herself.

As soon as her eyelids slipped closed, it was a constant battle against sleep. In the end, sleep won the fight.

Minutes turned into hours and the book lay open next to her. As she slept, vines covered in leaves the same color as the book began to grow from in between the pages of the book. The longer the book was open fore, the more vines that grew and the longer they became. They twisted around the bed posts; the lamp on the table by the bed; and even the door knobs and curtain rods. Soon, her room was unrecognizable. The dark green vines had taken over.

She awoke with a start when she felt something snake around her wrist. She sprung up in bed and looked around, horrified. What had she done? She didn’t listen to Mr. Linden, that’s what she had done. He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late.

She looked to where the book had been next to her and began tugging at the vines to let them loose. The book was gone.

As she sat there, trying to decide what she should do next, a realization hit her square in the face. All of this had happened in the story. The girl had woken up to find her room covered in vines and she entered the secret garden through a door covered in jewels.

Anna looked to the wall on her right and there was the glowing bronze door covered in jewels. She was inside the story. Mary Lennox was no longer the little girl character in the story. Anna Carson was.

She placed both feet firmly on the vine covered floor and stood up from the bed. She reached for the gold door knob on the bronze door and the door grew brighter. She pulled her hand away out of surprise but then reached for it again and opened the door. She ducked her head to enter through the small opening in the wall.

There she was—in the secret garden. She knew what she had to do now. She had to find the book. The problem was she had no idea where to start looking. She hadn’t gotten that far in the story yet.

“Hello!” A boy called out to her.

She looked over and saw him standing a few yards away from her, holding her book.

“Oh, thank goodness. You found my book!” She hurried over to him and reached for the book in his hands but he pulled it away from her. “May I have my book, please?” She asked impatiently, placing a hand on her hip.

The boy shook his head. “I can tell you didn’t get to the end yet. You see, I am the one who must close the book in order for everything to be restored.”

“Well… Thanks for ruining the ending…” Anna mumbled.

“Now close your eyes.” The boy instructed. “When you open them again, everything will be back to normal.”

Anna closed her eyes and waited for something to happen or for someone to tell her it was okay to open her eyes again. She waited, and waited, and waited. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, she opened her eyes and saw that everything had gone back to normal.

She sat up in bed. Was it all just a dream? Did any of that actually happen? She looked to the dark green book resting next to her—now closed.

She picked it up and opened it to the page she had left off on. She began reading but soon realized there was something very strange about the words on the page. This story was different. The story had changed.