poemtry and prose

Autumn wiped the tears from her eyes as she stood just outside of Coffee People. She looked to the left and right, barely recognizing anything. For the first time in her life, she was now unsure of where to go and what to do. Heading to the only place that felt familiar and kind, she went back to the Page Turner. She was still crying as she opened the door. It was warm inside, the heater having been turned on when she arrived earlier. Autumn went into the back office and grabbed two sheets of paper.

Sitting down at the desk, she looked off in the distance, lost in thought. Then she groped for a pen and wrote in big block letters, DUE TO A SICKNESS IN THE FAMILY STORE CLOSED FOR TWO DAYS across both signs. She needed a small break from reality and unfortunately, the only way that she was going to get it was by shutting the store down. Autumn took the bank deposit bag out from the desk drawer where she put it earlier and decided that it was time to cash in the last earnings for the next few days and head home.

Deciding to clean up a bit, Autumn walked through the shelves of books one last time before she left. She loved her store and the thought of closing it down for a few days scared her more than anything. She had no idea whether or not she would be able to rebound from the loss in sales. Gently, she traced her fingers over the spines of the books. Their cloth and smooth paper covers felt cold to her skin. She inhaled deeply and filled her lungs with the stale musty air tainted with the slight smell of paper and dust.

She wandered in and out of the stacks and soon found herself staring at the two shelves she had dedicated to Myths of the World. Thinking about the raven statue, she wondered what such a creature meant symbolically. Her fingers walked over the different types of books containing various world mythologies. Her hand ran over a rough and worn book spine. "Huh," she thought to herself. "This does not look familiar. Nor does it seem to have a title on the spine. I wonder where I got it?"

Autumn pulled the hardback book from its resting place in the stacks. She flipped the book over in her hand and felt the cover. It felt like leather, with it's coarseness and tiny bumps worn into the book-board underneath. It appeared old and well used, and many of the page edges were roughened from years of having been flipped through and weather disheveling the pages from the inside of the spine. There was also no title or author name written anywhere. Autumn furrowed her brow and carefully opened the book, letting it fall open to a random page.

An ornate script scrawled out across the page. She could not read the words on the page, but their letters were familiar. She realized that what she was holding was a journal, written in Latin. There were sketches of a cylindrical tube drawn on the page with numbers denoting some size next to the length and diameter. Flipping through the book, did not reveal any pages she could read but when she got to the end of the writings she realized what she was holding in her hands. It was the item the boy told her about. The thing he had hid so that Blackstone could not find it. Nervously, she took the book as well as a few other random books from the shelf over to the front counter.

"Just in case someone is watching," she thought. "I would really not like to see those two trench coated guys coming back here and finding me with this book. Was Andrews, er, Graham, right? I mean, do THEY really exist and could bringing this book and wand together to this guy Blackstone really destroy the end of the world?"

Autumn stared at the book sitting on the counter with three other books stacked on top of it. Her head hurt and she did not want to think about the boy, his death or the idea that daemons really did exist in this reality. "I think I shall just go home, now, and think about it all."

Grabbing some tape, Autumn walked over to the front door with her two freshly made posters. Tears started welling up in her eyes again as she held one up to the glass and put a piece of tape over it, holding it in place. While she knew it was crazy and dumb to cry, she could not help but wonder if this was the last time she would actually be at her store. The second flyer was taped on the window near the door. She hoped that her patrons would understand her need to close the store. Autumn grabbed the books, stuffed them into her bag and then left The Page Turner and went home.

Her heart and mind weighed heavy with the decision to shut the store as she unlocked the door of her apartment and entered. "Bubba, mommy is home early today," she said looking around for her furry beast.

Bubba had found a nice sunny spot on the her bedroom floor. As Autumn stepped into the sunlight, the tiny cat woke up and stared at her with a look that said, "Please step aside and get out of my light." Autumn smiled at her cat, wondering what it would be like to be free from the worries of the world. Free from having to think or deal with the issues she was facing right now. She bend down, her knees cracking slightly and swept Bubba Gadget up in her arms. "Come on Bubba, let's take a nap." And she laid down on her bed and closed her eyes.

It was dark out when Autumn opened her eyes. She had slept the whole day away. And yet, Autumn was hesitant on getting up. Sleep had felt good and even though she did not have any dreams tonight, she did not want to leave the security of her bed. It was warm and the purring kitty did not help. Autumn scooted closer to the edge of the matress and peered down at her clock. It was nine o'clock. Her stomach growled in response to the lateness of the day. "But I really, really do not want to get up out of bed," she began. "Of course, I have not really eaten anything other than a cup of warm chai. So I should get up and fix both me a Bubba Gadget something to eat."

She slid out of the bed and felt for the floor with her toes. Stretching wide, she left the bedroom and turned the lights on, heading for the kitchen. Her stomach growled once more and Autumn stared into her freezer. There were a few microwaveable dinners and a frozen pizza. Neither of the meals sounded appetizing to Autum. She scratched her head and continued looking. The pantry was almost bare, there were a few soup cans and a pack or two of ramen. She groaned at the lack of anything that would both nourish her body and make her feel comfortable. She did not want to go out and either eat out at a resturant or go spend hours meandering around in the store in search of whatever would placate her tummy.

Bubba Gadget was happily munching away at his bowl of dried food, purring through the scarfing noises he made. Autumn hated those sounds. The way her cat ate sounded like he was happily choking himself to death. She once tried to tell him to slow down and carefully chew his food but Bubba Gadget never listened and only licked his teeth clean. "Sometimes it was hard being a mother to a different species who never understood a thing you said," she thought staring at the cat.

"Just do me a favor Bubba, and do not choke on your food while I am gone?" she said grabbing her black leather jacket and the keys. "I guess it is my turn to go out and find something to chow down on. I will be back soon, okay sweetie?"

And with that, Autumn was back outside and walking down the street to her favorite Thai resturant. She knew she should not be eating so extravogantly but she also figured that a nice tall glass of Thai Iced Tea and a number fourty-two, Chicken Pad Thai was about as comfortable as any comfort food could get. Soft string and flute music was playing as she entered the Satay Heaven resturant. A young asian woman wearing a black bib with the elephant logo of the resturant greated her and took her to the bar. Not that many people were sitting in the resturant tonight, as Autumn whipped her head around to survey her surroundings.

Booths were seperated with glass stalls containing flat sections of bamboo and grass. The seats were a muted brown color and the walls were painted a golden yellow, giving the Satay Heaven contrast. The bartender walked over to Autumn and handed her a menu encased in red plastic. The familiar elephant logo appeared on top of the menu. She flipped aimlessly through it, mostly pausing to look at the specials of the day. Unfortunately, her favorite, Chicken Pad Thai was not amoung the specials listed.

"Does the misses want a cool drink," the bartended said in his familiar broken english.

"A large Thai Iced Tea," Autumn replied. "Thanks."

"You know what you want," he responded.

"Uh, sure. I will just have a number 42 tonight. Again thank you."

The bartender scribbled down her order in characture language Autumn did not know. She thought about the journal she found in her store and all the strange words contained therein as well. She wondered just how similar the writing from the earlier pages looked like the asian languages. The mystery behind the whole idea of a doomsday device, secret underground organizations and supernatural creatures sounded like the very good things she liked in a novel or movie and peeked Autumn's curiosity. However, the fact that she was somehow involved and directly connected in all this worried her. She hated feeling uncomfortable and not safe.

The bartender set a tall, cold glass down next to her. A dark layer of tea sat in the bottom of the glass while a light layer of creame or soy milk sat on top. Autumn took the straw from the bartender's hand and swirled it in the drink. Ice made clinking sounds as the two colors swirled and mixed together in the glass. She sipped a small taste of the elixir and smiled. "Ah, now that hits the spot," she thought. "If only I had the teas and creames to make this stuff at home. I would be happy."

She looked ahead of her, her reflection stared back at her from the mirror set behind the bar. Desipte the face that she had not taken a shower in a couple of days and just woke up minutes before, her hair looked alright. Light circles appeared under Autumn's eyes but as she had allergies, she was used to seeing them there. Autumn thought about the talk she had earlier with Andrews. She stared a bit more, deeper into her own image, deep down into her soul, "What would make Andrews think I am anything more than just who I am. I am a woman, a bookstore owner at that. I am nothing special and certainly not material for some secret under cover organization."

Midway through her thoughts, the bartender arrived with her Pad Thai. Smoke and steam raised the scent of chicken and peanut sauce into Autumn's nose, making her mouth water. She thanked the bartender and voraciously tore into her meal. She ate her meal in almost silence, savoring every bite and every sip of her tea. Every time the journal, Andrews, or the events of the past two days entered her mind, she just pushed them further out of her mind. She knew she had to think about what was going on and how to get herself out of the situation but she did not want to taint her meal.

Just as quietly as she entered the Satay Heaven, she paid for her meal and left. Her stomach was full of food and she felt sluggish and full. Autumn checked her mailbox before going back to her apartment to look at the book and rest some more. Luckily nothing was in the box so she took the stairs back to her abode.

Safely locked in her apartment, Autumn located her bag. She threw the satchel open and took out the journal and a copy of Myths of the Americas. Gently she carried both books into her living room and turned on her lamp. She wrapped a blanket around her and slowly started leafing through the journal. Even though she could not read any of what was written there, a story seemed to emerge from the pages. One of construction and destruction. She looked closely at the pictures showing how the wand thing from her dream was made, and then at the insignia of the wigned bird that appeared in a few places on the pages. One page contained a realistic drawing of a beautiful woman, with black wings and a set of horns growing from the long black locks of hair. A daemon, she figured, and continued to leaf through the books.

Hours passed by and Autumn yawned. The world outside looked peaceful and serene. It had started raining again and they distorted the lights from the street and other buildings on the glass. Autumn wondered where Andrews was. And what he was doing now that he knew that the world was in danger. She wondered what he would say to her if he knew she had a book that contained everything there was to know about this item. She looked down at the journal and desperately wished that she could read it herself.

"If only I had taken latin," she muttered through a yawn. Bubba curled up next to her, releaved that his master had come home and was not in a bad mood. Autumn continued to think about all that was going on as she pet the cat. This was something she did not want to rush. Part of her wanted to end it all by destroying the journal in her fireplace. However, another part of her told her to trust what Andrews said and give him the book. Both options sounded plausable and a good way to keep her out of trouble. Yawning once more, she decided that another night of good rest would help her decide what to do. However, deep down inside her body and soul, Autumn already had made her decision. She already knew which step and action she was going to take.