Mr. Linden's Library by shivaree

NORMALACY
CHAPTER 1
An end. The one thing that Myu wanted most of all, and end to her homework problems, seemed farer away than the dark side of the moon. Myu hugged her coat tighter to herself as she walked down the old cobblestone street, autumn leaves swirling around her head like a bizarre halo. Myu dug her slender fingers into her pocket, sorting through the awry of old pennies, discarded gum wrappers, and spare scraps of paper and withdrew the note her mother had written for her before school.

Mr. Linden
165 Battlement Street
Old Town

Her parents had decided that the most practical and efficient way to help their daughter better her grade was to hire a private tutor. Though, Myu did have a long debate on that subject with the benefits of quitting school and becoming a professional painter. Myu could still hear her mother's voice nagging her how nothing ever came of them. Myu! You'll have a good life if you get good grades. You can move on and get a good job. Think how many painters there are? A few are needed for our National Art Program,but all those painters are hard workers who went to fancy universities.

That didn't matter to Myu though, plain and simple she just didn't want a tutor. Preferably, she didn't want to worry about grades but you can't have everything in life, now can you? Anyway, there are more pressing matters on hand for Myu. Mainly, she had arrived at her distance of 165 Battlement Street; better known as Mr. Linden's address.
The house was old and built on a grand scale, when it was built – however many generations ago – it was obvious that no expense was spared. Unfortunately, the beauty of the house's face had been marred from The War. An honor, really. That meant it had been significant, a place of plot and intrigue. Myu bounded up the front stairs of the white wooden front porch with the infectious enthusiasm of a teenage youth and knocked on the large door, rocking back and forth on her shoes.

After a few more emphatic knocks the door opened, revealing a man in his mid fifties to early sixties. He was a few scant inches taller than the petite Myu, but age had given him a considerable amount of girth and his swirls of white hair left a rather large bald spot on his head. He was dressed as a man of his station should, wearing black pants, a white button up shirt, black suit jacket, and a navy blue waistcoat embroidered with golden stitching.

A smile came to his mouth and the crinkled lines about his eyes showed the results of a life of soft smiling. “You must be Miss Kravork?” Mr. Linden inquired politely and held out his hand. Myu couldn't help but feel that she liked him, and held out her hand in return. She was surprised that Mr. Linden had a firm grip for his age. “Call me Myu,” she returned.

Mr. Linden stepped aside, allowing her to enter. “I have the library set up for studying” he said and led her down a hall longer than the ones seen in an old museum, and with white marble flooring and all the other touches of nostalgic antiquities. On one side of this gargantuan corridor was the library, it had a massive dark oak door that led to the room.

The library itself contained all the books, of course in The Nation's brown leather binding, that one would expect to find in a scholar's library. “Wow,” Myu said, and punctuated the sentence with a long, soft whistle. “You're free to look around while I get some extra paper,” he said and walked over to his mahogany desk, situated in one of the corners.

While Myu looked about the room she noticed one lone book. It was situated in a glass display case, and something was horribly wrong about it. It didn't have brown leather binding. It wasn't even green leather of school books. “Why do you have one of the books from before The Nation?” she asked bewilderedly.

Mr. Linden looked up carefully, his face studious and concerned. “It's for decorative purposes only...” he said slowly. Myu looked at the book again, knowing Mr. Linden's statement to be a blatant lie. There was no dust on the book as far as she could see, and, it looked to be frequently read. “Mm” she murmured. “Still....” she said, about to inform him, if in case he had somehow forgot, “no one's supposed to – I mean...”
Mr. Linden gave a slightly proud looking smile when he heard her voice waver, and set down the pieces of paper back on his desk. “I have not committed treason and I am not a traitor. However, if I were a traitor I would tell you that you should be careful. Because, if I were a traitor that would mean that that book is truly a book from before The War, before The Nation, and is therefore labeled as horrible propaganda that is so vile it should not be read. Which, if I were a traitor I would not believe, but if I were a traitor I would already be in danger, and would probably not want anyone else to come to trouble because of me.”

DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 2

As life can go by faster than blinking, and the time it takes to accurately describe all of the scenic wonders around us is scarcely found, imagine, without my narrative, weeks of passing where trust between tutor and pupil grow. Secrets shared and stories told until Myu's inquisitive mind led her to a pivotal point of no return.

Myu's heart was pounding so hard she wondered her father did not come into her room to be quiet – that the others in the house were trying to rest. Her flesh felt as though it was being touched by hundreds of spiders. To her, it was a elephantine mystery how there could be any crime – if this was how perpetrators felt every time they were about to act. Myu was crouched on her bed, the cover thrown over her as a privacy tent, and a flashlight in one hand she opened the book on her lap. Myu figured the best time for this would be at night when the others were asleep. She took a breath and read: Chapter One....

Time went by and Myu continued her tutoring lessons with Mr. Linden – and her grades gradually improved. More importantly to Myu though, was the lessons she was learning about the time before The Nation. “Do you have any other books ... solely for decorative purposes,” a smile came to Myu's face, “from before The Nation?” she asked eagerly of Mr. Linden.

Mr. Linden frowned and looked up from the science book, in the green leather binding of The Nation's school books. “All the other books I had were taken from me and my family during The War.” he said regretfully. Myu nodded with understanding. “Recycling the paper for official documents aided our Nation in the War,” she said, feeling more respect for Mr Linden.

However, he didn't seem proud. He seemed, well, not truly angry, but somewhere between that and sadness. “If I were a traitor I would tell you that not everything you are taught is true. I was a boy during The War, and I remember, if I was a traitor I would tell you that the books were burned, along with music, art, buildings, because they contradicted The Nation's belief. I managed to keep that one book due to decorative purposes only .. well that is what you have been told and what anyone else that would come here would be told. No one else knows – that is, if I were a traitor that is what I'd say” he said morosely.

ACT WITH CAUTION
CHAPTER 3

The days in school became easier for Myu academically speaking, but the more she knew of other things the more she was depressed at the lack of knowledge here. She was also frightened by the blind devotion she saw. True, sometimes a government needed to keep a secret or two, for safety of the civilians and those who worked for the government, but such a false facade under the guise of public service was destructive to what all their followers thought their goals were.
What was worse about blind devotion, was the choice of blinding oneself to the rights of others. Not saying that Myu was against capital punishment in some select cases, but the more she heard of The War, so glorified in the public sector, from Mr. Linden the more she wondered if anything she knew was true. Mr. Linden had no family left due to The War – and the casualties were not from enemies but their own people. They spoke against a decision of The Leader, they never came home.

Myu had heard that the other nations, which were never truly taught in school (only The Nation mattered) had been involved in The War. But, according to Mr. Linden the countries dropped out of the fight one by one, leaving fewer nations fighting. Then, in the other fighting countries, people would shout about how it wasn't their war, how there were civilian deaths because of them; and, under pressure, finally the last country dropped out.

Myu knew, in her heart she could not acknowledge openly, that The Nation could have been great, and that the cost would have been worth it. Now her dreams were haunted by the photographs of Mr. Linden's family and what could have been. Mr. Linden warned her that sometimes knowledge could harm a person's peace of mind. He warned her how words, printed or otherwise, could keep one up at night. He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late.

One day when Myu arrived home, thinking of all the ways that a single book had changed her, she walked to the couch where her book bag was and looked inside for the book. Her heart stopped. It wasn't there. It wasn't there! Where was it!? Myu tried to calm herself and closed her eyes, thinking about where it could be, and the answer came to her. She had left it in school. She had lost the one thing that could destroy her, her family, and Mr. Linden.

Myu ran to the entry way in her house and flung open the closet and pulled her coat on quickly, slipped her feet in her boots, and ran for school. By the time she was there her lungs were on fire but she didn't stop running, she had to find it before anyone else did. She ran to the room she had had her last class of the day and bounded to where her desk was. Tears of relief poured from her eyes when she found it, she clutched it to her chest and knelt on the floor for a long while before putting it in her book bag and leaving school.

DELIVER US
CHAPTER 4

Myu was walking down the main hallway of her school, thinking all would be alright, when the first evidence that things had gone horribly wrong appeared. She saw two of The National Police Team, in their black swat suits and long black guns by their side, talking to her principal and home room teacher.

Someone had found out. Someone had discovered her book. Wryly, she found it oddly humorous that they had responded so quickly. I must be high on the priority list. Red alert, sixteen year old, five foot four inches. Be careful, she's dangerous, she has a book! Myu promptly turned around and ran, as quietly as possible, to the back exit.
It was getting to be late in the evening, the sky was already dark since it was winter. Myu knew she had to get home to warn her family, and do a lot of fast explaining. However, what she found was far from what she expected. Her house was in ashes, the ambulance and police cars had their sirens blaring, and somehow, Myu knew what had happened to her parents and siblings. Myu closed her eyes, the bitter tears stinging her eyes.
Myu recalled something about religion that Mr. Linden had told her. Before The Nation the people here could pray freely to whatever God they wished. Long before the days The Nation became a religion onto itself. There used to be a prayer ... how did it go ... deliver us from evil.
Yes, religion would come in handy about now. At the very least, a little hope. First things first. Okay, they just know it's my book and there is, no matter how I want to change this, nothing I can do for my family. I can save Mr. Linden. I have to save Mr. Linden. Without him, well, I'll be alone.

A JOURNEY
CHAPTER 5

"It doesn't mean much in the grand scale of things, I suppose. But, everything that's going on and that has happened in the past, what, six months, has definitely changed a few lives around this place. I know i can't undue things, and I'm stuck knowing what i know, but I'm glad we left that book behind. Now, i think it's time to leave you behind. This journal knows everything i know, and, maybe it's best for everyone if you rot in the bottom of some lake."

Myu closed her diary with a sharp sound and looked out the window of the train. Her hair had grown longer, no longer in her cute pixie hair cut but shoulder length – and she had dyed it from her natural red to blond. She smiled softly at the sleeping Mr. Linden beside her on the train.

As far as everyone was concerned she was Jayne Markov, and Mr. Linden was her dear grandfather, Patrick, who raised her from birth. Myu opened the train window and stuck her head out, they were almost across the river. She didn't even pause when she took her journal and threw it out the window. It cascaded down the many feet from where they were on the railroad bridge.

Myu put her head back in and closed the window, not even bothering to see where it landed. Myu had found some old papers from before The War in some of the houses of people like Mr. Linden, who had helped them get false papers and money to escape to somewhere safe.

One of the papers held some lyrics she had learned to love. It doesn't mean much. It doesn't mean anything at all. The life I've left behind is a cold one.
Despite the debatable fact how much Myu's past truly mattered, the fact was she was bound to it. And, more importantly, there was no way to change it. Myu can only move on.

EPILOGUE
The teenagers laughed, having a fun time at one of their favorite spots to play together – by a river. It was really nice, and it was always fun to watch the trains travel overhead. Petra threw some leaves at her friend Calden and ran down the small gravel beach but stopped suddenly when she saw something unusual. “Hey guys!” she shouted. “Look at this” she knelt down and picked it up. Krista walked over and looked at the small book. “Looks like a journal.....”