I wasn’t quite finished with the story I was telling by the time 2025 ended and so decided to continue it until it reached an ending point. Then I will start a new one. Besides, I kind of want to see where Penelope ends up. And so we have…
Day 225: She heard a soft thump and saw one thick older book was now protruding from the rest of the books on the shelf.
She heard a soft thump and saw one thick older book was now protruding from the rest of the books on the shelf. The book was at least three inches thick and taller than the other books on the shelf. The other books left a gap between their tops and the bottom of the shelf above them. This one scraped along the top of the shelf. Penelope looked around to see if any other books were brought out by her question hoping something smaller and easier to flip through might be available.
There wasn’t, the fat, heavy looking tome was the only response.
“I guess we will go with you then,” she said. Penelope crossed the room and removed the book from the shelf. It took effort as it was really wedged into the shelf. It was also heavier than she expected. “This is a read at the desk book,” she told herself. She certainly wasn’t propping it on her knee as she read in her chair. Support was needed.
She moved to the desk and thunked the book down on the desk’s surface. It sounded like a tree falling and hitting the ground. “I suppose you are made of paper which is made from trees.” She looked at the book. “It looks like you took an entire tree to make.”
She settled herself in the chair and opened the cover. There was no table of contents. She flopped the book over and looked in the back, relieved to find an index. Unfortunately, that left her with the task of figuring out what to look up in the index.
“Memories maybe?” she said. Penelope flipped through the pages of the index until she reached the M section. The pages were thin and the test on them almost felt raised as though it didn’t want to sink into the paper or feared the weight of the ink might crush it. The test was also tiny, at least half the size of what she would have expected. She turned the pages carefully trying not to tear them. She used her finger to slide down the page and keep her eyes from crossing over the small words as she searched for Memory in the M section. She found it and saw that there were at least twenty separate entries.
Penelope opened the desk drawer and took out a note pad and pen. She wrote down the page numbers so she wouldn’t have to keep going back to the index. She then set the pen aside, leaving the notepad where she could see it.
“Page 26 here we come,” she told herself. Penelope flipped the book over, so she was once again looking at the front cover. She then opened it and turned to page twenty-six. Each page had three columns of tiny text lining it. Penelope turned on the desk lamp to see better and used her finger to scan down the columns to look for the word memory. The mention was a little past the halfway point in the central column. Penelope moved back to the beginning of the paragraph.
‘The memory can be preserved for later perusal using a version of the memory locking spell. This can be useful for a number of reasons. It is most often used when an event is considered important enough that a clear record, undimmed by the passage of time is desired, or as a training tool.’
Penelope scrolled down the rest of the column and found that the text mostly contained information about when a clear record of events might be useful.
Ten til Midnight 