Tuesday 10 December 2013

The Yellowed Book

The rooms were full of cobwebs when the person came to the house after a lot of years. The legs walked to one of the rooms and opened the creaking doors leading to the room. Going inside, the hands brushed aside the cobwebs with a confidence of experience. They were no hindrances to get to the wooden cupboard and, once close to it, the person took out the key from the coat pocket and inserted it into the lock which protected the contents of the cupboard. The key turned the mechanism inside the lock and with a click the heavy lock fell down onto the floor.

The hands opened the cupboard doors and the eyes observed the empty spaces within. The dusty clouds suspended in the air aggravated the condition for the eyes. There was a lot of dust gathered inside which made it difficult to view the contents, if any, kept. A small cuboid-shaped object lay on one of the central compartments of the cupboard. It was covered with a thick layer of dust and, therefore, was not easily visible to the eyes at first.

The eyes guided one of the hands towards the object. The fingers touched the corners of the cuboid and the senses felt the familiarity of the object. The senses confirmed that it was a book due to the bookish-ness of the object. The fingers gently brushed the layer of dust and the hand took hold of the book. The writing on the front had faded a bit but the words were still understood as they had been imprinted in the memory since the book was first seen, be it the first book that was read or was written by the person.

The dust was gradually removed and the brown cover was visible. The pages were slowly turned and the first chapter opened. The body sat down with suddenness on a dusty chair nearby, which was still firm and steady, and the eyes gradually scanned through each word of the chapters. It was a story containing everything a reader would want to have. Time passed with ease as the reader got hooked into the story.

The little streaks of sunlight that came from the windows were now diminishing. The reader finished the small yet fascinating book and sat with it for a bit off of the clock's time. After a while the reader got up and went to the cupboard. After placing the book, the hands took of a few mounds of dust lying on the ground and ceremoniously covered it back.

Closing the cupboard, and after locking it, the person came out of the house and went back the way the legs came from. The thoughts smiled as if struck by amusement. The book had not yellowed in its effects on this reader with age as much as the reader had.

© Aditya Subramanian, 2020

No comments:

Post a Comment