Chapter 3 : A couple of close shaves...

John was talking animatedly over hot choclate...with his friends mainly...but he also got in a word with his mother who was busy serving out the choclate chip cookies which she baked fresh that morning!

"Mom...you remember that old book of stories which you used to read out to me as a kid. I was so surprised to see it today in the hall...did you keep it there?"

"Yes...something strange happened when i was tidying your room...which you should have done young man!" John gave her a sheepish grin "So, i was cleaning your room...and i heard someone speaking...i could have sworn it came from inside your cupboard. Its only then that i noticed this book on top of some old newspapers...i actually wanted to read it myself because i missed its stories too..."

"Awwwww...now isnt that sweet. Ok, you can have it for the night but i want it back ok. I want to show it to someone."

"Oh ho...would that be Lizzie by any chance?" Johns mom whispered and winked rather furtively making sure no one else noticed her...

"Mooooooooooomm....shut uuup!!" exclaimed John, his face turning very red!

Lizzie looked up from her hot choclate right then...with a questioning look on her face and flashed John a quick but naughty smile. She was one of the kids in the neighbourhood...Johns folks and Lizzies folks were very friendly with each other and used to go on picnics together when the kids were small. Lizzie had waist long blond hair and eyes of the bluest spring sky. She and John had been the best of buddies since young...but John had never ever shown her his red book. The relationship that Elena and John shared was something too special...and no one knew about it. But over the years, as they grew from kids to adolescents, things changed...they always change...and now John felt moved by Elena enough to show it to Lizzie...

"Anything wrong Mrs. Mitchell? Is John troubling you with something?" offered Lizzie with that naughty gleam in her eyes...

"Oh nothing that my son cant manage on his own! Thanks lizzie...more hot choclate dear?"

"Oh thanks Mrs.Mitchell. I am having enough trouble drinking one more drop of it...not to mention the cookies...you are a wizard in the kitchen! I ate sooo much!!"

"Haha...ok then...John here wants to show you something...why dont you show it to her right now?" said mom. John couldnt help but grind his teeth in frustration. His mom and Lizzie are very similar...both of them were very smart and very mischevious...no wonder he loved to pick up friendly arguements with both of them...but at the end of the day, he cared a lot about both of them.

"Mooooooooomm...not now. But...maybe...oh what the hell! Come Lizzie...its in the hall way! Wait...let me finish the hot choclate first!"

Just then...without anyone seeing her, Ellie slipped out of the kitchen...she did not even thank Mrs. Mitchell for the wonderful cookies and hot choclate. Just as John and Lizzie entered the hall, they heard a door slam. They did not bother about it too much...someone must have left...there are so many kids and their bed times were nearing...it happens all the time...

John sauntered over to the chair...
"Lizzie...what i want to show you is this book which i...HEEEYYYY, WHAT THA..."

"John...whats wrong?" asked Lizzie with genuine concern.

"Its gone...the little red book is gone...i put it back right here..."

"Oh...was it very expensive?"

"No...no...but it was very special...is very special...help me look for it Lizzie!"

And both of them turned the hall inside out...they looked everywhere..even under the carpet. But our little Elena was of course no more in the house...poor John...little did he know that Ellie was the culprit...he did not even suspect any of his friends...he started blaming himself for the loss of Elena.

"On no...i should have been more careful...i should have been. I could have sworn it was here...but..i...sigh..."

Lizzie came close to John and put a reassuring and soft hand over his shoulders...
"John...it was only a book...but if it means so much to you, i can help you look for it."

"Oh Lizzie...you will do that for me?"

"Yes John...of course."

They hugged each other in the hallway...they thought they were alone...but a shifting pair of small black eyes were observing them through the window...Ellie. The evil girl did not leave immediately...she wanted to see John saddened by the loss of Elena...but now she was even more angry with herself...for letting Lizzie get this close to John...

But none of that anger seemed to be in her eyes anymore...we are back at Ellies Scratchpad now. She was looking like a mad scientist on the verge of perfecting the formula for the perfect roach killer! She studied Elena more closely now...not her soothing words...but her deep red cover and the soft yellow pages.

"I think this would do nicely...but...you are a little small...hmmm..."

She momentarily let her eyes wander for a while and a fashion magazine caught her eyes...it had a nice red cover as well. And she dropped Elena on the floor...and kicked her away to another corner of the room. The magazine was pleading silently not to let this happen..but...too late. In came the thick fingers and out came the scissors snipping away like crazy...and soon, we had a very awkward Cinderlla with a very noisy crown and frock and a the sorry sight of a couple of magazines gasping for breath.

Ellie and her friend who apparently came over to have a sleepover were tired with their play and promptly went to sleep right there on the floor...they were snoring very loudly...so loudly that all the books cringed each time a particulary garbled snort escaped them!

Bud spoke up after a while... "Phew...Elena...now wasnt that a close call! You are a very lucky one you know...very very lucky."

"Oh...i beleive you. I thought i was a goner..."

"We all did...hmmm...anyway, no time to waste. This is what you have to do...you should talk to Sally...and.."

"Who is Sally...oops...sorry for interrupting. Please go on.."

"Its ok. Sally is Ellies Journal. She knows all of Ellies personal thoughts and schemes. So, i suggest you try getting Johns address out of her if Ellie had ever wrote it down. Or atleast you might get some clues to his homes whereabouts. And...she is right beside you."

Chapter 2 : Ellie's Scratchpad

Elena...our dear little red book...she has lived all her life in a nice house in a nice neighbhourhood. The lawns up front were green...dad trimmed them each weekend...springtime was lovely. Even winters was nice...the whole neghbhourhood was white...it was like someone removed the old and dirty bed sheets after autumn and changed it with a sparkling smooth white one. She especially loved it when dad used to dress as Santa to give the very very excited John and his sister presents during Christmas. John was not too happy when he found out that Santa was not real...atleast that is what he beleives now. She wished she could talk to him about the her world, the world where myths originate from, the world where cartoons are real, the world where dreams are made day and night and handed over to the books to reward the humans. Elena had her world alright...

Books on earth are not exactly books before they get written. Confused? Well...lets just say, that they can be best described as spirits capable of inducing dreams or nightmares...almost like angels...and only creativity and imagination can bring them to earth and only through a printing press can they completely manifest on earth. Hand written notes dont come alive until printed and bound as a book. Its how things work...for good reason too...and it has been that way for a long time. Of course, you can ask how things used to work before the printing press was invented in the 11th century in China. Well, animals used to play a bigger role then in carrying dreams through...when every family had some kind of animal with them...even kings had their pets. But that was an age past...which shall be told in another story.

Coming back to current times, the books once they became books are bound not only by their cover pages but also by many rules which are enforced by a very ancient magic. The only rule which is not strictly enforced is the talking out loud rule because of the sheer enormity of the number of people that books can talk to...and its not possible for Elenas world to directly control humans or recognise their actions. Only a very few special ones are allowed that privilege...Santa for example. But whatever the case, books are not allowed and actually they cant (because of the magic binding them) talk about their world to humans. This made Elena sad each year...that she could not tell John about Santa and how real he actually is...especially about how its a big misconception that his working base is in the North pole...when actually, he works from somewhere close to Pluto. The north pole simply is not cold enough to make all the presents very quickly...its a little hard to explain right now how this works because Elena is not in a very comfortable situation and we need to be with her though this ordeal...

Elena was pretty distraught...she has no idea who she stole her away just before her coming back together with John. She felt very angry one moment and the next she felt like crying. But she was a strong little one our Elena. So, she promised herself...in that damp smelly place where she was in, probably a very old weathered bag, that she would get back to John someday...what come may.

Suddenly she felt her thief slow down...turn around abrutply and start climbing a flight of stairs...it sounded like an old house judging by the wooden stairs which were creaking and groaning under the weight of her thief! Some twists and turns and some zigs and zags and a jolting halt. Someone reached into that dark place and wrenched her out into the light...

She saw herself blinking into the eyes of a fat freckled face of a red haired girl. She was one of Johns friends who came in with him earlier today. She never looked like she was part of his group of friends...in the brief few minutes that Elena managed to notice her, she was standing back from the rest of the crowd and staring at John all the time. Hmmmm...Elena was now wondering what our thieving red haired girl was thinking...

"I dont know what he sees in this book...!! I have been trying to gain his attention for the past week and this stupid book managed it in a few seconds...damn!!" She spat out, the spite in her voice very obvious.

Ah ha! So, that was the girls problem...she wanted John to give her some attention. Haha...Elena couldnt help feel a little proud and blush a little...thankfully her red cover did not make her blushing evident!! Anyway, our fat red haired thief continued looking at Elena for a while...and she threw Elena roughly onto her reading table and flipped her open and startred reading! Elena hated her touch...it was nowhere close to how John handled her...no soft touches, no friendly caresses..nothing. The girl was losing interest already in her now...Elena hoped that she would leave her alone soon so that she can figure a way out of this place!

"Ellie....dinner!!! Come and get it!!"

That must have been Ellies mother...she dropped Elena on a pile of some class notes and unfinished homework and rushed downstairs. Phew...Elena was releived. But soon, panic started creeping in...Ellies room was very different from Johns. It was not neat...papers and pencils all over the floor...posters hanging off the walls...bed unmade still...a very dinghy looking makeup table...and worst of all, many books on the floor...some of them torn in half by a pair of scissors and their pages mutilated and made into paper crowns which she and her terrible friends probably wore on their heads imagining themselves to be royalty or beauty queens or the like! Yikes!!

Its not such a bad thing for a book to be destroyed in a fire or in a flood or simply recycled to be made into other books. This would mean that the spirit which lived in the book can go back to its world and be born later as another book later..but its really horrible to be torn up in half and left alone.

"Hi...hello...over here...huuulllloooo little one!"
Elena heard someone call her...she looked around and saw an entire bookshelf stacked haphazardly with a whole bunch of books. She tried hard to see recognize where the voice was coming from...

"Errrr...hello! Who is it?" croaked Elena in a rather weak tone...

"Its me...the history textbook!"
Elena looked up to see a medium sized book about twice her size with curled up corners and a very frazzled attached bookmark. He must have been a new book not a long while ago as the colors still have not faded from his covers...but he had been through a lot...one can tell from his wizened tired voice. But there was kindness in the tone of it...

The time is right to reveal that, books can talk among themselves in an ancient but silent language which can be understood by other books, animals, trees and babies. Of course, some special nice people from Elenas world like Santa can also understand them...and also some not so nice ones...like ghosts. Humans slowly stop understanding this language as soon as they start speaking their own...

"Oh...hello...where am i?"

"We call this place...Ellies scratchpad. Hehe...rather ominous sounding isnt it! Well...you have just been brought in here by Ellie...she goes to the Windsor High for her ninth grade. She is not exactly a good student and does not want to go to school anymore. Aaaaand you might be interested to know, she doesnt like books too much...so, we are wondering whats so special about you...we saw how she was looking at you...could you please tell us what the deal is?"

"Well...my name is Elena. I belong to John Mitchell and Ellie apparently stole me from him...she couldnt bear the fact that John likes me more than her. I am very scared...and...and...i want to go home...but i dont know how!"
She was almost in tears now...

"Well...Elena, pleased to meet you. You dont belong here...its better that you dont remain here for a long time. If you are not any of Ellies school books or anything related to her school, you would end up like those poor souls on the floor beside the table."

Elena gulped hard...she did not want to be torn up and useless anymore...

"Well...Elena...normally, Ellie loses interest in all her books in a short while. That would be your chance to escape...but if you dont suceed, Ellie will start looking at you as raw material...and none of us want that to happen. Unfortunately, we cant leave...as we are supposed to be her school books...and we are supposed to help her do well in school. We try each night...but its tough with Ellie. Sigh...so, it is...so it is."

"Anyway, let me introduce the guys...you can see Bud, the geography book and his wife Sue, the atlas. Moe here is our mathematics expert...and Rudy here is our philosopher...all these crazy latin books are like that....eh Rudy..hehe!!"

"Thats Rudolph and thank you for your kindness in remembering my correct name! Humph! As a history book you should know more about how to appreciate Latin and the ancient scriptures! Ghastly i say...egad!" Rudy had a very british accent for a latin book...but the other books were not appalled by his rudeness...so he must have a good heart thought Elena.

"Oh...and i am Phillis! Anything at all you want to know about anything that happened, you can ask me. I am especially very good at the Iron age...but everyone always ends up asking stuff about the Dinosaurs!! I dont know as much as some of the guys in the hall on that...but i know enough to keep the people happy! Welcome to Ellies Scratchpad Elena!"

Elena did not know what to think...the joy of talking to someone else apart from those old grumpy newspapers was refreshing...but also her longing for Johns touch was overpowering.

"Hi guys! I dont belong here and i want to get back to John...can you help me?"

"Well..." Sue spoke out for the first time... "do you know Johns address? I can probably give you directions and you can find your own way out."

"Oh...i...i dont know...what am i to do!!!!"

Bud looked at Sue and then at Elena and looked a little apprehensive before saying "Well...there is one way we might be able to find out...but...its not easy...aaand it wont be pleasant..."

"Anything...anything...please tell me!"

All the books looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders...just as Bud was about to speak out, Ellie burst into the room...and had one of her girl friends with her.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...time to play! Time to play!! Ellliiiieeeee dahling! Would you please be kind enough to create one of your master pieces...? I would like to be Cinderalla today...sleeping beauty was too...well...sleepy and boring!" screeched Ellies friend...

Ellie threw one disgusted look at her friend...then slowly started smiling as if she has planned this all along. "Humph...whatever...lemme get my scissors...hmmm...here it is. I need some new paper...wait, i got some books which i dont need anymore..."

Ellie got up and started lumbering towards her reading table. Elena was almost pink with fright. Ellie reached the table...a gleaming pair of scissors clutched tight in one hand...and the other hand scrambling through the stuff on her table with the help of her black spots of eyes which were scanning her table with quick and urgent glances. Her eyes rested upon Elena after a few seconds. Oh no!! Ellie then picked her up and started looking at Elena rather differently...there was no more hate in her eyes...but excitement...a look of expectation...Elena was able to see what Ellie was thinking through her eyes...all of Ellies ideas and designs for Cinderellas clothes and jewellery was taking shape...slowly but surely...

Chapter 1 : John and Elena

In the last year of the previous millennium, there was this book...No, it was not a boring history book...No, it was not one of those thick books that dads always read before sleeping...and certainly not a crummy TV specials magazine! No No! It was a story book. A lovely story book actually...so good that her owner could hardly put it down...infact, her owner, a little boy actually, could not sleep each night without hearing some words read out from her to him by his mom. The little red book...yes, it was a red book...was very happy! She loved the little boy...and the little boy loved her back!

But alas...time flew on...the little boy grew up into a particularly rebellious teenager. He forgot all about his book. Now its his iPod, his friends or the cheeky girls around the neighborhood! Our little red book was feeling alone, sad and lonely without her friend who used to love her so much...poor thing! She was all alone in her cupboard...nothing to do all day. Infact, she did not even have good company as she was unceremoniously dumped on top of some old newspapers from a few years ago!! Dusty, smelly, dark and damp cupboard!!! Every now and then she would long for someone to embrace her...throw open her pages and warm her to the spine by caressing them...run their fingers through the seam and smell the fragrance that only old books possess...she missed making people smile.

Poor book...since we can never get to know their given true names, lets call her Elena because she likes to call herself by that name. Elena became so tired with her life one day that she did something which was crazy even for books to do!! Our little red book, she got a little irked with this one sided nature of things...soooo...she started talking out loud!!

Thus unfurls our little fairy tale about the adventures of a little red book...

One fine day mom was tidying up the room. And suddenly she heard a small voice...a little muffled...but yet clear...say..."Hello! How are you?". His mom stopped whatever she was doing and stood up straight to listen again...she thought she heard a voice but she was not sure...she waited for a few moments before picking up the brush...and again..."Hello! Nice day isn't it?". Now, she was startled and dropped down the brush with a clatter onto the floor! She searched the bathroom, under the bed, behind the sofa and she even looked outside the window! Nothing!! And then...again...there!! She heard it again!! She could have sworn that it was coming from somewhere inside the cupboard...hmmmm...

By the way, if you are wondering how books can speak...well...its something very special. As a matter of fact, all books can do that. It's just that one has never spoken to you before...not while you were awake in any case. Infact, over the years...the kids who treated their books well got rewarded by this very special and rarely beheld ability that books possess. How?? Well, while the kids slept, the books will read out stories to them. And for those kids who were bad at school, the books will even repeat their lessons. What people consider as dreaming is actually their mind visualizing what the books tell them...its not random at all!! Now maybe you can comprehend the power of a books capability of thought...of creativity...no wonder reading books makes the mind wonder and wander...its an amazing feeling!

But...there is one catch. Its agreed among the book world that they can speak out loud only while everyone around are asleep. So, you see...our little red book, she created quite a revolution among her world by breaking the rule!! The golden rule...the most important rule of them all!! She spoke to someone while they were not sleeping!! Yikes!!

Anyways, mom was perturbed now...she started walking towards the cupboard. Elena was a little scared...she did not realize the magnitude of her mistake until after a while...but then, she was terrified! She was trembling so much that the papers around her started rustling and that roused mom a little bit more than was necessary.

Mom was almost there at the threshold of opening the cupboard. Our little red book was trying to bury herself between the sports page and the crossword page of one of the news papers...grumpy old newspaper. He was not too amused by our little book and refused to provide cover! Too late...in flooded the light from the outside world...the cupboard was open...and mom was looking over her horned spectacles. Peeking in a little curiously...as curiously as our book was staring back...

Book have this not too amazing tendency of keeping very still when required. Its in the family as they say...an ordinary but much needed skill especially during emergencies. There have been many a shave too close in the past with some especially naughty books!! Our little red book was doing all it can not to gain her attention...but then kids, if you see a little red book among a pile of old newspapers, wouldn't you notice it or not?? Precisely!

Our little red book was not too happy now...because she was discovered by mom. But not too sad either...because mom was carrying her off to another place in the house...maybe a nicer cupboard...maybe even to the showcase...maybe even the shelf in the hallway with those other BIG books. Some change will do our little red book some good...it was as good for her as flying south is for the ducks!! Just that, in this case it did not matter whether Elena flew south or north or even southwest!! Change was welcome!! :)

Mom walked past the cupboard in the hall...those gleaming encyclopedias!! Our little red book would not mind sharing a place with them. They are among the most respectable books around...what with their impressive royal blue hard covers with pictures of a thousand colours splashed all over their pages including a very impressive cover page!! They know so much too...our little red book can have wonderful conversations with them...if she gets bored with A-C and especially with "Bumble Bees", it can easily switch to M-O and chat about Ostriches from Africa! That would be a nice place to be in....but...where is mom bustling off to?

Mom...she missed the cupboard in the hall!! Oh no! She was now walking towards the attic stairs with her duster whirring away on her other hand whenever she passed any corner!! Our little red book was not too excited about the prospect of being holed up in the attic. She has heard eerie stories about the place...brrrr...chills one to the paperback even thinking about it!! Just then...TING TONG!! The doorbell...!!! For the moment, saved by the bell...phew. Mom made for the door after putting the book away on the chair in the hallway.

And guess who it was...our boy! His name is John in case you didn't know. Elena almost jumped with joy and almost shouted "Heyyyyyyyy...its been so long since I seen you!!! How are you??" But then...she did not. But really, its been quite a couple of years since she saw her boy. Our little red book...she was quite happy to see him. How much he had grown...how much!! He is almost as tall as his mom now..maybe even a shade taller. Wonderful! Lovely!

He was not alone...he was with friends. While he was passing the chair, he just happened to glance at her...and to her joy, he stopped for a moment. An almost disbelieving stare...all his friends stopped too. And he slowly inched closer to her and picker her up after many years...he opened her pages...paused for what seemed an eternity...Elena could hardly control the gush of warmth rushing through her paragraphs...and then, he ran his fingers...lovingly...through her words...it was the best our little book had felt in a very very long time!

Just then, his mom called him into the kitchen for a cup of hot chocolate. It was close to Christmas time and it was quite cold outside. He set her aside and went into the kitchen. Elena did not want to let him go...she did not want him to even turn away from her...but its ok. She has seen that look in his eyes. She knew that he will come back to her after finishing with his friends. She knew that he had not forgotten her...the look in his eyes...the shine in them as he saw her insides...she was an intuitive one our Elena. So, she just sat there, the most content book in the world.

Then she heard a rustle behind her...as sudden as that noise was, she felt herself being roughly swept off the table and thrust into someplace dark and smelly! Fear caught up with her...she could hear John somewhere closeby...but what was going on?? His voice became weaker...and weaker...and then a door slammed...she felt herself being carried away from the house...away from the only place she has ever known since she was born in the printing press...despair clouded her...agony gripped her...and away she was swept into life or maybe nothing at all...

To be contd...