The diary

  It was the middle of April. The city was colorful, blooming flowers around every corner. There was a calm breeze, hinting that summer was coming. Cheerful laughter and exciting conversations filled the city. 

  Normally it was Fredrick’s favorite time of year but unfortunately he hadn’t seen much of it. For about two weeks now he’d been stuck inside his library searching for something, he didn’t quite know what himself. People were coming and going, buying books, chatting about the beautiful weather, encouraging Fredrick to go outside. ‘’I’m fine here”, he would say, secretly eavesdropping on people’s conversations just to get the slightest idea of the magic outside those doors. He was fine actually, not leaving the library, it was a safe space for him. He was the type of person who wouldn’t let something go until he figured it out. 

Fred was in his late fifties. Most of his years, he had spent with his grandfather in this same library. There was a room on the second floor, so he would wake up and read all day. When his grandfather got sick he would be the one greeting the customers with a warm smile, encouraging them to buy something. Frederick was caring, cheerful and warm. He also wasn’t one to back away from a challenge.

  Recently he read a book suggesting that a pirate’s diary, about one hundred years old, was left collecting dust here in his own library and he had no idea. That’s what he’d been trying to find for the past few weeks. The problem was that he didn’t really know what he was looking for. He knew it was a diary but how it looked like he had no idea. He left that to his imagination: an old rusty notebook, its pages thickened because it had once been dropped in the ocean, a symbol on the cover, probably a pirate drawing. That’s as far as Frederick’s imagination would go, what was written inside was a complete mystery. He hoped it was instructions to a hidden treasure. He knew better than to get his hopes up but he couldn’t help it. For once Frederick wanted to know that he could buy a t-shirt and not worry if he would have enough money for food the following week. So he did get his hopes up because he found comfort in the idea of a treasure. That’s what kept him going.

  The library was small, cozy, it had that old smell which gave you a sense of comfort. The kind of place you would go to escape the world. The books were neatly placed on the shelves in order A-Z and each book belonged to a different category: Fiction,Thriller, Romance, Literature, Poems…etc. Everything was so perfectly placed and there was a record of every book that was in this library. You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to find what someone is looking for.

  Frederick searched through every shelf, went through every book that might have had even the tiniest resemblance as a pirate’s diary. But nothing. Not a single clue nor a trace of this book entering the library. He was so close and yet so far from actually finding it. 

   Every day was the same. He would wake up, just to find out that he had fallen asleep at the library once again. He would get dressed, make himself a sandwich and turn the sign from “Closed” to “Open”. The doorbell would ring and as each customer entered, they would all say "You gotta fix that step, Fred.’’ he’s heard this so many times it doesn’t sound like a sentence to him anymore. He would say something under his nose and then bury himself researching all there was to know about pirates about one hundred years ago.

Time flies fast when you’re stuck in a different world and before he knew the last person exited the door but as he was leaving he fell through the step. There was a loud sound of the wood breaking and Frederick ran to the front door to check what happened. “Are you ok?’’, he said, his voice showing his concern ‘’You’ll fix the step, right?’’, the customer said in a very serious tone. “I will,’’ Fred replied. “Then I’m fine” as he said that, he left. 

   Frederick was alone again, he was used to it by now, the books kept him company. He grabbed some tools and got to work fixing that step. When he removed the broken wood his whole body shivered. He was shocked. There was a book, old and rusty, something drawn on the cover. He couldn’t quite see because it was completely covered in dust. Could this be it? Has his search finally come to an end? He took the book, he started coughing as he was removing the dust. There it was, the pirate symbol. The thrill of what this book withheld consumed him. ‘’I’m about to get rich.’’ he yelled, then he went to sit down, putting his legs up on the table. 

  He opened the first page and he started reading. ‘’My name is Captain Hedwig. I think it is the start of November. It’s a cold and dangerous day, perhaps my last. The waves are crushing us. Each one is more intense than the other. We are listening to the sea’s final song. It is only a matter of time until it takes us. There is a great treasure on my ship which will soon sink. I will try to give you the cordinat…” That’s where it stopped. Confused, Frederick turned to the next page. It was blank…There was nothing written in any of the pages. He was right, there was a treasure but it was never going to be found. Disappointment. Anger. Frustration. He was feeling that all at once. A rush of fear went through his body. He was afraid he had to keep living like this. It was over, his dreams from the past three weeks were crushed in three seconds. 

  Frederick took his stuff, didn’t bother fixing the step, and changed the sign from "Open” to “Closed. Then he left…