The hero that changed my life

She couldn’t stop staring at the photo on the table. It felt like just yesterday she won those awards and the thunderous applause wouldn’t stop echoing her ears. But what had happened now was beyond her. A bestselling author who couldn’t even frame a sentence anymore that made sense. She felt like she was missing her soul, being unable to write and express herself. 

“You remember the times when we used to ditch your office and go to the Sterling Library to review my books just so that we still felt like those high school nerds again? Man, those were the days,” exclaimed Sarah breathing into the phone. “That’s the coolest part about being an editor and your best friend turns out to be an amazing author, isn’t it? We felt like we could live in libraries and go home to just cuddle with our dogs”, said Angie feeling all nostalgic and proud. 

“Oh yeah, how are those babies doing, by the way? I haven’t seen them in days. Did Ludo take the surgery well?”, enquired Sarah. “They are the cutest, of course, and honestly Ludo has seen better days”, she said in distress. “You know, last night I had this strange dream that I was walking your dogs in the Sterling Library and out of nowhere, Ludo starts chewing up all the books one row after another. For starters, why would I walk them in a library and why would Ludo ever chew a book?”, asked Sarah with a tone of confusion. 

“I think you’re just too stressed about your work and probably Ludo too. You got to take it easy, my lady”, said Angie in a reassuring voice. Sarah agreed and they promised each other that they’d catch up that week without an excuse. 

Sarah decided to walk back home that day after her long tiring day at the cafe. She decided to take up that job when her writing career started going bleak. Cafes, she felt, were always a source of inspiration. She’d meet so many people during the day and by just a few minutes of conversation with them, she would try to assume what their lives were like and how they spent their time.

She felt like they were all characters in a book that was yet to be written someday. She often felt like that’s how the entire world is; A bundle of people who would all someday be characters in a book and won’t even know. Well, who could deny that possibility? 

Her nostalgic conversation with Angie made her reroute and walk towards Sterling library. The breeze of a thousand books stacked up refreshed her as she walked into the building and stepped towards her favourite window desk. 

A strange book caught her eye when she was grabbing the chair to sit down. She picked up the book and ran her fingers over what looked like a gold foil that was inscribed into the title of the book and the sides. An author she had never heard of before. 

It was in the rack next to her favourite desk and she started reading this book that was the size of her palm. She got so engrossed in the book that she didn’t realise it was way past dinner time. 

Lucky for her, it was a 24/7 library. This book was written by Aiden Sadler and it spoke about a war hero who went on to change the lives of thousands of kids around the world. It spoke in depth about the pain he faced as a child and how it led him to join the airforce. But he learnt the true value of life and family much later when his every day was filled with gunfire and shootings. 

Sarah walked back home fascinated with the story that had just touched her life. The description of the Major General was so detailed she could almost visualise him in the uniform speaking to a bunch of children. 

It reminded her of a similar plot she once had for a novel that involved a war hero. What a beautiful story it would have been, she thought in her mind wishing she hadn’t given up on that story. 

She changed into her comfy clothes and opened her laptop to give her draft a re-read. A file she hadn’t opened in years and suddenly at 2 AM, it felt like it was calling to her. She glanced through the draft and made some corrections. She felt so clear in her head that she was able to add to the story and finish chapters at once. 

She knew she couldn’t contain the happiness of writing again after years and just went on buzzing the keyboard without catching a break. She informed her manager that she would turn up for work when she felt like it and asked him to fire her if he wished. She finally felt free and calm. 

With every chapter, the intensity of emotions seemed to grow. She started falling in love with the lead as she went on to give him a life that no one could imagine. She gasped every time she wrote a twist and breathed hard in triumph every time she brought out the best of a character. 

She rang up Angie and asked her to meet up after work and went to catch some sleep before it was evening again. Sarah hadn’t sounded that excited in months or even years. 

Sarah pushed a bundle of paper on the desk towards Angie and raised her eyebrows with a smile. Angie nodded asking her what it was and it felt like they were reliving the exact moment when Sarah handed in her draft of the first novel to Angie and told her that she was the first one to be reading that draft. That novel had changed her life and for some reason, Angie felt like the magic would repeat even before she laid her eyes on the draft. 

“You know, this library means more to me than home. Here is where most of my writing has flown and now that we’re here together it feels like it’s all coming back. So I picked up this book yesterday and it felt like that was the push I needed to come back home and finish my novel. And just like that, I felt alive again, doing what I love the most.” 

Angie felt so proud of Sarah for being able to get her life back together and bouncing back as a writer. Being an editor, she had worked with countless authors who went into hibernation after their bestsellers and she always wondered what happened to them. It was like they had no words left in them to speak. 

Sarah, of course, would never be one such ghost of literature. Angie couldn’t put the draft down and finished the piece in a matter of few hours. She read the note attached to the draft that mentioned how she wanted to give special credits to Aiden Sadler, who was the real hero in her battle as a writer. If not for his book, she would be never inspired to turn her idea into a book that would surely go on to be a bestseller. If not for that book, she would never be introduced to the character of Major General who was just like the lead of her book, all generous and kind. 

Angie felt so curious about this book, she looked it up online. Must have been a typo, she thought when no such name appeared for the book or the author and searched again several times. She felt quite strange that a book in a library as prominent as The Sterling had no traces on the internet. 

Sarah slept like a baby that night and felt so content about how her last two days were. She had this beautiful dream where she was sharing coffee with the Major General in the library, who was splendidly described by Aiden Sadler in the book. The dream felt so real that she could feel the wrinkles on Major General’s palms when they shook hands. 

Sarah woke up to grab some coffee and picked up the newspaper to take a quick glance before she headed out. She felt amused reading the headline 

Major General Aiden Sadler retires in Glory, wants to build a future for the children 

He even looked pretty much like how she imagined him to be as described in the book. 

She turned around to see Angie calling her and picked up the phone putting her racing thoughts on hold. “Listen, Sarah, there’s no such book like the one you mentioned and I even looked it up online. Aiden Sadler is with the airforce and there has been no book on him yet. In fact, what doesn’t add up is that he wants his biography to be written and he reached out to my office yesterday to refer him to some writers. This just feels like too much of a coincidence, doesn’t it?”, asked Angie sounding worried. 

Sarah reassured her that she would clear up all her doubts later in the library and asked her to stop worrying so much. She went back to the library to grab the book again so that she could show Angie what she was talking about. 

After hours of searching, she was unable to find the book in the racks and headed to the librarian wondering if someone had borrowed it. The librarian tapped her keyboard looking for the title and turned towards Sarah and said, “No such book ever existed”. 

That’s when she remembered her conversation with him in her dream where he shook hands and said laughingly, “That’s how the entire world is; A bundle of people who would all someday be characters in a book and won’t even know. Well, who could deny that possibility?”. 

Sarah turned around and saw Angie at a distance walking in with the Major General and crashed on the floor knocked out.