Secret

“Yes, I will be in the perpustakaan (library) soon, Tok. I just want to make sure that Aisyah has slept for the night. I will be on my way now. I shall arrive just in time for the meeting if nothing happens.” 

She heard her mother ended the call. She is not fully sleeping yet, that is why she woke up when hearing her mother talking to someone. Who is Tok? Do Ibu’s (mother) grandparents are still alive? If they are, she never meets them. She heard her room’s door opened and closed, signalling her mother had left. She quickly opened her eyes and rushed out of the bed, wearing her fluffy bedroom slippers. She decides to follow her mother to the library. Why does her mother want to go to the library now, late at night? The library should be closed at 10 pm, at most. 

The library that Ibu meant is their clan library. Even though the library is owned by her family, it is opened to the public. However, not many people came except for people who wanted to find something. That is what Ibu said to her three years back, after Ayah’s (father) death. She was just seven at the time. Her father’s death is work-related, her Tok (in this case referring to her maternal grandmother) told her. Ibu never said anything about Ayah’s death. If the child heard people talking about her late father, her mother’s face would turn solemn and she would not talk to anyone, including to her only daughter. 

Back to now, after a few moments, she slowly opened her door and peeked outside. The surroundings are clear. She brings her wristwatch and torchlight with her and sets out to the library, not knowing what is waiting for her. 

The journey to the library is around 20 minutes from the family quarter where she and her Mother resides. There are other family and clan members reside there too, but there are not many within her age. She always played alone after doing what she needed for her classes on that day. If she is free, she will go to the library, read books, or sleep.

From the outside, the library is dark. Pitch-black dark. The automatic side door nearest to the quarters is closed. The security keypad beside the door is useless to her because she does not know the code. Exhausted, she stands outside the door when a blue light hits her face. The light is coming from the doorknob! She stood motionlessly, afraid to move. The door automatically opened a few seconds later. She anxiously enters the door, switches on her torchlight, and starts to explore her way in the library. 

As far as Aisyah knows, the clan library is divided into two main sections, the public area, and the archive. The public area is located in the first building where patrons study and read the works available there. The area is filled with couches, study areas and refreshment areas. There are also meeting rooms and private study available in the area by appointment. Even though this area is quite huge, it feels quite empty because not many patrons visit the library nowadays. This is maybe because of time and the location of the library. The library is located at the mountain, quite far from the nearest city. Because the library is open every day, Ibu always takes a weekend to buy their supplies from the town because of the distance. For the fresh food supply, several trucks from the nearby village will come to the family quarters to fill up the families’ stock. Another reason is because the patrons can borrow many of the public area’s reading materials online, nearly eliminating their reason to come to the library on their own.

The archive is in the second building, behind the first building. To enter the area, the patrons need to be accompanied by selected librarians after they get their permission. The patrons will go to selected accessible floors according to their pass. She does not know well about what truly happened behind that door because only certain family members can enter the area. In general, most of the librarians are members of the family. However, only some librarians that are also family members can enter the archive. If the family members are not librarians or do not have permission to enter the library, their entrance will be denied. 

She is currently near the non-fiction area before she found something weird. She rarely comes to this section because she does not understand books here. However, she is really sure there are no stairs in this section. But now, there is an underground stair in the middle of the section! She follows the underground stairs and hearing the floor above her has been closed. She is trapped! Braving herself, she continues going down the stairs for quite some time before her surroundings lighted up. The wall is painted stark white, bringing a feeling of tranquillity and dread at the same time. She walked again until she reached a basement. 

The basement is consisting of a long corridor full of locked rooms. Windows on each of the rooms are closed, increasing her anxiety. She walked through the corridor before she heard some voices. Those voices come from the end of the corridor! She kept walking until she found a door in front of her. She is still thinking about whether she wants to open that door or not when she heard a voice from behind the door saying,

“Nur Aisyah Mahirah. Just open the door. All of us are waiting for you.”

Her stomach dropped. 

When the door opened, she saw many familiar faces in front of her. Among them are Ibu, her grandparents, aunts and uncles, and some of her older cousins. All of them are seated around the meeting table. However, there are two people who caught her attention now. The man that is seated at the end of the table and the lady that is currently standing beside him. They look so young, but they do not feel like it. There is a commanding aura surrounding both of them. Who are they?

Her mother rises up and said,

“Aisyah, say your greetings to your great-grandfather and your youngest great-grandaunt and apologise to all of us.”

“Great-grandfather, great-grandaunt, my name is Aisyah. I am very sorry to all of you for disturbing this meeting. Ibu, I am sorry for following you here.”

She says her greetings and apology in shock. They look so young! The man and the lady smiled kindly at her and the others just nodded, receiving her apology. The man said,

“Just called me Tok and my younger sister as Tok Su. Your mother is not lying, we are her grandfather and grandaunt.”

“But Tok, why Tok Su and you looked so young? It is not possible right?”

The man shaking his head, his smile faltered. He is looking at her, his gaze intense.

“Before I answer that question, you have to answer my question first. Do you agree with it?’

She nodded, unsure about what will happen next.

“Aisyah, what do you know about what happened in 2020?”

“In 2020, a new strain of the virus has occurred, but its transmission was successfully controlled by the World Health Union. Because of each nations’ fast reactions, the virus transmission is managed to be contained. Many lives have been saved due to the fast reactions. The vaccine to the virus is successfully created and the virus has been fully contained from transmitting a few years after that.”

Tok whispers to Tok Su, and she goes through a door in the meeting room. A secret room. Her great-grandfather asks her to take a seat at the table. After a few minutes, her great-grandaunt leaves the secret room and brings a file and a small notebook with a pen with her. She put the file and the notebook in front of her and said with a kind tone, “Read this.”.

She is not prepared for this. Truly not prepared. Her mind is frozen, unable to comprehend the articles in front of her.

"The new virus CVS 20 has been rated as a pandemic."

"All countries on the planet have been infected by this virus."

"Current total deaths due to CVS 20 has reached 50 million people worldwide after the third wave.

"The fourth wave is predicted as deadlier than all three previous combined."

"The vaccines are not working with new strains of the virus. More new research must be done faster. "

"Health care in 60 countries collapsed after the fifth wave."

"WHU: CVS 20 may stay with us forever."

"The virus claimed more than 100 million lives after two years."

“Air travel damages are expected to last for three years.”

Depressing. All of these are depressing. What was happening actually? She looked at Tok, pleading with her eyes, “Please say this is false. Please”.

“Those articles are true, dear. It is the truth.”

“But, what I read for school is different. These articles just showed something else. That is not what happened, right?” She tried very hard to deny it.

He looked at her, shaking his head,

“How I want to lie about this, dear child. My sister and I were still young adults at that time. It is horrendous, that time. Many plans were dispatched to detain the virus, but most of them are not working. Our country’s healthcare nearly collapsed because of it. Lockdown is almost a must. Buying groceries is a rare feat on its own. A lot of people are studying and working from home with limited equipment. Many lost their jobs, and their lives as well. Harsh times.”

“But, both of you must be nearly 500 years old. Why are the textbooks that I read are different?”. She stammered.

She heard her Tok Su’s answering the question,

“Yes, we are around that age. It is just that we are lucky to have a long life. Or cursed, depending on your view. By ‘we”, I mean our family members. We are the preserver, the guardian of the truth. Only ones who want to seek the truth will come here. They are going out from here with their hopes lifted up or their knowledge crushed them, depending on the answer that they get.”

She gasped, realizing her experiences in the library have shown that. She saw some of the patrons coming from the archive wearing their faces with dejection and disbelief. Like, something has gone terribly wrong. Now, she knows maybe some of the answers for the action. Her great-grandfather continues the conversation,

“Once you decide to follow your mother here, it means that you have already started your journey in finding the truth and protect it. A lot of people hate what we do. We, librarians, are keepers of the universe's history, for each inch and time of it. We also have pledged to protect them as best as we could, in our family’s case, with our lives.

Because you are still young, it is dangerous for you to go on secret missions to find manuscripts and artifacts that are going to be destroyed. Going around the globe finding rare books that are still not in our directory. Fighting the ones that want to destroy them. Are you sure that you want to be on this path? You still have time to decide, child.”

After a few moments of contemplating, she looked at her great-grandfather with a determined face.

“Yes, I want to learn the truth. I know a lot of things out there that are changed by someone, right? I want to know all of them.”

Tok chuckled.

“It seems like your daughter will start her training early, Munirah. You know what to do, right? Aisyah, go to the old mansion on the top of the mountain with your mother this Saturday. My sister and I will meet you there. Now, for your first task, listen to this meeting and remember as much as you can. Write everything that you do not know. Do not lose the notebook. Understand?”

“Yes, Tok.” She is eager to start with her first task. Her sleep time is gone.