The Magic Library

THE MAGIC LIBRARY

“So, what is it?” Jenna asked looking at the object in Noah’ hands.

Noah shook his head, slightly.  “I’m not sure,” he said, “I think it’s a diary or something.”  

He fanned through the pages, then opened the cover. “It belonged to someone named Benj Thomas.” He continued reading the first page. “The first date is August 14, 1989.”

He turned the book towards Jenna, who read the front page.

“Benji Thomas … why do I know that name?”

Noah shook his head. “I have no idea.”

Jenna took out her phone and opened Google, typing in “Benj Thomas” into the search engine.  

“Oh dear!” she said, looking up at Noah, turning her phone towards him so he could see the screen.

*****

Jenna and Noah were at her grandma’s house—well, not really Grandma's house anymore. Grandma had died a week ago, and in her will, she’d left the house to Jenna, much to the chagrin of other family members, but that was a story for another day. Suffice it to say that Jenna had loved her grandma, and had always been there for her. Not so much wth the rest of the family, who felt Grandma was a lot of work and should just go into a care home. So, Grandma had rewarded Jenna for her love and kindness with the deed to her house. And now Jenna was cleaning out Grandma’s house (would she ever truly think of it as her own?), starting with the attic. By no means was Grandma a hoarder, but she had lived in the same home for over seventy years. A person collects a lot of stuff in almost three-quarters of a century. And Jenna was now the curator of her grandma’s legacy, and she was carefully going through all the papers, books, and important documents one collects over a lifetime.

*****

“What?” said Noah, leaning over, trying to read Jenna’s phone over her shoulder.

She turned her phone screen towards him.

“He disappeared on August 18, 1989, and has never been found. The case is unsolved. He was only eighteen years old.”

Noah pulled out his phone, and also found the articles chronicaling Benji Thomas’s disappearance. He stared reading.

“So, he starts this diary, and then disappears five days later?” asked Jenna.

Noah nodded his head, still reading.

“No one has any idea what happened to him,” said Noah. “He just disappeared.”

“Why would my grandma have his diary up here, with all her other papers? Shouldn’t the police have this? It’s evidence, right?” 

Neither had an answer.

Jenna grabbed the diary. “Let’s read it.”

They huddled together on an old couch, and began reading the diary of Benji Thomas.

*****

August 14, 1989, Day 1: Today the adventure begins. I’m so excited. I think I know the answers. Now I just have to find out where it is.

*****

“Find what?” asked Noah. “And the answer to what?”

Jenna just shrugged, turned the page.

*****

August 15, 1989, Day 2: I’m pretty sure that Prudence Kincade knows the answers to all my questions, but I’m not sure she will talk to me about it. I believe that she is the key!

*****

“Grandma! He’s talking about my grandma!”

Jenna looked at Noah, worry in her eyes. Jenna had a sense of foreboding. What had her grandma known? Why did she have a missing man’s diary? And why did this Benji guy think Grandma knew the answers to all his questions? What were the questions?

Just then Noah’s phone buzzed. He looked at the screen.

“Shoot!” he said, “Gotta go.” He paused. “Looks like Baby Cartwright is ready to enter the world.”

The life of an OBGYN. He quickly kissed Jenna, and ran down the stairs, and out the front door. Jenna heard his car door slam and the engine roar to life. And he was gone.

Jenna looked down at the diary still in her hands. She continued reading.

*****

… I believe she is the key! I hope that she will trust me. I need to earn her trust before she will tell me her secrets!

******

“Secrets?” Jenna murmured out loud. “What secrets?”

Her grandma had been a librarian for almost as long as she had been living in this house. She had worked at the old main library branch forever, and when she had retired she was well into her seventies, long past retirement age. But Grandma had volunteered a couple of times a week at the same library, right up until a week before her death. She was the reason that Jenna had become a librarian herself. 

What was going on?

*****

August 16, 1989, Day 3: I visited Mrs. Kincade again today, at the library. She gave me her famous “librarian face” that I remember from my childhood. She still scares me!

“You know,” she said, “you are becoming a bit of a pest, Benji.”

Yes, that was true. I am a pest. But I’m a pest who needs to know the truth.

I tried the old “I’m doing research ruse, but she didn’t fall for it. I’m pretty shure Prudence Kincade doesn’t fall for too many things.

She asked me what I was looking for, specifically. 

“I’m looking for information about a library,” I told her. It wasn’t a lie, not exactly.

She looked confused. “What library would that be?” she asked me.

This was the moment that I had dreaded.

“The Magic Library,” I’d said.

Confusion turned into shock. But she recovered quickly. 

“I don’t know what you are talking about. There are no such things as magic libraries. Just the regular branches around the city.”

“It may be a private library,” I continued.

She let out a breath. “Then I’m afraid that I can’t help you. We don’t have a list of private libraries. But I can show you Librarians’ Quarterly. Some private libraries are listed there, as well as all of the public ones. But, not all private libraries are necessarily listed. They are private after all.” She looked at me. “But I do not remember ever seeing anything about a Magic Library.”

But, I knew there would be no listing for the Magic Library. It was, after all, magic.

*****

What was Benj Thomas on about? My grandma was an esteemed and respecpected librarian. If she said there was no magic library, then there was no magic library.

*****

August 17, 1989, Day 4:  I returned to the library today, and wandered back to the periodical section. The library was busy. I needed to talk to Mrs. Kincade, but I also needed to make sure that I had all of my evidence laid out. I sat with an unopened copy of Librarians’ Quarterly on my lap.

“Benji, I see you’re back again.” She had snuck up and startled me. “This is what, the seventh day in a row, that I’ve seen you here?”

“I was in on the weekend, but you were off.”

She said nothing, just looked at me, her eyebrow raised.

I needed to tell her what I knew. And I needed to see her reaction. Yesterday, she had been surprised about my search for the Magic Library. How would she react to today’s information?

“Mrs. Kindcade, I think you know about the Magic Library—”

She started to protest.

“—Mr. Bartholomew Gill told me you could help me.”

She stopped, shut her mouth, and looked at me. Then, she did the most unexpected thing. She turned on her heel, and walked away from me.

*****

Benji Thomas was still on about the Magic Library! What was it, exactly? Jenna pulled out her phone, and searched “Magic Library” online. There was a show by that name from 1989. Coincidence? Maybe. There was a book called The Magic Library about the magical things that occurred in an unusual library. There was a YouTube channel called The Magic Library, for little kids. In fact, there were a bunch of YouTube channels called that, all for little kids. Another book, an activity sheet for kids. There was even a fairy tale about a library where all the knowledge of magic was kept. Interesting concept, except it included missing clock parts, and farts. Obviously a middle school fairy tale.   

There were so many Magic Libraries online. Jenna thought about her Grandma. She was the head librarian in the city—she didn’t specifically cater to children, but they were part of the job. So maybe not the children-related activities? While not a luddite, Grandma wasn’t savvy enough to create any online content. Just to be sure, Jenna clicked on each of the videos. Nope, not Grandma.

And who was Bartholomew Gill. Grandma had never mentioned anyone by that name. Jenna went back to her phone. There was only one—an Irish author who wrote crime-mystery novels, but Bartholomew Gill was a pseudonym for Mark McGarrity, and he’d died in 2002. That was a possibility, but for what?

She returned to the diary.

*****

August 18, 1989, Day 5: I returned to the library today, worried Mrs. Kincade wouldn’t talk to me. If she didn’t, I’d have to wait until Monday because she didn’t work on the weekends.

 I sat in the periodical section again. It was only a couple of minutes before she came to me.

“Benji, you need to tell me what you want from me, and why,” she said sternly.

I took a deep breath. It was now or never.  

“For the last year, I have been volunteering at the retirement home. That’s where I met Mr. Gill. We’ve become friends, of a sort. He was a great old guy, always telling jokes, and talking about his life at the home, but not much about his life when he was younger. He hinted that he had had an extraordinary life, one that he couldn’t share with me. Not yet, he’d said, but eventually. Unfortunately, he died a couple of weeks ago. He left me his hat collection. He had a great hat collection. He also left me this letter."

 I handed the letter to Mrs. Kindcade. She read it.

*****

Jenna turned the next page, and there was the letter, attached to diary page with tape. She gently unfolded it and read the contents.

*****

Benji:

Well, if you’re reading this …

You’re a good boy. You’re also a special boy. 

You may have noticed that I didn’t talk that much about my life before I ended up here, in the home. That’s because what I did was a secret. Plus, no one would believe me if I told them. I was a librarian, but not a regular librarian. I was the librarian of the Magic Library—the best library in the world. But it is a very important library. You won’t find any information about it in any books. And no one will talk about it.  

Why, you ask? Because the Magic Library is where all the books on magic are kept. And only those who have magical powers can enter. Except the librarians, like me. I’m the protector and keeper of the knowledge. And, a gatekeeper. My job was to ensure that evil NEVER had access to the books about magic.  

That’s why I’m writing this letter to you. You have magic in you, my boy. A lot of it. But I suspect that you don’t know. You need to go to the current librarian, Prudence Kincade. I believe the you know her. She will introduce you to a teacher, a wizard. Go see her. Magic like yours is very rare. You need to learn how to use it, for good.  She will help you find the best teacher.  

And enjoy the hats! ~Sincerely Bartholomew Gill

*****

There was a wax seal on the bottom of the letter. Jenna suspected it was so Grandma would know it was legit. She folded up the letter, and continued to read Day 5’s entry.

*****

Mrs. Kincade read the letter, and sat down in a chair across from me. We were silent while she reread it, nodding. She looked at me, then back at the letter. We sat there for ten minutes, not speaking, while Mrs. Kincade thought.

“Okay,” she said. “Meet me back here, tonight, after closing. Knock on the back door, after everyone has gone for the day. I will be expecting you. I have to speak to some people.”

With that, she got up, and walked back to her office, a far away look in her eyes.

I arrived early. The library was still open, so I sat outside, watching while the lights were turned off, and Miss Hendricks walked out the front door. I saw Mrs. Kincade lock the front door behind Mss. Hendricks, and then disappear back into the library. I walked around the back of the building, and gently knocked on the delivery door. It opened almost immediately.

Mrs. Kincade looked around, and turned to me. “Come in, quickly,” she said, almost dragging me in by my arm.  

We walked into the library. She led the way to the back corner of the library, to the children’s section. She turned to me.

“Well, Benji, it seems like you are going on an adventure.”

I was confused.

“An adventure? What do you mean.”

“Well,” she said, “if you do have as much magic in you as Bartholomew thinks you do, then you must learn to use your power. You need a teacher. And that teacher is at the Magic Library.” She paused. “But, if you do decide to undergo the training, you will have to leave this realm, and enter the magical realm.”

I looked at her, even more confused.

“You mean, leave. Forever?”

She smiled. “Not forever, Benji, but for the duration of your training. A decade, maybe longer. Magic is complicated business.”

“But, school, my friends, my foster family—they’ll miss me.”

Mrs. Kincade said nothing, just looked at me.

A man stepped out from the stacks.

“Hello Benji. I’m Aramis. If you decide to come to the Magic Library, I will be your teacher. I am a wizard.” He stepped closer to me, shutting his eyes, breathing deeply. “Yes, Bartholomew was right, you have much magic in you. It would be an honour to teach one as powerful as you.”

I have to admit, I did feel different at times, I just didn’t know why. Now I knew it was magic. I considered my options. Stay and be average, or go and learn magic.

“I'm in. When do I leave?” I asked.

*****

August 19, 1989, Day 6:  

I’m going to give Mrs. Kincade this diary. I know people will be looking for me, and they will be worried. But I don’t want to miss the opportunity to do magic. Last night, Aramis thought me two simple spells. I felt powerful. And excited. I want to learn all there is to learn. I’m leaving today. I’m going to the magical realm, and learn everything in the Magic Library.

*****

There was one more entry. Jenna turned the page, and started to read.

*****

May 5, 2024:

Dear Jenna, 

*****

It was from Grandma! Jenna would recognize her cursive writing anywhere!

*****

I knew you would find this diary and read it. My time is near, and I’m ready to go. I have had a marvellous life, but it will be ending soon No regrets!

 I have been the librarian of the Magic Library for almost sixty years, but now I need to find a replacement, and I think that person is you. You would be the perfect candidate. You are smart and dedicated. Don’t worry about learning the job—there are many at the library who will help you. The Library needs someone who is dependable and honest. And you are both.  There will always those from the dark side who will try and enter. They want to sow mayhem and destruction. It will be your job to stop them. You are a strong, true person—just what the library needs. Please consider this your destiny. I knew from the time that you were a little girl, that you would be my successor. The Library needs you. ~Love Grandma.

*****

Jenna shut the diary, and leaned back on the couch, thinking.  

This was so bizarre. She had been close to her grandma. Surely she would have known about her other “job”. But she hadn’t.  

Jenna was unsure. Could she believe everything she had just read? It was unbelievable. And, if she was honest, a little far-fetched.

Just then, there was a knock on the back door. Jenna ran down the stairs, through the kitchen, to the back door. A man was standing, smiling at her through the glass. She did not recognize him. Tentatively, she opened the door, leaving the security chain on.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“You can,” said the man. “My name is Benji Thomas, and I understand you’re going to be our new librarian.”