Books of the Dead

by Morris Fenris

  “No,” she said.

  I will pay attention,” Merly apologized a little and took her seat.

  Jeremy tapped her from behind. “What is wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing, I am just a little tired,” she said casually.

  “Where is Nora? I haven’t seen her for quite some time, is she all right?” Jeremy said in his thick English accent, he was fond of Nora, and it was apparent.

  He must have tried to contact her like me, Merly told herself.

  “She is with her family,” she said with little assurance and hoped that would console him.

  Before she received a response from him, Mr. Summers announced that he was leaving for the day.

  Jeremy called Merly to one side and asked her again, “Did she contact you?”

  The right answer to the question was unknown to Merly. What would she say? Either that Nora didn’t even inform her before leaving or that she left her phone behind. Jeremy would surely know that as he must have tried contacting her.

  She didn’t get to complete her sentence when Jeremy said, “I tried calling her, but no one answered. Didn’t she take her phone with her?”

  “No, she accidentally left it behind,” Merly said without knowing if it was the truth. Nora could have left it behind purposefully and Merly didn’t have the true answer.

  “Did you contact her family? You said she is with them.”

  “I didn’t want to bother them,” she said sheepishly hoping not to get caught in her lies.

  “But the holidays just got over, and she decided to visit them now?” he interrogated her further.

  Merly was saved by Jeremy’s phone ringing in his pocket. He looked at it then muttered something, which Merly didn’t understand, and then said, “I have to go” and left abruptly.

  This left Merly confused, and she stopped in the hall and stood there thinking how many lies she needed to make up before she could escape from this situation.

  It was almost noon and still there was no news from Natalie. Merly felt dejected and sad. She thought about calling her up, but decided it was better to give her some time. Merly didn’t want to come off as nagging and bothersome, and sat by herself quietly. Some of the students came up her and asked about Nora, and Merly went on repeating the same thing. No one seemed to believe that Nora went on a holiday right after the beginning of the semester, but the truth remained that Merly was as oblivious as rest of them. She had no one to rely on or to trust. Merly knew that she will have to wait until Nora contacted her, but convincing others about that was the biggest problem.

  Merly decided to go and talk to Mr. Stevenson again to see if he came up with any news, but she saw no one at the library and only the grim-looking assistant looked at her questionably. Before he could say a thing, Merly backed out. She wasn’t in the mood to carry on a conversation with him, and decided to head back to the dorm. Though she knew that her decision would make her miss the last class, yet heading back to the dorm seemed like a better idea. Merly didn’t wait to inform any of her classmates before walking back to her dorm.

  She found Mr. Clove, the postman, walking near their building.

  He stopped upon seeing Merly walking towards him. “Ah, good that I saw you here. There is a letter for you,” and handed her a neat brown envelope with her name clearly written on it.

  “A letter for me?” she exclaimed.

  Merly was clearly surprised. Her mother would call whenever needed, and the few friends she had contacted her through email. She flipped the envelope over to see who it was from, but found no name written on it. A feeling of déjà vu rushed over her. She knew what a letter with no name signified and who it is from. The unknown sender strikes again and Merly was not mistaken. After Mr. Clove took his leave, Merly opened the envelope to find a black sheet of paper. On it was written in golden ink, “Meet me in the library” in bold fonts.

  She flipped the paper to see if anything else was written on it, but found nothing. The piece of paper contained nothing except those five words.

  What should I do? Merly questioned herself. Nothing other than the time or day was mentioned on the paper. She knew it was not from Natalie and concluded it was the unknown sender who sent her those books. Merly decided to tell Natalie about this and didn’t want to keep all the things to herself, already numerous things were bottled inside her and keeping more stuff within drained her energy.

  Merly dialed Natalie’s number in a hurry on her way up to her room, but didn’t get an answer. She didn’t try a second time, but instead knocked on Kelly’s door. It was not who she expected to open the door. She was welcomed by Camille who looked at her with a coy face and asked her in. Kelly was nowhere in sight, nor Zoë, yet Merly looked around.

  “Where are Kelly and Zoë?” Merly asked.

  “Oh, in the other room. We were studying,” she said casually.

  Nothing seemed off to Merly. Studying in groups was common for students in college. “I came to see Kelly,” Merly said.

  “Come on in,’’ Camille gestured.

  Merly entered their room where she found Zoë and Kelly reading something from a large book. Kelly looked up when she heard footsteps and Merly thought that Kelly was startled upon seeing her.

  “You guys didn’t expect me,” Merly stated.

  Zoë and Kelly closed the book they were reading and shoved it aside without saying a thing, as if they wanted to hide it from her. Merly didn’t bother, but she wasn’t sure either if she could inform Kelly about the anonymous letter. Every day, it was becoming increasingly hard for Merly to trust anyone, and she didn’t need anyone’s betrayal at that moment. Merly however cursed herself for being suspicious of everyone lately. These girls were her friends and even a few days back, she used to talk with them as feely as she used to days back.

  Zoë was the first to break the silence. “Hey, is there any news from Nora? Did she call you?”

  The rest looked at her and hoped for an answer.

  “I tried calling her up, but she left her phone behind,” Merly said.

  Nobody said anything in response, but right at that moment her phone buzzed and Merly found the display showed a new message and it read, “I found something - it’s important,” and the message was from Nora.

  Merly stared at the screen, then back at her friends, then back at the screen again. The trio of friends was still waiting for an answer. She looked at her friends and lied, “It’s my mother and I need to call her,” but she didn’t move.

  “Is it something to worry about? You look worried,” Kelly questioned.

  “No, I...” Merly paused then said, “I need to go, please excuse me.”

  She was just about to leave when Kelly stopped her, “You never said what you came for,”

  Merly looked at Zoë and Camille when they voiced the same question. “I just came to spend the evening with you guys; it is not that important.”

  They didn’t say anything, but merely nodded and excused her. Merly rushed inside her room, bolted the doors shut and tried calling the number from which she received the message. The line didn’t get connected. Exasperated she threw her phone down. On one side, there was this anonymous letter and now this message from Nora, and Merly was confused. She was too confused to think rationally.

  Was it right to call Natalie, she thought, but dialed her number anyway. It rang twice before Natalie answered her phone, but Merly didn’t tell her about the message from Nora, but instead informed her about the anonymous letter and its contents.

  “Can you show it to me?” Natalie asked.

  Natalie didn’t live in the dorms; therefore, showing her the letter would require another day. “I’ll meet you tomorrow in the library,” Merly proposed.

  “Yes, along with the sender of the letter,” Natalie joked.

  Although Merly was curious enough to know what was going on, she wasn’t very sure if she wanted to meet the sender of the letter. Sitting down alone, she thought about numerous people who could have
sent her the letter and imagined a lot of things she wanted to do and say when she met the person face to face.

  The next day was rather bright and sunny. Merly forgot the sleeplessness of the previous night quickly and headed towards her class. There was a surge of anxiety within her as she anticipated the person she was about to meet. Merly sat down quietly at her desk. Jeremy came over to ask her why she missed the class on the previous day. Merly made a petty excuse, and soon everything was forgotten.

  Jeremy informed Merly that there was a new assignment to be completed and submitted the next day.

  “It’s tomorrow?” Merly questioned.

  “Yes, it is due tomorrow, and you missed the class yesterday. I suggest you start working on it soon.”

  Just then, Professor Kimberly came in and everyone was immersed in her lectures, but Merly’s mind was occupied with the assignment she needed to submit.

  Two more classes before Merly could start working on her assignment. Professor Jennings was very strict and when he demanded an assignment, he listened to no excuse, and Merly was familiar with that fact. She knew that she had to take the blame for missing the previous class, so as soon as Professor Katherine left, she quickly noted down the requirements of the assignment on her notebook and headed towards the library. Sarah called from behind and said something, but Merly never heard it.

  She dashed towards the library entrance, greeted the new assistant, but noticed that Mr. Stevenson was absent. Merly didn’t ponder on that. She chose the desk near the three windows and sat there for a few minutes before opening the first few pages of her notebook. Jeremy told her that her partner for this assignment was Zoë. Why didn’t she tell me anything yesterday? I went to her room and Zoë wasn’t even present in the class that day or even yesterday. But it was not the right time to contemplate unnecessary thoughts and decided to ask Zoë about this later. First, she needed to complete her part of the project.

  Chapter 3

  Merly looked at the notes she had taken down, but didn’t know from where to start. She has been sitting at the same desk for the last four hours and knew that the assignment was going to be a tough one. That is why she chose this desk. It’s closer to the window where it is lighter. The same desk is also close to the criminology section. The desk was filled with at least a dozen books that talk about major cases, police procedures, and law governing crime and so on. She walked up to the rack, took a few books out that she felt would help her out with her work and sat down with it.

  They were not much help as Merly closed the book in front of her and decided to move on to the next one. The phone rang, and the display told her that the call was from her friend, Zoë.

  “Hey, Merly. I am running a little late. I will be there in an hour.”

  “Zoë! We are supposed to do this assignment together. Please come soon, I am stuck and I need you to help me out on this.” Merly said, but never blamed her for not telling her about it the other day.

  “Well, I know it, and I am coming as quickly as possible; and Merly, I didn’t know about this. Sarah informed me about the assignment. Okay, bye!” Zoë clarified, and the call ended.

  Merly had a feeling that Zoë would never join her to help with the assignment. They have been studying together at the university for the last two years. Although she would like to complain about Zoë not helping, Merly preferred to work alone. However today, she would have liked it if Zoë was here. The assignment was taking way too long to solve. She could have used some company.

  She pushed the dozen books to the other side of the desk and decided to grab some more books. Four hours in, there was no solution in sight. The problem given was getting a little tedious now. So far, she had only used books from the first rack. She decided to move on to the next one, and kept browsing. She kept doing this for a while, until she was almost at the last rack of the section. It was clear she was getting desperate.

  “May I help you?” said a voice from behind.

  Merly turned to see who it might be. A woman, probably in her fifties was standing a little distance from her. A librarian tag was hanging from her shirt pocket. Merly had never seen her before, and she thought the shirt was a little out of style, like it was from a different time period. The woman was middle age, and that was probably what it was, she thought. Merly wondered why the librarian tag was hanging in her shirt. She’s probably here, because Mr. Stevenson is absent today.

  “Yes. I was looking for something that would help me with my assignment. So far, I am drawing a blank.”

  “Try the red book. Second rack to your left.”

  Merly did so, and quickly looked at the chapter index. It seemed to have the exact topic she was looking for. She turned back to say thanks, but the librarian was gone. Not thinking too much about it, she returned to her desk. Zoë was sitting there, adjusting her makeup.

  “I am here!” said Zoë.

  “You are just in time. This lady librarian just helped me out. She looked kind of odd,” said Merly, taking the seat next to Zoë.

  “Wait a minute. Was she wearing a flower-patterned shirt? Kind of old?” inquired Zoë.

  “Yeah. How did you know?” replied Merly.

  “That’s the library’s ghost. I have only heard about her and never thought she was real. You actually met her.”

  “What?” exclaimed a shocked Merly.

  She looked back at that row of books again, hoping to see the librarian again. Nothing was there. So it happened and Merly saw what she was not supposed to, because she never believed in it.

  “You must be joking!” an angry Merly exclaimed, slammed her book down. She realized what Natalie told her the previous day, but she didn’t want to show her fear to Zoë and didn’t quite believe it herself, as well. She reasoned that it was possibly a joke and that someone took the joke too far; therefore, went over to look for the odd-looking librarian, who came like a miracle to help her with her assignment.

  Merly went towards the way she saw the librarian go, but didn’t see her. She still didn’t believe what Zoë said to her. This is not true, she said to herself again, and went to ask the new assistant librarian to clear her doubt. He was sitting in his usual chair looking at the computer screen when she called for him loudly.

  He looked from what he was doing and said, “Keep your voice down, this is a library.”

  Merly somehow had the feeling that that the new assistant didn’t like her all that much, but she shook the feeling off. “Who is replacing Mr. Stevenson today?” She asked without delaying and hoped that it would be the odd lady librarian she saw that would dismiss the story of the ghost.

  Now he looked at her directly and said, “I can help you with any book you need.”

  “This is not about the books; I want to know who is replacing Mr. Stevenson today?” Merly questioned again firmly.

  “No one,” the new assistant answered with an air of annoyance.

  “But…” Merly was cut off when he firmly said

  “I am the only one here. Mr. Stevenson had some problems, so he is talking the day off.”

  Then who was the lady whom she saw. Merly didn’t want to believe Zoë for a second, but Natalie’s words from a day before rung in her head. What if the rumors were true, and what if the stories about the ghost were real. Abnormal thoughts crept in her mind. What if someone knew about this or the actual sender of the anonymous letter germinated her mind. Merly’s head felt heavy and dizzy at the same time. She took the nearest bench and sat down clutching her forehead. When Merly lifted her head, she found a girl with green, bright eyes looking at her intently. The girl had no books in front of her and her stare made her a little shaky

  People, can’t mind their own business now a days, she thought with irritation.

  In the midst of all these things, she realized that she had left Zoë in her seat, and the project was going nowhere. Natalie didn’t contact her. She took out the phone from her pocket, but there was no call from Natalie.

  But she ask
ed me meet her here today…

  Annoyed, she shook her head and saw the girl with the green eyes still looking at her, but Merly didn’t pay attention to it, so she stood up and without looking back walked up to where Zoë was waiting for her.

  “So who was the lady librarian?” Zoë mocked.

  Merly didn’t like it. Zoë was mocking her and she knew it, but there was nothing she could do about it. They needed to complete the project together and it was already getting late, so she ignored the question. Zoë didn’t say anything either, but Merly had an irritating feeling in the back of her mind that Zoë’s behavior seemed to be different for the past couple of days. However, Merly hated being paranoid. It was unlike her and to get her mind off it, she took the red book which had the answers to her assignments questions and started reading it.

  Zoë looked reluctant sitting in front of her, so Merly passed her the notebook where she had taken down the notes and asked Zoë to go through them, and then quickly added, “We need to complete this fast.”

  Both the girls sat down. No one uttered a thing before a footstep broke the silence. Merly didn’t turn back or look to see who it was as she was too immersed in her work, but Zoë did.

  “You?” she said.

  Merly still didn’t bother to look up assuming that Zoë might be talking on the phone.

  Natalie was standing close to Merly and patted her on the back. This time, she turned around and was a little taken aback upon seeing Natalie. She had almost given up on Natalie arriving or bringing any news to her, but there she was standing with a quaint smile on her pink lips. Merly noticed the foxy eyes glowing like they held an answer, and there was an odd impatience in her touch.

  Zoë didn’t know about Merly’s secret meeting with Natalie, so she looked at them suspiciously. Zoë seemed bothered by the unlikely bond between two people who were complete opposites.

  Zoë was obviously not very fond of Natalie, and seemed not particularly happy about her presence at that moment. She said condescendingly, “You two are friends?” And a second later added, “...now?”