Read Online Somebody Stop Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Caleb Krisp
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handle and pulled the thick metal door. It opened with a squeak. The contents of the safe were cast in darkness, so I pushed the candle forward.
What emerged in the flicking orange glow were a pile of five or six books and beneath them a parcel tied with string. I set the candle down. Pulled the books out. A Field Guide To Revolution; The Secret History of Cheese ; Training Rabbits For Warfare; How To Hypnotise Your Elders … not exactly the collection of dark and menacing tomes I had expected. And no sign of Ambrose Crabapple’s manuscript.
I looked back at the vault. Pulled out the parcel tied with string. Unwrapped it. Bound inside a plain brown folder was a stack of parchment, covered in handwritten scrawl. And on the front, in spidery black ink –
Lifting the Veil:
The Truth About Hidden Worlds
and How to Get There
By
Ambrose Crabtree
A great well of joy rose up inside of me. Here was hope, pure and simple. Rebecca was within reach. She would be saved! I tucked the manuscript beneath my apron and blew out the candle.
Chapter 9
Nightfall could not come swiftly enough. After all, I had work to do. I ate my supper in record time (the roasted duck was a great disappointment, the onions a triumph) and announced that I was exhausted after all that beastly dusting and wished to retire to bed. Mother Snagsby seemed to find this deeply suspicious, but Ezra excused me from the table and told me to get a good night’s sleep.
‘Do not forget,’ he added, with a twinkle in his eyes, ‘tomorrow Mrs Roach and her daughters are coming to tea and I know how much you are looking forward to that.’
Actually, I had forgotten. Still, it was a thrilling thought! I hurried from the room. Tomorrow I would make new friends. And tonight I would find a way to reach an old one.
It had certainly been a day of high adventure. When I got home from the library, I had placed the manuscript under my mattress. Which is where I retrieved it from, sitting on the bed with the parchment in front of me. The pages were numbered, though not bound. The date on the front was 1834. Strangelythey did not look yellowed or faded with age. I put this down to the fact that the manuscript had been locked away in the dark safe for decades.
With tremendous eagerness, I thumbed through the pages. Ambrose Crabapple had a fondness for words and it appeared that he wrote a great deal of nonsense. The first five chapters touched on subjects like time travel, immortality and the nature of dreams.
Despair was beginning to set in, just as I arrived at the final chapter – ‘Lifting the Veil’. Again, there was a lot of waffle, which I skimmed over at speed, only stopping when I hit upon the following –
That there are other worlds, nestled beside our own, is a fact few are aware of; yet they exist. If you are reading these pages, then there is every chance you know this already. I will also assume that you would be perfectly willing to defy the laws of time and space and journey to one or more of these hidden realms. Alas, dear reader, I must inform you that it is quite impossible. You are wasting your time and I bid you farewell.
Which was terribly unexpected! Also, frightfully rude. I turned the next page and it was blank. As was the one after that. Except for the fact that it was covered in scratch marks. I squinted. Heldthe page close to my face. Turned it over and whatnot. Only when I grabbed the candle from the bedside and held it up to the parchment did the magic of that page become clear. Ambrose Crabapple’s handwriting blossomed under candlelight.
This is what I read –
Good, as you have arrived, I will assume you are a true seeker. Now let us get down to business. When one wishes to find a hidden world, one does not attempt to travel there. For there is no need to journey at all. Once the veil is lifted, you will find that this hidden world is much closer than you think. In fact, it is all around – all you must do is find the door
What emerged in the flicking orange glow were a pile of five or six books and beneath them a parcel tied with string. I set the candle down. Pulled the books out. A Field Guide To Revolution; The Secret History of Cheese ; Training Rabbits For Warfare; How To Hypnotise Your Elders … not exactly the collection of dark and menacing tomes I had expected. And no sign of Ambrose Crabapple’s manuscript.
I looked back at the vault. Pulled out the parcel tied with string. Unwrapped it. Bound inside a plain brown folder was a stack of parchment, covered in handwritten scrawl. And on the front, in spidery black ink –
Lifting the Veil:
The Truth About Hidden Worlds
and How to Get There
By
Ambrose Crabtree
A great well of joy rose up inside of me. Here was hope, pure and simple. Rebecca was within reach. She would be saved! I tucked the manuscript beneath my apron and blew out the candle.
Chapter 9
Nightfall could not come swiftly enough. After all, I had work to do. I ate my supper in record time (the roasted duck was a great disappointment, the onions a triumph) and announced that I was exhausted after all that beastly dusting and wished to retire to bed. Mother Snagsby seemed to find this deeply suspicious, but Ezra excused me from the table and told me to get a good night’s sleep.
‘Do not forget,’ he added, with a twinkle in his eyes, ‘tomorrow Mrs Roach and her daughters are coming to tea and I know how much you are looking forward to that.’
Actually, I had forgotten. Still, it was a thrilling thought! I hurried from the room. Tomorrow I would make new friends. And tonight I would find a way to reach an old one.
It had certainly been a day of high adventure. When I got home from the library, I had placed the manuscript under my mattress. Which is where I retrieved it from, sitting on the bed with the parchment in front of me. The pages were numbered, though not bound. The date on the front was 1834. Strangelythey did not look yellowed or faded with age. I put this down to the fact that the manuscript had been locked away in the dark safe for decades.
With tremendous eagerness, I thumbed through the pages. Ambrose Crabapple had a fondness for words and it appeared that he wrote a great deal of nonsense. The first five chapters touched on subjects like time travel, immortality and the nature of dreams.
Despair was beginning to set in, just as I arrived at the final chapter – ‘Lifting the Veil’. Again, there was a lot of waffle, which I skimmed over at speed, only stopping when I hit upon the following –
That there are other worlds, nestled beside our own, is a fact few are aware of; yet they exist. If you are reading these pages, then there is every chance you know this already. I will also assume that you would be perfectly willing to defy the laws of time and space and journey to one or more of these hidden realms. Alas, dear reader, I must inform you that it is quite impossible. You are wasting your time and I bid you farewell.
Which was terribly unexpected! Also, frightfully rude. I turned the next page and it was blank. As was the one after that. Except for the fact that it was covered in scratch marks. I squinted. Heldthe page close to my face. Turned it over and whatnot. Only when I grabbed the candle from the bedside and held it up to the parchment did the magic of that page become clear. Ambrose Crabapple’s handwriting blossomed under candlelight.
This is what I read –
Good, as you have arrived, I will assume you are a true seeker. Now let us get down to business. When one wishes to find a hidden world, one does not attempt to travel there. For there is no need to journey at all. Once the veil is lifted, you will find that this hidden world is much closer than you think. In fact, it is all around – all you must do is find the door
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