The next day was Saturday, and Saturdays were always a good day to disappear. Glenda dreamed about the building, and again had the feeling that it couldn't possibly be real. She was eager to explore it, but half afraid that it might be just a dream. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," she told herself after breakfast, and stepped into the closet.
She shut the door, so it was totally dark inside the closet. She took a deep breath, and stood facing the door. "Magic staircase?" she said very quietly. "Magic staircase?" and she reached out slowly to see if there was a knob on the wrong side of the door.
There was a knob - or at least some unfamiliar shape - and she turned it, and opened the door to see the bottom of an ornately carved old-fashioned wooden staircase. "It really is," she said softly, and closed the door behind her. "Let's see if I can go to that nice upstairs library."
The staircase, as before, led her through some ups, downs, turns, and straightaways, and finally brought her to a door which opened into the upstairs apartment she had been in before.
Glenda went straight up to the library in the penthouse apartment, and sighed happily as she looked at the rows of bookshelves. "Let's see," she said, "what would be a good book to start with?"
As soon as she said this, the first book in the top row slid out about an inch, which made her jump. She wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her, but now she was curious about this book, so she took it down and opened it up. It was entitled "The Barnett Building."
It was very nicely bound, with white leather covers, but it was an odd book: most of the pages were blank, and the ones that weren't blank often had blank patches in them.
Chapter 1 was entitled "Use of This Book," and there wasn't much in it. It did say, however, "This book won't tell you everything, but it will tell you what you need to know today." It also said that "This Book cannot be removed from the Barnett Building."
Chapter 2 was entitled "Origins of the Building," and it said that the Barnett Building was originally built in 1881, was expanded in 1903 and 1926, and received extensive additions, visible and invisible, under the direction of Raymond Smith in the period 1962-2001. "That's my grandfather!" Glenda said aloud. "Invisible additions??" The book had drawings in it that showed how the front of the building had been added onto over the years, but after it mentioned the invisible additions there were several blank pages.
"This is the strangest book!" said Glenda. She flipped back through Chapter One, and now she saw some text which she hadn't seen a moment ago; this text said "To help the student learn safely, this Book will reveal its text only as needed."
"Wow!" said Glenda. "A book which conceals itself!" She thought a minute. "Am I a student here? Is somebody teasing me?"
And now the Book also said, in a space on the same page which had been blank a second ago, "This Book will not reveal itself at all to anyone who is not qualified to be a student of magic."
"I ask a question and it shows me the answer?" Glenda said. "This is almost like holding a conversation!"
She turned a page, and found a sentence which said "Like other high-level magical tools, this Book is a conscious entity."
"Cool!" she said, and closed the Book and hugged it to her. "What's in all these other chapters?"
Even though most of the other chapters were totally blank, she could still read the Table of Contents: Chapter 3 was "Maintenance," which sounded boring, but Chapter 4 was "Admission." "Can I bring my friends here?" Glenda wondered, and turned to Chapter 4. It was mostly blank except for its first sentence, which said "Outsiders must be properly introduced, one at a time. The Building will admit only those outsiders who have a good heart and good character, are imaginative, and are under 12 at first introduction."
"Cool!" said Glenda. "I'll bring the gang over."
Chapter 5 was titled "Illyrian." "What's Illyrian?" Glenda wondered. There were just a few sentences visible in this chapter, and they said: "Old High Illyrian is the basic language of magic. Any study of magic requires study of Illyrian. The Building contains many resources for learning of Illyrian."
Chapter 6, titled "The Board Room," was totally blank; but the beginning of Chapter 7, titled "The Secret Stairs," described the magic staircase she had been using.
The other chapters were all totally blank, but some of them had very interesting titles: Chapter 8 was titled "The Garden," which made her wonder what there was to say about it. "Everything about this building looks so ordinary, and turns out to be so surprising," Glenda thought. "What could they do with a garden?"
Chapter 9 was titled "The Looking Pool." "Looking?" Glenda wondered. "What is there to look at in a pool?"
Chapter 10 was titled "Basement Rooms," and Chapter 11 was titled "The Seven Libraries." Glenda laughed out loud. "Seven!?" she crowed. "Then there are five more I haven't seen yet?? I'm in book heaven!"
The other chapters were Chapter 12, "Network Room;" 13, "Communications Room;" 14, "Talismans;" 15, "Transportation Room;" 16, "Tower of The Lost;" 17, "Protectors;" and 18, "Source Code."
"So much to explore!" Glenda said. "So let's get started!" She sighed happily, put the book up, and went to the staircase door.
"I'd like to see the Garden, please," and she opened the door.
Chapter 4
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