Luis was too submerged in the brown book that he had soon forgotten about the books, he was surprised by what was written on the first page, it read; Ancient mystics from Greg Miles to Luis Miles.
Who was this Greg? he had the same last name as him and why would he give him a book?
At first, he thought it was his aunt's husband, but then he remembered that his aunt never got married, the reason being that she doesn't want any burden that comes from childbearing or taking care of a family when he was unable to figure out who this Greg was he decided to forget about it and check the book out.
Luis wasn't able to understand anything that was written in the book.
He expected to see well-written English words but all he saw were large symbols that didn't even look like a language.
After searching through different pages of the book all he could see were pictures and symbols that he couldn't understand.
He got frustrated and quickly shut the book but a page slipped out, he picked the page and looked at it.
He was surprised, there were still pictures and symbols but some part of it was written in English.
"Develop, grow and conquer" he read while following the text with his hands.
Maybe this book was crazy to tell him that, how could he develop, grow and conquer when he was just a boy who was regarded as a worker by his aunt?
The only people that conquered were the kingdom's warriors, he could remember as a kid when the warriors of the kingdom will go to fight a war, they would always come back victorious because Asaka was a great kingdom with a great army but still when they came back some of the soldiers would be dead and for that reason, Luis never wished to be a soldier.
The picture in the book was beautiful. Luis thought it was a red octagonal crystal with purple dots surrounding the middle part.
He brought the book closer to his face and that was when he realized that there was something written near the crystal drawing, but it was too small for anyone to see immediately.
"War is coming, I'll help you" he read the small writing.
Was this book crazy? war is coming, to who? he picked up the full book and chuckled, this book looked old, maybe the war had come and gone and if the war was to come now the kingdom's soldiers will certainly take care of it.
His eyes darted back to the crystal drawing, it was beautiful, he wondered if there was anything like it.
Luis' heart jumped as he heard someone push the door, it was his aunt and he hadn't cleaned this book mess yet.
"Luis!" Why was she shouting now?
Luis' heart felt like it was going to jump out and run away, what was she going to do to him now?
The first thing that caught his attention was the way his aunt looked, one of her sleeves had been torn out and her dress was looking stretched and rumpled like many people had been trying to pull it off her body and her eyes were drowsy instead of the rage-filled eyes that Luis was used to seeing.
"You still haven't finished this thing yet" her voice was breaking and coarse at the same time"Are you crazy?" she said walking up to him."Let me show you how to do it" as soon as her hand was raised to hit Luis she collapsed on the floor, Luis could smell wine all over her, she had been intoxicated.
Elsa was a middle-aged woman, she still had the time to get married, but she wouldn't, she preferred to go around partying and going from one man to the other without any intention of getting married.
She thought of marriage as a cage that kept women from living a free life of their choice.
Luis looked at his aunt, she was vulnerable now, but still, he wouldn't hurt her, not as he could, but he was glad that she was drunk and whenever she was drunk she would sleep till the next morning if she came back in the evening that gave Luis more time to be able to clean the books and rearrange them.
He looked at his aunt for a while before deciding to take her to her room.
He was irritated by the smell of wine all over her and she was mumbling things that he couldn't understand.
Why bother to understand? She was drunk and that was what drunk people did, Luis got to her room and removed his hand from her shoulder allowing her to crash on her bed.
He watched her for a while as she began to snore, how could someone as pretty as this produce such disturbing sounds?
He was about to leave when his eyes caught something lying on the small table in her room, the kitchen key, he wanted to take it and go eat something, but the other part of him told him to forget about it and go finish what he was given to do.
His good part was too weak to fight with his hungry part now and before he knew it he had already taken the key.
Luis' eyes widened as he entered the kitchen, the sweet smell of food that he was perceiving was already making his stomach growl.
He searched around with his eye until he found the large cupboard where his aunt usually kept food, food that was ready to be eaten.
His eyes marveled at what he was seeing, there were lots of fruit piled up in the cupboard with a large bowl filled with rice but what caught his attention most was the meat that was in another bowl.
What did she even need all this meat for? Luis stretched his hand, he was going to get in trouble, but right now he didn't care because his hunger had to be satisfied first.
*****
Luis heaved a sigh of relief as he looked at the books that were now arranged on the bookshelf, he had finally done it, but he still had one last book to put on the shelf.
The brown book
He didn't know why this was the only book that caught his attention among every other book here, but it was time to keep it back, but then a thought came to him.
Why don't you keep the book? It's not like his aunt knew every book that was thereby named, but he shunned the thought and returned the book, it's not like it was going to be of any use to him.
Luis peeled and ate the last banana that he had, he threw the peel out through the window and quickly snuggled up on his bed, this one part where he knew his aunt wasn't mean to him, she provided him with a good bed, so that he could get good sleep.
He covered himself with his bedsheet and soon he was fast asleep.
Luis was walking to a house, it was his aunt's house to be precise, but it looked different, then he saw a man and a woman come out then later he saw his aunt come out to hold a little child, then the man took out a brown book, Luis knew that brown book.
He stiffened as he saw it, the man now gave the book to the little child and kissed him on his forehead, so did the other woman and then they began to walk in his direction.
He looked into the woman's eyes and he could see that they were the same as his, the man looked just like an older version of Luis.
He tried to call their attention but they walked past him like he wasn't there after they had gone a little distance, Luis turned and saw that an evil smile had appeared on his aunt's face.
She quickly grabbed the book from the little boy's hand, then she dropped him on the floor outside and began to walk inside, the baby began to cry but his aunt didn't care.
"No!!!!" Luis screamed.``Bring that book back, it belongs to me!" he was surprised by his actions.
Luis sprang up from his bed, it was only a dream he sighed, but then he started to feel something under his sheets, he quickly pulled his sheets out and was surprised by what he was seeing.
The brown book.
"How?"