If Books could Talk

The Toledo Public Library was larger than most of the neighborhood libraries that one might imagine. It was giant and white, with large columns in the front; it resembled the government buildings that Chew Bear had learned about in school. He thought that it was magnificent.  He just knew that in some way, shape or form this building of knowledge would hold the answers to what he was looking for.

It was a chilly winter day when Chacha and Chew Bear walked through the large wooden double doors of the library. It was the perfect day to spend indoors reading. As Chew Bear entered the building, he looked around in amazement at the thousands of books that covered the walls and filled the shelves of the facility. Chew Bear couldn’t contain himself; he ran for the nearest shelf and started grabbing every book that his little paws could reach. Chacha ran after him and explained to Chew Bear that there was a more practical and efficient way to find what he was looking for.

Chacha took Chew Bear over to the librarian’s desk and signed him up for his very own library card! The card, as Chew Bear was told, would allow him to take books home for a designated period of time before returning them to the library. The librarian then showed Chew Bear how to use the library’s computer system to look up the exact location of the books he was looking for. All he had to do was enter the title, author’s name or subject that he was looking for! Chew Bear thought this was the coolest thing in the world. It would be like a treasure hunt, and boy did he LOVE treasure hunts.

Chacha settled down on a big comfy couch near the library entrance and allowed Chew Bear to go off in search of books on his own. The first subject Chew Bear searched for was “different looking than people”. The return list was filled with thousands of books; there was no way he would ever get through them all. Chew Bear then started to brain storm the things he could remember about the time before he met Chaka and Chacha. The memories were vague and blurry. He could recall the tree and an island, but that was about it.

Wait! All of a sudden Chew Bear had a great idea of what to search – Lake Erie. That was where Chacha and Chaka had been sailing when they had found and adopted him! Chew Bear typed LAKE ERIE into the subject search engine and was pleasantly surprised when it turned up just 7 books. Chew Bear wrote down the call numbers of the books and went off in search of his unanswered questions.

Chew Bear walked up and down and around aisles of books until he came across the section he was looking for in the furthest corner of the library. The Lake Erie books were on one of the higher shelves, so Chew Bear rolled over a ladder, climbed up and retrieved several of the books on his list. Chew Bear spent the next few hours reading, scanning and skimming the books for any information on him or the island where he was born. 7 books later Chew Bear was still in the dark. He had found no useful information and was becoming very, VERY frustrated.

The librarian noticed Chew Bears solemn face and asked what was wrong. Chew Bear explained that he could not find the information he was looking for and had searched all of the books! The librarian told Chew Bear not to give up, too look again, and sometimes the answers to our questions are right in front of us! Chew bear took her advice and went back to the corner and climbed back up the ladder and started searching the shelves.

As he was searching, Chew Bear started to get a strange tingly feeling in his paws. He wasn’t sure what it was, but the sensation began to grow as he worked his way down the shelf. As he reached to grab a bright green, dusty old book from the very top shelf, the sensation stopped abruptly. There was something about that book that had been calling to him and leading him in that very direction.

Chew Bear removed the book and returned to his table to begin reading. The book was very old. The pages were yellowed and the binding was coming apart. Somehow he knew this book would hold information about his past. The book covered an old legend about an invisible island in Lake Erie. Many, many years ago an old sailor had stumbled across the island and he explained his experience on the pages of the book. The sailor discussed the creatures that had helped him to survive while on the island. They were kind and looked like bears but with long ears (just like Chew Bear!). On the very last page of the book, is a drawing of a symbol that the sailor had seen all over the island. As soon as Chew Bear saw the symbol he had a flashback of himself as a baby and two other creatures that look like him spinning through a tunnel of light. The flashback surprised Chew Bear but he did not know what it meant! But he did know that this book was important!

Chew Bear returned to the librarian’s desk and checked out the book, titled “The Invisible Island”, and took it home with him to continue his research…..

To be continued.