Page 185 - The Midnight Library

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Mrs Elm provided a commentar y. ‘At the beginning of a game, there are

no variations. ere is only one way to set up a board. ere are nine million
variations aer the first six moves. And aer eight moves there are two
hundred and eighty-eight billion different positions. And those possibilities
keep growing. ere are more possible ways to play a game of chess than the

amount of atoms in the obser vable universe. So it gets ver y messy. And there
is no right way to play ; there are many ways. In chess, as in life, possibility is
the basis of ever ything. Ever y hope, ever y dream, ever y regret , ever y
moment of living.’

Eventually, Nora won the game. She had a sneaky suspicion that Mrs Elm
had let her, but still she was feeling a bit better.
‘Okey-dokey,’ said Mrs Elm. ‘Now, time for a book, I reckon. What do you
say?’

Nora gazed along the bookshelves. If only they had more specific titles. If
only there was one that said Per fect Life Right Here.
Her initial instinct had been to ignore Mrs Elm’s question. But where
there were books, there was always the temptation to open them. And she

realised it was the same with lives.
Mrs Elm repeated something she said earlier.
‘Never underestimate the big importance of small things.’
is was useful, as it turned out.

‘I want,’ she said, ‘a gentle life. e life where I worked with animals.
Where I chose the animal shelter job – where I did my work experience at
school – over the one at String eor y. Yes. Give me that one, please.’