Page 66 - The Midnight Library
P. 66
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e Chessboard
e shelves of the Midnight Librar y were quite still again, as if their
movement had never even been a possibility.
Nora sensed they were in a different portion of the librar y now – not a
different room as such, as there seemed to be only one infinitely vast room.
It was difficult to tell if she really was in a different part of the librar y as the
books were still green, though she seemed closer to a corridor than where
she had been. And from here she could see a glimpse of somet hing new
through one of the stacks – an office desk and computer, like a basic
makeshi open-plan office positioned in the corridor bet ween the aisles.
Mrs Elm wasn’t at the office desk. She was sat at a low wooden table right
there in front of Nora, and she was playing chess.
‘It was different to how I imagined,’ said Nora.
Mrs Elm looked like she was halfway through a game.
‘It’s hard to predict, isn’t it?’ she asked, looking blankly in front of her as
she moved a black bishop across the board to take a white pawn. ‘ e things
that will make us happy.’
Mrs Elm rotated the chessboard through one hundred and eighty degrees.
She was, it appeared, playing against herself.
‘Yes,’ said Nora. ‘It is. But what happens to her? To me? How does she end
up?’
‘How do I know? I only know today. I know a lot about today. But I don’t
know what happens tomorrow.’
‘But she’ll be there in the bathroom and she won’t know how she got
there.’
