The Missing Pages of Time

Chapter 1

Miss Bubbly sat down at her desk the same way she always did on a Tuesday morning. Miss Bubbly was by all accounts an average lady with blonde hair and rounded spectacles, her height boosted by the thick, tall heels she was wearing. Everyone said she was a very friendly and nice person, not a typical grumpy librarian; she loved her job. She had just opened up the Australian National Library in Canberra for the day, and it looked like it would be another normal day. Her computer always took a while to turn on, but today she thought it was especially slow. She gave the computer a firm slap, to which it responded by emitting a nasty-sounding scraping and whirring noise. She spent so long engrossed in trying to make her computer work that she failed to notice that there was a student

standing in front of the desk, patiently waiting for her. ³Oh! Sorry! How may I help you, young man?´ she asked.

³No problem!´ the boy said. He looked smart in his school uniform; his cultured appearance only challenged by his fuzzy, unkempt, golden-brown hair. On his Barton College jumper was a name tag which listed his name as Mitch. ³I was just looking for something.´

Miss Bubbly straightened herself on her chair. ³And what would that be?´ ³I was looking for a history book, on the French Revolution´ he continued.

³I can help you with that!´ said the librarian, kicking her chair away and gesturing for Mitch to follow. She led him through what seemed to be miles of bookshelves, going ever deeper into the labyrinth. After what seemed like an age they arrived at a very dusty looking section of the library, with a sign reading µHistorical Texts¶ hanging above them. ³Here we are, I'll have a look for what you want´ she puffed, tired from the small marathon she just walked with her little legs. She grabbed a very tall ladder which stretched all the way up the side of the bookshelf. Mounting it, she climbed carefully up the ladder, stopping at each shelf to look at the titles along the way. Eventually, close to the top, she found a book on the French Revolution. It was precariously and haphazardly balanced in between several other dusty books. She leaned out to grab the French Revolution book when suddenly, the books gave way. Miss Bubbly only just managed to pull herself out of the way when the whole shelf came crashing down in a cloud of dust, narrowly missing Mitch on the way down. She hurried down the ladder and coughed on the mountains of dust that was settling all around her. ³Are you all right?!´ she quickly asked Mitch, who could only answer in a series of nods, owing to the shock he got.

Miss Bubbly looked on the ground and almost shrieked at what she saw: one of the books had been damaged on the way down and was missing some of its pages. As a librarian, it¶s understandable why she was upset at the sight; she treated the books like her children. She picked the book up and looked at the cover; it was titled µ The Missing