The Museum of Literary Souls (A Short Story) (7 page)

In the weeks that followed, Mr. Berger thought often of Caxton Library and of
Mr. Gedeon, and of Anna most of all, but he did not return to the laneway,
and he consciously avoided walking near that part of the town. He read his
books and resumed his evening walks to the railway track. Each evening he
waited for the last train to pass, and it always did so without incident. Anna,
he believed, was troubled no more.

One evening, as summer drew to its close, there came a
knocking on his door. He answered it to find Mr. Gedeon standing on his
doorstep, two suitcases by his side, and a taxi waiting for him by the garden
gate. Mr. Berger was surprised to see him and invited him to step inside, but
Mr. Gedeon declined.

“I’m leaving,” he said. “I’m tired, and I no longer have the
energy that I once had. It’s time for me to retire and entrust the care of the
Caxton to another. I suspected as much on that first night, when you followed
Anna to the library. The library always finds its new librarian and leads him
to its door. I thought that I might have been mistaken when you altered the
books, and I resigned myself to waiting until another came, but slowly I came
to understand that you were the one after all. Your only fault was to love a
character too much, which caused you to do the wrong thing for the right
reasons, and it may be that we both learned a lesson from that incident. I know
that the Caxton and its characters will be safe in your care until the next
librarian comes along. I’ve left a letter for you containing all that you need
to know, and a number at which you can call me should you have any questions,
but I think you’ll be just fine.”

He held out to Mr. Berger a great ring of keys. After only a
moment’s hesitation, Mr. Berger accepted them, and he saw that Mr. Gedeon could
not stop himself from shedding a tear as he entrusted the library and its
characters to its new custodian.

“I shall miss them terribly, you know,” said Mr. Gedeon.

“You should feel free to visit us anytime,” said Mr. Berger.

“Perhaps I will,” said Mr. Gedeon, but he never did.

They shook hands for the final time, and Mr. Gedeon
departed, and they did not meet or speak again.

Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository is no longer in Glossom.
At the beginning of this century the town was discovered by developers, and the
land beside the library was earmarked for houses and a modern shopping mall.
Questions started to be asked about the peculiar old building at the end of the
laneway, and so it was that one evening a vast fleet of anonymous trucks
arrived driven by anonymous men, and in the space of a single night the entire
contents of Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository—books,
characters, and all—were spirited away and resettled in a new home in a little
village not far from the sea but far indeed from cities and, indeed, trains.
The librarian, now very old and not a little stooped, liked to walk on the
beach in the evenings accompanied by a small terrier dog and, if the weather
was good, a beautiful, pale woman with long, dark hair.

One night, just as summer was fading into autumn, there was
a knock on the door of Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository,
and the librarian opened it to find a young woman standing on the doorstep. She
had in her hand a copy of
Vanity Fair
.

“Excuse me,” she said, “I know this may sound a little odd,
but I’m absolutely convinced that I just saw a man who looked like Robinson
Crusoe collecting seashells on the beach, and I think he returned with them to
this”—she looked at the small brass plate to her right— “
library
.”

Mr. Berger opened the door wide to admit her.

“Please come in,” he said. “It may sound equally odd, but I
think I’ve been expecting you…”

John Connolly is the author of
The Wrath of Angels
,
The Burning Soul
,
The Book of Lost Things
, and
Bad Men
, among many others. He is a regular contributor to
The Irish Times
and lives in Dublin, Ireland. For more information, see his website at
JohnConnollyBooks.com
, or follow him on Twitter
@JConnollyBooks
.