On the other side of the room is a large wooden glass-covered shelf full of books. These books seemed new from the look of it. No one seems to notice the precious shelf aside from the occasional cleaning of its Keeper. The room is only intended as a holding area for visitors and rarely do children can enter without permission. And the shelf serves as a magnificent view, an ornament that adds to the appealing interior of the room.
This girl would rather be alone with a book than to bask in the sun playing outdoors. She would choose to read than to chat with her girlfriends or spend time with them playing paper dolls. To her, reading takes her to different places and even steals her mind for a moment. When she reads, it immobilizes her, deafens her, or even makes her mute, hence, no one dares to converse with her when she holds a book. Her fellows already know about it.
One lunch time, everyone’s gone and she was left out alone. Without anything to do, she found the other side of the room open. She can't help herself but to be magnetized by the enchanting shelf. Suddenly her small and delicate hands opened the wooden door, went directly to the shelf, and took one of the cherished volumes. In an instant, she was blown away by its contents.
Time passed, a fellow came looking for her and found her on the other side of the room consumed by the thing she was holding. The fellow asked her where she got it and without any word she pointed in the direction of the enchanting shelf. This fellow automatically took one of the volumes. One by one, everyone got in and took everything until no volumes were left out on the shelf.
When the girl thinks it is time to stop, she was shocked to see everyone in the same room with her holding the same thing. In a flash, there standing at the doorway was the Keeper. Outraged by the scene, the Keeper screamed at everyone and asked who dared to start it all. Every eyes steers to the girl.
The girl was terribly scolded in front of everyone. She told the Keeper she was unaware of her fellow’s action, but admitted she started it. For a couple of minutes she was punished, by standing in front of the class, of the grave thing she had done. But what’s going on her mind was how fascinating the book was, how happy it was to turn the white, glossy pages full of colored images, how valuable it was to be kept like that, how ruthless it was to discover and learn something new, and how sad it was to know that those books were not meant to be read by them.
She went out guilt-stricken, but contented for what she had found out. Throughout the whole afternoon she did not utter anything to anyone nor her fellow to her. Since then, they never talked about the incident.
Days passed and she was able to return in the room again. As she entered, she was so glad to see that there were new books available on the shelves!