In this posting you will find fragments on one of my new stories called The Story of a Bookmark. It’s about a little ghost that is searching for love and finds it by reading a special book. I designed the illustrations transforming photos in Photoshop. I hope you will enjoy it!
The Story of a Bookmark
(...)
In the castle of transparent haze, there lived Naluf, a phantom of the same size as the Chinaware phantoms. He came to being from a child’s sadness and it hadn’t arms. Six buds of white clay were his ornament. In his orbits there were two glow worms sprinkled in an ABC book.
And this phantom was leading a very boring life. During his first hours of haunting he succeeded in reading the clock, and after running inside the castle, he could sing oriental sounds. It was an ingenious phantom.
(...)
LOVE?
“What’s this?” Naluf asked himself. “Is it the name of a golden comb or of a not haunted castle?”
All his folds were glimmering of bewilderment and curiosity and the glow worms from his eyes were were now alive.
And so a few days of centuries passed by, till Naluf asked all the Chinaware Phantoms, the Bizarre Phantoms, even the Phantoms-in-the Floor about this word, but he couldn’t receive an answer.
Imbued with restlessness and determination, the phantom set out to discover the enigma. As he went out the castle, the three Plasticine Phantoms followed him, distrustful of his adventure.
At the worldly night time, he came to a strange garden. High leaves drew climbing shadows and behind them, little red roses sprang like a sneeze. The grass smelled of water and the flowers had a sweet smell of honey. The thick weeds embraced him in a mellow smelling trap. Naluf remained indifferent to the flattering beauty in front of him and continued to smooth down his steam on the silk of the petals. There was nothing to be found but a romantic dullness.
After passing a mountain of time, the Chinaware phantom fell into water. The wet molecules held his buds went through his body. He felt a pure and chilly pleasure, till a monster with swimming wings cut his way. The monster had a slippery and rotten skin with green, flattened moustache on his huge ugliness. Because his glow worms sparkled like two lanterns, the sleep walker fish started to hunt after him. As scared as he was, Naluf swam to the edge of the river where he swallowed a molecule and changed into a tear. As quick as a snail, he trickled down on a blade of grass and evaporated himself in the guise of a phantom.
The destiny of his journey made his way to the cloud’s cathedral. He climbed on a bacterium mane and stopped at the celestial gate. There were pairs of smoked ravens wrangling, hiding among clouds and changing their nests. Neither the word Love, nor the letters made sense for them. They were only messengers of flight, rising ideals and bringing down storms over the iniquity. Even the clouds had only one interest, the beauty of the sky.
(...)
And Naluf started reading. And read and read without interruption. After each page, a glow worm moved down and turned the page. He couldn’t stop reading, he just couldn’t go away from the book. The lyrics were talking about something eternal, magnificent, delicate, were talking about fulfillment and peace, kindness and compassion, about the noble feelings that could exist among people. Naluf was just reading about LOVE. And he was nailed down with delight, joy and satisfaction. The buds on his body were slowly melting and the glow worms were hardly flickering. He continued reading joyfully, he happily held and kissed the sentences one by one or embraced the pages. He couldn’t take his eyes off the book, he could not get away from the book…
The story continues even nowadays. In a well-known corner, a book leans on a shelf. If you open it, you cannot close it back. Each letter links with another in the form of words which always have a meaning. You read them attentively and fill yourself with knowledge and wisdom. And if you are by nature a very curious person, you can still find in the middle of the pages, a chinaware leaf, with a crust of glow worms on it and with the same verses repeating themselves. You read the book, you pay attention, than you go charmed with the happy story of a phantom-like bookmark…
