As the librarian, Chanakya traveled the multiverse to help those looking for answers. She put her life in her pocket. The capsule held the entire Library Solaris, Chana’s house key, and an inscription ripped from a book gifted to her. The vast library weighed nothing, compared to that six-word inscription.

Chana grounded herself in this dimension’s time and place. The familiar clapboard house her father left her sat behind an oak uprooted a year after she left for university. She didn’t need to ask who needed her services in this section of the multiverse.

Oslac, her brother at seven years old, sat in the oak swinging his spindly legs. Spotting her, his pensive expression melted into recognition, then delight. “Chana?”

“What do you need from The Library, Os?”

“You went to Uni and became a librarian?”

“The Librarian.” Chana climbed and perched on the limb beside him. “What you need?”

“The maps in Library Solaris show where all the things are across all the multiverses, right?”

“Os,” Chana wrapped an arm around him. “You can’t find someone who doesn’t want to be found.” His face fell. “Want me to sit for a bit?” In answer, he leaned against her.

Tears pricked her eyes. In the capsule, the scrap of paper scraped against the key to the clapboard house. The entire Library Solaris weighed nothing next to the inscription torn from the copy of The Giving Tree Os gave her before disappearing a decade ago.

“Gone to find Mom, Love Os”

Photo by Ksenia Makagonova