Free The Book of Sight by Deborah Dunlevy Page A

‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ you know. But when you read from that book it came back to me.”
    “What do you suppose the pilpi thing was he was talking about?” asked Logan. “There wasn’t anything like that in the story, was there?”
    “No,” said Adam, “although it might be farther along in the book. None of us has read more than the first part.”
    “Whatever it is, it sounded like the older man was scared of it,” said Alex. “That makes it seem more like it was something they met, not just something in a story.”
    “And they were going to see it,” Logan added. “And they never came back.”
    “They never came back here, but that doesn’t mean anything happened to them,” protested Adam. “They never met here intentionally in the first place. Why would they have come back here again? Obviously they didn’t know about the Dund.”
    Eve was irritated at Adam’s tone. “I wouldn’t say that anything here is exactly obvious,” she said. “We don’t know anything for sure, and we won’t unless we happen to meet those men some day.”
    She could feel Adam bristle, but his words belied any anger he might feel. “Eve’s right. The main point is that this “Book of Sight” must be the red book, and we need to find anyone else who may have it. If there are others, they might know more than we do. Then we could figure out what's going on.”
    “But I don’t know how we do that besides just waiting in the circle of trees,” said Alex.
    They all fell silent again.
    “Well, as I said before, ‘patience is a virtue,’ filled in the Dund. “Waiting isn’t so bad, you know. Take it from me. I can tell you all about waiting. ‘Straight from the horse’s mouth,’ as they say.”
    “I know, but I feel like we’re supposed to
do
something,” said Alex.
    “That may be, that may be. They do say that man is always the pot-stirrer, the rabble-rouser, the dangerous one. ‘Man is born to trouble as sparks fly upward.’ So I suppose you’ll do as men do. ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,’ you know. Still, watch and wait, watch and wait, is my motto, and there could be worse.”
    None of the kids answered that.
    “Well,” broke out Adam finally. “If that’s the only option we have, we’d better get back there. We could be missing someone right now.”
    He made as if to walk away, but Eve turned to the Dund. “Thank you so much for talking with us. You were very helpful.”
    “Oh, well,” blustered the Dund, “Of course, of course. ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed’ is my motto. I was very glad to talk with you all. It was a very interesting experience. “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it’ is my motto, and I’m glad I’ve tried this at least once. I always say…”
    “We need to go now,” Eve interrupted, “but we’ll definitely come back and talk again sometime, okay?”
    “Of course, of course, fine, fine. ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow,’ as they say, and I can’t say about the sweetness but I am sorry to see you go. Still, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder,’ you know, so I’m sure we’ll all soon be very fond. And if you’ll come back again, as you say… well, that would be very nice.”
    “We will come back,” said Alex. “It was very nice to meet you.”
    The boys repeated this, and the Dund watched them away with a smile. Still, Eve felt sorry for him standing there immovable and alone. He had obviously enjoyed talking to them. She couldn’t even imagine not ever talking to anyone, just listening and listening and being ignored. It was too awful to think about. They would have to come back and visit him again very soon. And not just for him, either. Someone that listened that much was bound to know a lot if they just knew what questions to ask.
    Her thoughts strayed to the conversation he had recounted for them. It was comforting to know that there were others who had read this book and probably experienced similar things