The Visitor: Cadrius Thunder

I placed my coffee on the table after a long sip, then I stared back at my boring endless new books’ list. I still couldn’t help but to slip in the same thought liquid I was trying to escape by coffee.

That will not work! You promised yourself that you’re not going out of this office until you finish that list, but look at you! It has been an hour and a half and you did nothing! I sighed and watched Marchmont Street, I could see Ellen, Helena’s older sister, starting her work at the bakery; I always wanted them to open a cafeteria in the library, I should really talk to Helena, but right now the list was my foremost objective.

Doom doom doom.

I flinched, who is knocking on my door and why? I wasn’t waiting for anyone, and I didn’t welcome any distraction, but as the owner of Ink or The Library and Bookshop of Ink, I had to welcome visitors even when they’re not expected, so I headed back to the desk as I said, “Enter.”

My dress tangled into the wheel of the chair as the door opened and the visitor walked in, not until I ended the dress-wheel war when I looked up and saw that the visitor had already settled down.

He was a tall man, really tall with a huge body going perfectly with his height, his face was calm and a bit cold, black hair, thick eyebrows, straight nose and very thin lips. The guest was examining my room quietly.

“It’s nice to meet you sir, welcome to my library, The Library and Bookshop of Ink.” I welcomed him with a smile.

He smiled nodding, then said, “It’s nice to meet you too.”

I froze for second, recalling his voice, his voice was different than any voice I have ever heard, deep, strong, and to my disbelief, somehow pushing.

“What would you like to drink? Tea or coffee or any other thing if you want.”

“I’d be grateful for cup of tea.”

I smiled and called Henry from the inner phone to bring the orders. Then I turned to the guest I was really curious about him by now.

“I am Cadrius Thunder,” he introduced himself.

“Very nice to meet you, I am Nourseen Mohammed.”

“Indeed you are,” his sound echoed, “the owner of this library.”

It wasn’t clear, was he asking or informing me with who I was, but I nodded.

Henry knocked on the door, served the tea and returned to his work.

Cadrius Thunder looked pleased after the quick sip he took, and finally they were going straight into the topic.

“Did life show you enough?” He asked as if we were chatting in Helena’s bakery.

My mind worked hard to understand the question and finally I said, “I beg your pardon?”

“Life,” he paused until the echo was gone, “showed you its abnormalities?”

Alright Cadrius Thunder, I thought, if your imagination is wild, I am wilder than you and your questions,and said, “the relationship between a book and human shows you a lot indeed.” My tone was dreamy and wise, as if I was giving life advice in a sentence.

“Only books?” His echoing deep voice pulled me back and I was annoyed.

“What do you mean?!”

He smiled slightly, “it didn’t show you then.”

“Show me what!?”

He pulled a paper out of his inner pocket and unfolded it on the desk. It was another list of books, the very same as the list I was working on, but the names were totally new.

“Will you honor me by reading this list?”

I took the list and read it silently

Power of Sound, Lyric Thunder

Sound Waves, Harmonelle Thunder

Sound Manipulating, Orionel Thunder

….

I looked up, my mind was working very fast, I almost knew his purpose now.

“You want me to sell these books for you?”

“Exactly.”

I looked at the list again, and a weird feeling was poured over me. Lyric Thunder, Harmonelle Thunder, Orionel Thunder. Who are they? Why didn’t I know about them? What kind of books had they written? And without noticing that I did it out loud I whispered, “why didn’t I ever hear about these authors?”

“No one of you actually knows about them,” the words echoed, “you’re the first.”

My eyebrows flew up, what exactly did he mean by you? I was surprised by the whole thing, “first of all, I need to see them.”

“If you may ask your library guards to allow my bag in,” he stopped until the echo faded, “I’ll be showing you what you want.”

I called Henry to bring the bag, after a second, the bag was placed on the desk, Cadrius stood up, I noticed for the second time how tall he was, he made me feel tiny, so I stood up too, but it didn’t help much.

Cadruis flung open the bag, and gave me a book.

It was titled Sound Waves, and the author’s name was written clearly at the bottom, Harmonelle Thunder.

Flipping the book I saw the back cover, it read,

Sound Waves

One of the things that ungifted scientists don’t study enough is sound. They don’t recognize that it is one of the most powerful forces on earth, and that sound waves can do a lot.

Harmonelle Thunder

GCPH

“What is GCPH?”

“The Gifted City Publishing House.”

I opened the book randomly. The page had two pictures, the first one had a man who seemed to be talking on the right and a cup on the left. The second picture, was the same except that the cup was broken on the floor. The description said, “Some special sound waves can cause solid bodies to move, the strength to send a wave like this rarely occurs in humans, but it is possible.”

“Odd isn’t it?” Cadruis said.

“Wha- what is that?!” I realised that my mouth was open.

He reached for the book I was holding, but I pulled it from him, he smiled, “you’ll have plenty of time to read them all.”

He put the book in the bag and placed the bag on the floor in front of him and we both sat down. I thought of all the novels and stories I had read about things like these, and decided that getting that man out and returning to my boring endless list of books was much better than this, I said clearly, “Mr Cadruis, I’ve read a lot of stories like these, and I actually enjoy it and enjoy fiction, but scientific books! About nonsense like this,” I smiled shaking my head, “I can’t put it in my library.”

He didn’t answer, instead the thin lips opened wide and a powerful, deep, sound came out, it wasn’t loud or frightening, and suddenly the chair opposite Cadruis was pushed to the wall, I was speechless, surprised, and unable to process. I looked from the chair to Cadruis who smiled calmly. I rubbed my eyes hard and said, “Get it back,” it wasn’t clear whether it was an order or an astonished question without a please or a question mark.

The sound came out again, strong, powerful, but different than the first one, and the chair was in its place again!

“I know it’s confusing,” he said.

“What’s that? How is that? Can anyone do that? Why are there publishing houses and authors I’ve never heard of? How possib-“

“Ms Nourseen,” the echo faded, “there is an explanation for everything,” an echoing pause, “listen to me.”

“We are a group of gifted people, we all live in a hidden city, to avoid ungifted people and their treatment of us.”

“A man who moves things with his sound how could he be afraid of normal people?!” I asked before thinking.

“You’re not going to walk in the street crashing things with your voice Ms Nourseen,” he smiled, “and if you, as a grown up could protect yourself, children might not be able to do that, so we protect them from the wrong glorification that may change to worshiping, or from teasing and avoiding just because they’re different, and both of these things happened to our grandfathers. That was the reason they searched for a safe place and lived together: seven families with seven different abilities. We help people in secrecy Ms Nourseen, and we show ourselves to a very few trustworthy people.”

“If it was a secret,” I paused a bit affected by his way, “why are you publishing books about it, Mr Cadruis?”

“Great question, Ms Nourseen,” the echo faded, “there are gifted people who live among ungifted, they have the right to know about their abilities, and the right to live with us in the city if they want,” when the echo was gone he said, “we, Thunder’s family, we move things by sound, each one has a special tone and different strength, and like normal physical strength, men are stronger than women in sending waves and more effective.” He paused for the echo, but before he completed I asked,

“Am I able or is anyone able to do this?”

“It depends, you have to try your wave, but as long as you don’t have the signs you will not be able.”

“What are the signs?”

“Your voice must be deep and strong in its usual state, like my voice.”

“Even women?”

“Even women,” echo, “our lips are thin, and children with this ability recognize their power and try to send waves, some of them succeed and others need training.”

“Training?”

“We have school Ms Nourseen, and we have scientists and teachers, and students.”

“Hmm.”

“It will not be my last visit if you accept my offer for sure.”

I drummed my fingers on the desk, “I need time to think, and I want to read these books.”

“I’ll leave them with you and come after a few days to know your response, but please don’t display the books before we both agree, otherwise it will be very bad.”

“Never worry Mr Cadrius, you are dealing with me and my well known library,” but I was curious about the thing he referred to by “very bad” so I asked, “but what would happen? You won’t file a case against me for sure.”

“Oh no we don’t do that,” he laughed, but it faded quickly and he wore a serious expression instead, “the books will disappear, and who knows how you would be punished…”

A bad threatening feeling was poured on me, and his hight while standing up made it worse.

I stood too asking, “how would that happen?”

“Most of our work with ungifted depends on ambiguity Ms Nourseen,”

I raised my eyebrows, so he raised one eyebrow and wore an “it is art” look.

“Okay, one last question.”

“And one last answer if I can.”

“Why do you pause between sentences for longer than a breath?”

“You shouldn’t know that much about us Ms Nourseen,” he said, “but I’ll tell you,” he pointed to the ceiling and said, “your office is a dangerous place for me as a sound gifted man, the echoing sounds may move things.”

“You mean that your echo may cause things to move?”

“And break, or break our heads,” he finished with a calm smile.

“I’ll arrange a safer place next time,” I said kind of terrified, and she half hoped that he wouldn’t say another word.

He smiled, and bowed a bit, “I shall say good bye then.”

“Good bye, Mr Cadrius.” I said opening the door.

I followed him with my eyes as he walked out, went down the stairs, and disappeared.

I closed the door went back to my desk, and sat thinking of all the weird things that had happened to me in the last hour.