Of course, the worst punishment possible and my parents had found it. If I would have known it would lead to THIS, I never would have spray painted my name on my neighbor’s car. Not only did they make me wash the artwork deserving to be in the Louvre, off but I also had to spend a whole week of my summer with my old, decrepit neighbor, Mrs Hannah. That Monday came and before I could even knock, she was opening the door with a warm and inviting smile that spread across her face.

Her house smelled of cinnamon, coffee, and freshly baked pastries, which were out on an old vintage coffee table. She greeted me with a kind ‘good morning’ and let me in. I was immediately drawn to the pastries and ate a whole scone. “How did it taste?” I heard her say from the kitchen.

“It was okay” I said, although I knew that it was far better than anything my mother had baked. She carefully walked out of the kitchen with two cups of apple cider in her hands. Although her face showed many lines from age, she had the agility and grace of someone much younger. This made me question how old she actually was, but I decided not to ask and not to care.

I sat there and let her bring me the cider and held it in my hands a while before I took a sip. “Well I think today, we should go in the garden and you can help me pull out some weeds. Then we’ll bake some more treats for the rest of the week, how about that?”

“ I don’t think so. Look, I’m just here cause my parents are making me. I’m not going to waste my summer pulling weeds.”

“Ah” her face turned more serious, without giving the impression of having any anger. “ well here are the facts Tommy, your parents are going to be asking for an update on your behavior at the end of the day. You can decide if it is going to be good or bad.”

She said taking a chair and sitting down to sip her cider.

I rolled my eyes and mumbled , “whatever”.

“We don’t have to do all of that today, but could you at least read to me a little, my eyes are bad and I have trouble reading on my own. Then we can have some more cider.”

I looked at her and contemplated the offer, this might be the best of both worlds. She might fall asleep before too long and surely I wouldn’t have to read that much, and then I’d be free to do whatever I’d like for the rest of the day. “Deal”

She led me to her little library and took out a big, brown, leather book. It felt ancient and still had indents where the title used to be. She never told me the title, but simply told me to start at page 10, in order to skip the introduction.

It didn’t take me long to realize it was a fantasy, but the characters and the struggles felt real. After reading five chapters and halfway through the sixth, she told me that we could stop there. I looked at her, puzzled. why would we stop in the middle of a chapter, in the middle of a sentence?

She got me some more cider and we sat there in the quiet. I couldn’t think of anything to say, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave. Instead I steadily tapped my foot on the floor with anxious glances back and forth. Mrs. Hannah gazed at me as if she knew exactly what I was thinking. “ would you like to keep on reading?” She asked with a grin.

“Only if you want to,” I replied, but I already had the book opened to the page and the next second I was reading again. I continued reading for a while and then suddenly there was a knock on the door. I got up and asked her if she was expecting any visitors and I opened the creaky door. It was my parents and immediately I asked what time it was because surely it had not been an entire day. But the Sun proved me wrong, I quietly told Mrs Hannah ‘goodbye and see you tomorrow’ and I was off. For some reason I wasn’t glad to go, but I couldn’t quite figure out why.