They had to get up early the next morning. Yuma went to school until noon, so Marjoe's mother took him with her to work. Since there was only a short period before the winter made any kind of farm work impossible, the harvest was usually the most stressful time for the whole town.
Since Marjoe was still very young, he often got to do what he wanted, but even he had to help if he was able to.
And so it was already the late afternoon before both Marjoe and Yuma had the opportunity to sneak away.
They went straight into the forest. It was a rarely used path, so it was muddy and overgrown with weeds. The two boys followed the trail for about ten minutes before Yuma suddenly steered to the right directly into the dense undergrowth. Marjoe hesitated for a second before running after him as not to lose him.
"Where are we going?" he asked a little out of breath.
"You'll see," Yuma answered, still irritated after being forced to share his secret.
"Can't you just tell me?" Marjoe whined, who had troubles keeping up with his brother.
Yuma just ignored him and continued to fight his way through the thick brush.
Marjoe was about to fire some more questions at his brother when they stumbled onto a wide clearing, and his mouth dropped open. It was absolutely breath-taking. The soft grass was knee-high and swaying softly in the breeze. The late afternoon sun reflected in the wings of dozens of fireflies that hovered in the air like flying diamonds.
"Come on," Yuma said to his absent-minded brother, who had already forgotten why they had even come there.
"What's that?" Joey asked after they had crossed the clearing and stopped in front of a red metal plate that was buried under a pile of loose twigs and branches. It appeared that they had been put there on purpose to cover the metal.
"A door," Yuma grunted and started to remove the branch wood. "Now, help me with this so we can get this over with."
"But it's in the ground. Where does it lead to?"
"Can you stop asking annoying questions for just ten minutes?" Yuma asked, getting severely agitated with his little brother's interrogation.
Marjoe pouted but still helped his brother to stem open the heavy metal door. He was far too excited to just stand around.
And just as Yuma had claimed behind the door laid just empty space instead of the forest ground that should have been there. Rough stone stairs laid down into the unknown and were soon swallowed by inky darkness.
Marjoe stared down there, suddenly feeling a bit unsure. But before he could change his mind, Yuma had already taken a small lantern from his bag and lit the candle inside.
"Come on," he said as he leads the way into the blackness of the hole in the ground.
The way down the stairs seemed to last forever. With each step they took, the air around them grew colder and staler, and when they finally arrived at the bottom, Marjoe was shivering. After following a tunnel further into the ground, they arrived at another massive metal door they pulled open together.
What was behind that door really shouldn't have surprised him, but it still did. Books. Hundreds maybe thousands of books; needly stashed in ceiling-high shelves that stretched on as far as the light of the candle could reach. The air felt surprisingly dry so far down under the earth.
Yuma turned around to his shell-shocked brother, a smile lighting up his face for the first time of this day. He made a sweeping gesture and slowly stepped into the mysterious room.
"Welcome to my secret library."