Somewhere, in a small apartment in a building complex.
"Hey, where's my bag?" A man in business attire snapped, darting around a small hall.
"I don't know, did you throw that piece of junk before telling me where?" A woman in her mid-thirties sneered.
"Piece of junk? How dare you, the one which you are calling junk is the damn thing that is feeding your pit... and now I am late because of you."
"Ha... me? Because of me? It wasn't me who was chasing after the women like a dog in heat."
"What?... You wench... you... you... you dare to call me a dog... How dare you...."
While this heated-up argument was going on, near the hall in a dark room with bare minimum visibility, a young lady was sitting in a corner covering her ears with her hands and tucking them on her knees.
The people arguing outside seemed to be the parents of this young lady.
She stood up and removed the curtains of the window. The room only had this one window and a door, with no ceiling window, and this single window prevented suffocation in the room.
The glass of the window was broken, only the frame was there—enough to prevent any bird from entering the room.
When the curtains were removed, the fresh morning breeze came gushing, filling up Lila's lungs. She slowly opened her beautiful resin-like eyes.
The dark circles under her eyes were clearly visible now, her dry pink lips and the dry blush pink cheeks, eyes looking at the buildings at the front.
"Crown Heights... just you wait." With the little burning embers, she clenched her palms tight.
"Lila... Lila... li-" Lila's mother knocking on the door attracted her attention.
"Yes Maa."
"What were you doing? I was knocking and shouting here for the last 15 minutes."
"I... I... Maa." Lila stuttered while looking down at the floor.
"Oh please, I've already had enough from your dad. Now I don't have enough strength for you also."
"Sorry Maa," she said passively.
"Oh god.... okay, just go and have your breakfast from the kitchen."
Lila got her breakfast from the kitchen and sat on the couch in the hall.
Her house was a 1 BHK with the dining hall just in front of the kitchen and the balcony in front of the hall, while the bathroom and a room were at the side.
After having her breakfast, she took a bath. Now her dry lips looked tender pink, and her dry cheeks were smooth and soft, with her wet shiny chocolate hair adding the finish.
This was her usual daily routine, and the only way she could think to offer any solace to her mother was by doing the morning chores while her mother relaxed a little bit by sleeping.
The house was quiet, yet Lila found it hard to stay there any longer. It was like all the screams and shouting of the two were still ringing in her head, making it hard for her to stay there any next minute.
The terrace—the terrace of the building complex—was one of her escape hideouts for all this hassle and suffocation.
At the end of the stairs to the terrace, a platform was made up of concrete with marble finishing on top of it, likely by the owner.
It acted as a storehouse, where the tenants mostly put (or should I say throw) their package cardboard.
One such cardboard box was lying there. It was Lila's personal storeroom, where she put her books and stationery or other miscellaneous things.
Apart from this cardboard box and the marble platform, the terrace had a small iron door connecting the stairway and the terrace.
Lila picked up that box out on the terrace where she sat on two broken chairs fitted into each other and supplementing each other's broken parts.
The terrace had short walls that reached the height of the waist of a normal person. It was dusty, with feces of birds splashed on walls and floor, feathers and leaves of trees scattered around.
She emptied the box upside down, cleaning the dust from the books one by one.
"Economics, history, political science... culinary arts..."
"Ha... I remember how I stubbornly wanted this book and finally, Pa (father) gave it on my birthday. At that time, I was really happy." With a light smile, Lila got lost in her memories.
"No, I won't talk to you. No, you didn't buy me that one book. I am breaking up with you..." A little girl stubbornly tucked her head under a pillow.
"Haha... where did you learn these words? Oh my princess, are you mad at Pa?"
"Yes."
"Haha... okay, but I have a surprise for you... I think it's something like a book... oh! It has pages also... what is its name?... cul... culinary-"
"Culinary arts book!"
"Oh yeah, that one."
The girl jumped onto her father, seeing the book and taking it from his hand.
"I love you Pa."
"Hahaha..." The sounds of laughter filled the room.
But soon the tears from her eyes woke her up from this flashback of happiness.
"I wish I would have never grown up. If I hadn't, would I still have been their little princess?"
After calming down a little bit, she wiped off her tears and began cleaning her books again.
"Hmm... I don't remember having such a book." Lila took out the last book and unexpectedly, it was really clean—not a speck of dust even though it was beneath those dusty books from earlier.
It was an old book, with a metal-like frame which had a brownish-gold texture, while its cover had a rugged texture, with some signs of wear and tear.
She flipped the book to its front cover.
"Your love in page!...??"
'YOUR LOVE IN PAGE' was the title of the book.
"How did it get in my box? Did somebody put it in?... Hmm, someone must've."
Intrigued by the origin of the book, Lila began checking it. From childhood, she had been greatly interested in books and reading, but as time went by, she hardly had an interesting book to read. The only books she had were her academic ones.
"It's a novel??... Then it's not mine. I think it's been about a decade since the last time I read a novel or had time to read one."
Lila flipped through a random page and started reading it...
But it was already late until she familiarized herself with the surroundings, only to find that she was in a completely different space than the one from the terrace.