«Would you like to visit the Library?» the Angel scanned me.
«Yes, of course, I would! To be honest, I’m scared. What if there…»
«…there are no books of yours?» he finished my thought and smiled.
«Yes… You see, I write just as… Well, uh… as notes in the margin… in a notebook. Perhaps it will remain in my notebook, in a drawer of my desk, and never see the light.»
The Angel hugged me and led me in the opposite direction from the Customs.
«Nothing happens by accident, my dear soul! You stubbornly refuse to take my word for it. However, since we are still in the Timelessness, nothing prevents us from staying a little longer. Let’s fly!»
We disappeared into the fog, and when we got out of it, I found myself in the corridor of a giant Reading Hall with numerous shelves on both sides. Dense and utterly ghostly souls, dressed in clothes of completely different centuries and nations, were looking for something, climbing ladders or simply walking through the air, periodically hovering over their discoveries, and some were sitting with books at tables by ancient lamps and lanterns and drinking tea or coffee.
I turned to the Angel in confusion.
«There are so many books here! Where should I look for mine?»
«Whatever is truly yours will find you by itself,» he said, and I immediately noticed a shimmering book on the shelf right under the ceiling.
I looked around for a free ladder, but the Angel just grinned.
«Hold out your hand,» he said, and I obeyed, and the book flew smoothly off the shelf, waltzing towards us.
«This book is too big!» I whispered, barely able to contain my excitement. «It must have been wrong! I have a few miniatures as sketches only.»
«Have you already forgotten the stories told you by ghosts today in the Land of Mists?»
«Tales of Ghosts,» I read the title, and the book began flipping slowly.
Yes, the Angel was right. The stories thrown by souls into the bonfire on the side of the foggy road to the Heaven Office; the cases of the defendants in the Courtroom; the restless ghosts’ confessions on the bench by the Customs and the novel of my red-haired guide, who worked with antidotes in the laboratory of the local Alchemist… all that flashed before my eyes!
Only the last part of the book, «Tales from the Land of Mists», partially included my tiny sketches I had already written on Earth.