Page 37 of A University of Betrayal

“Bayla?” Mum’s concern seemed to grow.

“You... you’re so warm,” I said quickly. “Are you sick?”

Mum started to laugh, “Sick? Actually, I’m physically fine at the moment.”

She looked at me in confusion.

I shook my head. “I don’t think I’m feeling quite well.”

“You should lie down and...” I didn’t even let her finish her sentence, nodded quickly and hurriedly made my way upstairs. Mum called after me. “I can make you some tea!”

“It’s okay,” I replied quickly and when I had disappeared from her sight, I stormed upstairs to my room, where I closed the door not very gently and dropped onto the bed.

My hands had started to take on a life of their own and were shaking like crazy.

It didn’t matter how much I thought about what had just happened. It didn’t make any sense. I tried to block it out somehow. Maybe I should read something.

I jumped up and went to my bookshelf.No, not Jane Austen again, something new.I hastily skimmed the spines, but my gaze slid to the floor, where other books were already piled up, just like by my bed. And then I spotted the note peeking out from under my bed.

Camera Obscura

Angus MacRae

“The letter...” I whispered in realization, remembering how the wind had blown it away a few weeks ago. I had looked for it but had finally given up.

Full of euphoria, I crossed my room, bent down, and pulled the yellowed envelope, which had a coffee stain in the creased corner, out from under my bed.

For Alice.

Whoever that was.

I remembered finding the letter in one of the books on the bedside table. Then I also remembered how Mum had reacted to me snooping around her old room in the first place.

The temptation to read the letter after all this time, after all the things I’d already experienced, was intense. Maybe it was my only chance to learn something about Mum that she would never tell me otherwise. Maybe this was a letter to an old friend that she had never sent.

But when I turned the envelope over, I saw that the dark red sealing wax had already been opened. There was a crest on it that looked all too familiar. That of Vanderwood. However, it was the wordCopelandin the sealing wax that made me wonder.

The rest was printed too small to decipher, but what I read was enough for me to know which family the sender came from.

Full of curiosity, I pulled out the classy-looking letter paper, a hard sheet, carefully folded.

Whatever the matter was, I would find out now.

October 02, 1997

Dear Alice,

I thought long and hard about whether to write these lines to you, because if I don’t share my words meant for you, what purpose do they serve?

That day when I showed you the room, you were so astonished by the view of the campus. I couldn’t help but look at you and suddenly, the moment the sun made your turquoise blue eyes shimmer like a clear lake in an enchanted landscape, I realized how captivating you actually are.

Your mind, full of clever ideas; your spirit, so alert and alive. I deeply admire that about you. Right from the start. But until now I’ve been incredibly blind, completely overlooking all the other facets. Those that also belong to you, but whose existence only becomes visible as soon as you open your eyes to the aesthetics.

Just take it as a compliment and let’s not make a big deal out of it, because more than once I shouldn’t write down my thoughts so directly, if you know what I mean... Even though I think my letters are safe with you.

Thinking of you,

Alarik