The smell of books filled her nose

Dust and ink and paper

The smell swirled all around her

Filling her with happiness and sadness

But most importantly memories

Memories both happy and sad

Memories that came from words on paper

Names and places

And the many characters and their stories 

That were within

They had been written by many

But read by her

Almost all in her library were read by her

But there was still more to read

More characters to break her heart

And then piece it back together 

To make her laugh and cry

And to let her have another home

In another world

With more friends who were fictional

But they were so real for her

She let the characters of the last book she read go

Just for the moment

And she knew their names and stories would never leave her

So she went to carefully choose another story

And start her journey again.