Sneak Peek: Small Change

Here's a sneak peak of the second of three stories in Issue 1 of Shiny. Don't forget you can subscribe using the paypal button on the sidebar to get yourself a copy of the whole issue as soon as it comes!

Small Change

by Trent Jamieson

I found the door on the third day after we moved into the new house, and the eighth day of the summer holidays. The door was behind a big empty bookcase which, if things had been normal to begin with, Mum and Dad would have filled straight away. But they weren't. I'm still not sure why I decided to find out what was behind the bookcase, though I can imagine what Mum would say.


"What possessed you to look behind the bookcase is what possesses you to read books, Julia. You are a curious, imaginative soul, and an empty bookcase, well... what might lie behind it is exactly the sort of thing that would appeal to you. The type of books you read, the books that would normally be contained within that bookcase, are all about magical doorways."


Which isn't precisely true, but Mum is given to hyperbole. I really hadn't expected to find anything there. I knew the difference between the worlds I inhabited in my head, and the one I clumped around in, in my shoes.


I moved the bookcase by degrees. Sort of rocked it to one side. It was rather heavy, but after a couple of teetering swings, I could see the door. I shifted it a little more, creating a wedge of space, and then crept in. I was sweaty. It was hot outside, but here near the door it was quite cool. The bookcase shuddered dangerously behind me, but I ignored it, because here was a door, and in my head, I knew it would open inwards, away from the back of the bookcase, and out into..


And it did.


This would not have been peculiar, if the bookcase hadn't been against the rear wall of the house. You can see where this is going, because if you're reading this, you probably like the same sort of books I do. What the door opened onto shouldn't have been there.