Bessie XIV
The Box lay on the table in the humidity-controlled room in the University museum.
The team slowly opened it around the cracked place, removing the chipped shellac and pitch until they could get to the seams and pry them.
The wood came off in slips thin and pliable as paper.
It took hours to get it open.
Inside was rot and maché. There were hard flat disks that could not be moved. They had become part of the box walls.
There was a book, its covers ghosts, its pages spiderwebs, but they could see words. There was a ream of paper solid as a butcher block. There was a small black box gone to sludge, with metal inside showing dimly through.
‘It’ll take months to dry the pages and separate them,’ said the curator.
‘We’ve got nothing but time,’ said Bessie.
ТЕЛЕГРАМКанал с обзорами, анонсами новинок и книжными подборками
Книжный Вестник
Бот для удобного поиска и скачивания книг
Книжный Бот
Свежие любовные романы в удобных форматах
Любовные романы
О психологии, саморазвитии и личностном росте
Саморазвитие
Детективы и триллеры, все новинки
Детективы
Фантастика и фэнтези, все новинки
Фантастика
ВКОНТАКТЕ