Reading is a drug. The first line takes you on a trip that can last a lifetime. Sacha, like a million other people, has taken many trips with Harry Potter. Seven in fact. Seven times over. Seven is a powerful, lucky, highly symbolic number… as is this last book of Harry Potter. Seven trips too short… he doesn’t want this tale to end!
If you look closely at the photo you will see that he is reading his last lines… one or two pages remain… I asked him about ninety pages ago how it was going? Dazed he looked up and said, "Mom have you ever read a book were you wished the pages would not have to turn, letting the story go on and on?"
I nodded and said, "Boy have I ever."
I know this drug, I have taken it many times, pages, volumes, books upon books. I cannot kick the habit. Have you ever found yourself reading the lines of a book slowly, just so it can last forever? Do you ever close your eyes and hear the words come alive in your mind? Have you ever felt like you were in each word and that each word took on new meaning? Have you ever gone to bed with a flashlight under the covers? Have you ever washed dishes with the book propped up against the counter so you could read at the same time?
Sacha laughed, "Have you ever read the same line several times over just so you can hold on to it in your memory, so that it doesn’t end when you close the book?"
Boy does he have the book drug bad or what?
Rarely does it rain in Provence. It drizzled non stop Saturday giving Sacha a chance to read the entire day. I watched him read most of it. I smiled seeing his abandon slippers, and his tongue in his cheek, so absorbed, so faraway. I didn’t even mind that his room looked like a bomb had gone off inside it. Nor that he hadn’t changed from his PJs. Nor did I mind bringing him food and placing it by his side. It was that kind of day, a day for a trip, a day for the book drug to take his mind and weave a tale.
The last page, the last line, the last word… and yet it doesn’t end there, a good book never does.
Photos: Sacha taking a trip with Harry Potter in English.
Leave a Reply