The Tome of Concealment

I am a book; a book, stuffed into a crowded bookshelf, with only my title displayed. Like many other books before me, I have been looked at, judged, and dismissed within a matter of seconds. The few that decide to read me, however, come to realize that I am unlike most other books, because my title and my appearance have less than a description of the story inside.

As you reach for me and pull me off the dusty shelf, blowing onto my cover to clean off the powdery gray surface, you come to see some words that you hadn't seen on the side of the book. The words read as, "Things are not always what they seem." This sentence intrigues you; so you decide to creak open the delicate book, the dirty pages, which seem to have never been touched by anyone, slide apart slowly as the black text written on the pages becomes clear. Closer inspection of the book helps you come to realize that the book is being held upside-down… but why is the text up-side-down when the cover is right-side-up? This makes you check to see if the cover is, in fact, in the right spot, but then you see the words "Things are not always what they seem" again. You flip the book over and start on page one on the other side of the book; all the while wondering why the book is flipped.

The first sentence of the story begins with, "I am a black ant in an ant hill of black ants." What does this mean? The story continues, "From first glance, I am just like the others. From first glance, I am no different than the other ants scurrying around looking for food." The story suddenly shifts from talking about ants to talking about humans, "Humans are like ants; you look at one of them and you assume that they are like all the others. It is only upon closer inspection that you come to realize that they are not all the same." As you continue to read the story, you see the words again, "Things are not always what they seem."

"I am a book like all the other books on the bookshelf, crammed away in the back of the library in a place where nobody bothers to look. From your perspective, I was just another book on the shelf, but you pulled me off of the rack to see who I am. At first, you probably thought I was just like the others; you open the book, you read a few chapters, you close the book, you put me away and forget about me, but I surprised you didn't I? You weren't expecting to open the book and see the text flipped." Is the book talking to you? It can't be… how can a book talk to you? You continue to read, "I am like most other books on the book shelf; I have a title to describe what I might be about and a cover to hold the story together. However, the cover of a book does only one thing for each book on the shelf; it hide's the story behind the cover." You start to think of the facts presented to you; ants, humans, books, covers, titles, and the quote on the cover.

You decide to keep reading on, "My name is Casey Moore. I write this story to present to people the idea that things are not always what they seem. From first glance, you would probably think that I am like every other person that you met that day," So you come to realize that the book is, in fact, not talking to you; it was the writer just giving you an example and trying to help you understand the general sense of how society works. "The book is flipped to help show people how I think. You see, as a child, I learned that I had a disability, and that changed the way I looked at things. When I learned that I was disabled, it turned my world up-side-down, and so I was confused about everything up to this point. That is why the text in this book is up-side-down." So now the story makes more sense; the text is up-side-down to help understand how the writer sees things, while the discussion about ants and humans relating to a bunch of books on a book shelf is helping you to further understand society and the way people think. The cover quote reappears in your head again, "Things are not always what they seem."

The story continues, "Learning that I had a disability allowed me to understand why so many things happened in my childhood that never happened to anyone else; it helped me to understand why I behaved so erratically and why I had difficulty understanding certain situations. The fact that I had this disability made me different from everyone else for the rest of my life… and so the text in this book will be flipped for the rest of its existence. The only thing that stops people from knowing whether or not I am disabled is, of course, my cover and my title. Things are not always what they seem."

The intercom crackles to life as a voice, from an elderly lady, echoes through the library, "The library will close in ten minutes. Please finish what you are doing and remember to sign out. Have a good day."

You decide to rent the book and read more about the story within. You set it in your car seat, drive home, and put it on your book shelf before you head off to dinner… leaving the book on another book shelf with others that look just like the one you rented. "I am a book among other books."