There came a soft knock on the carriage door. "Jeremy, are you in there?" The familiar voice of Hubbard. "Jeremy, did you bring it? We must take it downstairs immediately. They are all waiting" There was no escaping anymore. I straightened my back as far as I could, fastened my hat properly on my head and slowly opened the door. A completely soaked Hubbard stood peering through his half glasses outside his shop door. When I looked up to take in the familiar front of the place I have called home before all this had happened I noticed Helen standing at the top of the spiral stairwell. She did not look happy or apprehensive or curious. There was almost resignation on her face, as if some puzzle was put together again, not a family but a puzzle. I was not ready for Hubbard yet, the house and Helen perhaps, but not Hubbard. He was mostly anxious about the object I had brought, an object of which I still knew nothing. Without leaving the carriage I reached out through the rain as if penetrating a waterfall and handed him the metal container. He took it with both hands. "Excellent, boy, let's get this downstairs immediately!" I did not know exactly where 'downstairs', but it had to be somewhere in the catacombs of Bibliotheca Echidna. It meant nothing to me now. Hubbard had not traveled post haste through a large part of Europe, instead he had sat in his library contemplating the best way to handle the object. I had left as a nineteen year old boy and had returned an old man, physically as well. The journey had given me a serious injury to my back, courtesy of the Swiss Alps and showed as a slight forward bend when I walked.

Hubbard had rushed inside immediately and I saw him press the hidden button that closed the trapdoor to the underground museum. Slowly the inside of the coach was getting wet and the cabbie made some noises indicating that he was tired as well of this trip. Slowly I gathered my possessions. The rain did not bother me, it seemed appropriate and felt like a shower, washing away experiences and memories. This at least is how it felt, as if by leaving the carriage I would loose the memories of days of intense living. With loud complains the cabdriver lowered my trunk from the back of the coach. I paid him whatever I money I had left and accidentally gave him some Italian Lire and German Deutschmark. Helen had come to the door and took my hat. "This is different", she said, both observing the hat and me. "Are you sure you are Jeremy? And where did you get that cape. It suits you though." The trunk I left in the store. Helen closed the door behind me and followed me up to the kitchen. "I'll make you some hot chocolate, that'll settle you right down", she said with a severe face. I did not want to settle down, wanted to be back on the road. Perhaps some hot refreshments would not be that bad. I resigned to the fact that all things must come to an end and that the realization that everything had really happened was the most important object I had brought with me. "What did you bring Hubbard?" Helen asked. "I have no idea, I never bothered to look inside. It's very light, probably something made of paper", I said. It was true, the moment the container was handed to me I felt a bit embarrassed. Was this what I had pursued so fanatically?

We talked about the little things that had happened in our Fleet Street community. Mrs. Vandermeer had given birth to a baby girl, with the effect that suddenly Olivia felt like she had a baby sister and was behaving very much acting the part of the older sibling. Sebastian had broken his leg when he fell of the back of a cab. Had to happen sooner or later. Meyers was as productive as ever and was now printing small bound books. All this I took in and stored somewhere in the back of my head, knowing that I would process the facts later when the sea salt had wash off my skin. I must have dozed off at the kitchen table because I remember sitting up with Helen shaking my shoulders. "Better get you to bed, you're not going to last much longer sitting there", she said. In a daze I made my way towards the back of the house where my bedroom was. Inside everything was as I had left it but nothing was the same. With my wet clothes still on and with my leather hat clasped in my hand I fell asleep on my bed. The only dreams that came that night were blurred visions of moving from one tall building to another from city to city.