Aurelius and I Read Online Free

to do anything similar. Ever. Even with a dog.
    Two things struck me as strange upon entering Aurelius’s cottage; firstly; it seemed to be a lot bigger inside than it had appeared from the outside. And secondly; it wasn’t round.
    Although larger than I had initially imagined, the single-roomed home in which I found myself standing was far from being of a size that one could describe as anything other than pokey. Despite this though, it contained all the clutter of a much larger house. As a result, every surface was entirely covered with various obscure paraphernalia, much of which I could not begin to identify. The tiny dining table, for instance, had its surface almost entirely obscured by, among other things, a small harp, a large vase of unpleasant-looking green liquid and an unfinished game of chess. In the kitchen area, the worktops on either side of the large, old-fashioned cooker were filled with enormous numbers of pots and pans of immensely varying size – some comfortably large enough to boil Baskerville, others no wider than a fifty-pence piece. Perhaps most strangely, there was no television. And no radio either as far as I was able to see. The only form of entertainment the cottage housed stood in its far corner in the form of an enormous, double-stacked bookshelf which had-long since been rendered inadequate in its task and was now surrounded by further piles of texts for which it no longer had any room. A brief perusal of the titles revealed nothing I recognised, indeed many appeared to be written in another language, and some even in another alphabet.
    “Welcome to my home, Charlie,” said Aurelius, spreading his arms before him in an unnecessary illustration of his statement. “Are you sure I can’t get you something to drink?”
    “No thank you,” I replied. “I really can’t stay long, I’m afraid.”
    “Of course you can’t, a busy young fellow like yourself must have a great many things to do, how silly of me. What do you say we get straight down to business then?” he asked, with an apologetic smile which caused me to feel guilty for the constraints I had placed on out time together. “Now, Charlie, let me ask you something; do you like animals?”
    “Oh yes sir, very much so,” I said. “I’d like to be a vet when I grow up, if I’m clever enough.”
    “Oh, I have no doubt that you will be,” Aurelius replied, a smile of encouragement upon his lips. “I’m glad you like animals Charlie, because, you see, not everybody does. I’m afraid some people like to hurt animals, Charlie, and that’s why I need your help today.”
    “What do you mean?” I asked.
    “It’s probably best if I show you,” Aurelius replied walking around the small green sofa to a desk I had barely registered on my initial perusal the cottage.
    The desk was large and wooden, and was filled with all sorts of test tubes of varying sizes, each filled with liquids of widely varying colours. Against the wall was a row of jars of murky, green water with indiscernible items floating around in them. They reminded me of the pickled eggs at the fish and chip shop. At the forefront of the desk, hidden under a tea towel, stood a small cage, which Aurelius gingerly began to open.
    “Now, stand back a bit there, Charlie, if you don’t mind. Just while we get him out. I’m afraid he’s a little wary of people right now.”
    I did as I was told and took a step back to watch a small, grey squirrel drag itself from inside the cage. As soon as it had fully emerged it became clear that one of its back legs was broken.
    “Say hello to Winston,” said Aurelius.
    “What happened to him?” I asked, trying to be brave and not cry at the sight of an animal in pain, just as my father had said I would have to learn to do if I really wanted to become a vet.
    “I found him hanging upside down from a tree, his leg caught in a trap.”
    “Who would do something like that?” I asked in disbelief.
    “I don’t know, Charlie,