I remember when I was still in the third grade. How I, after putting down my school bag and changing from my school uniform to my pambahay, would immediately grab the remote and change the channel to Cartoon Newtwork. Then, for the whole afternoon, I would just lie on the floor, watching TV, with The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter keeping me company and entertaining me. It was on such an afternoon when I was just lying on the floor, when I pressed my ear on the cold, tiled floor for God-knows-why. (But hey, I was only 9!) Then, I thought I heard something from underneath. I remember thinking of the sound as a train. And I also remember pressing my ear on the floor from time to time after that, listening intently, trying to hear that train again, or searching for any other audible sounds other than the train. I even invited my younger brother one time as my ear was pressed against the floor to listen with me and see if he can hear anything. But, my brother, having always been a chicken, thought I was trying to scare him. Anyway, I couldn't remember if I heard the train again. Actually, I had already forgotten this childhood incident. Not until while I was reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. This book is about how the life of an ordinary young man living in London suddenly changed after he stopped and helped a bleeding girl he found on a sidewalk. From then on, he found himself into another London, a very different London from the London he had lived in. A place where rat-speakers, life-sucking women called Velvets, Sewer Folks, BlackFriars, an Earl, a marquis and a family that can open locked doors reside. A place of barter, of a dark bridge that takes unfortunate people who dare cross it away, floating markets and countless underground trains.
I very much enjoyed reading this book. Neil Gaiman is the most ourstanding writer in his field. No wonder a lot of goths like him. His stories are dark, unique and whimsical. Right now, I'm planning to read all of Neil's books that I can lay my hands on: American Gods, Stardust, Mirrormask and The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish. (God, my hands are itching to have this baby!)
Gaiman also describes things very clearly. So I didn't have a hard time picturing the places and, not to mention the violent, gory details and fights. Neverwhere took me to yet another realm and made me feel like I'm really there, in London Below. Like how Harry Potter took me to Hogwarts and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe took me to Narnia.
Books are the best reality-escaping tool, next to movies or TV shows. While I was reading Neverwhere, I was lost in my own world. I am with the marquis de Carabas, Door and Richard in London Below, fighting to survive the perils of the world below. But after I finished the book, and I looked back on that time when I thought I heard sounds from underneath the floor, I thought to myself: Could there possibly be an Antipolo Below?