Brooke ‘Bookeeper’'s Arc

Chapter 24 of 32

Brooke walked back toward the library and saw a small crowd gathered down the lane. A bearded man in sweat-stained overalls had set up shop in front of an old thrift store with a cracked window. He'd dragged a wooden crate onto the walk and stamped the word BOOKS across the side in black paint. She came closer. The merchant was pulling books out by the armload and laying them in rows along the cracked concrete. Cookbooks. Repair manuals. A guide to small engines. A thin book on canning. He told the crowd he'd pulled them from a warehouse two towns over and wanted them gone by sundown. A woman from the bar was already crouched over the spread, turning a cookbook in her hands like it was meat. The repairman from the junk lot stood frozen over a wiring manual, lips moving as he read. Brooke watched coin change hands. Watched a third local pick up a book on bread and tuck it under his arm. She pulled her spiral notepad from her coat pocket. The cover was stained brown from coffee, the pages bent soft. She wrote down each title as it sold. Cookbook. Wiring. Canning. Bread. Names she knew. Shops she could place. Her list was filling itself without her asking. By dusk the crate was empty and the merchant was counting his coin. Brooke closed the notepad. The library had been the only place in Rust for a book. That was over now. She walked back to her door, where the new sign hung, and understood the work ahead had just changed shape.