Brooke ‘Bookeeper’'s Arc

Chapter 5 of 32

They walked back to Rust together, and Brooke saw the change before she reached her door. A small crowd stood outside her library, a hand-painted board nailed beside the entrance reading AS SEEN IN THE DAILY. The boy slipped inside ahead of her. Brooke followed, counting strangers she did not know by name. A tall woman pushed to the front and slapped a creased magazine page on the counter. Coffee stains ringed a circled paragraph. "Webster's column said you had it," the woman said. "A red field guide. I came two days for it." Brooke scanned the print. The column named her library. It did not name any red book. Brooke walked to the carved display shelf at the back, the one she kept stocked for show. She ran her finger along every spine. No red field guide. She turned and told the woman plainly, "I don't have it. The column was wrong." The woman's face went hard, but she didn't leave. She sat in the boy's chair and folded her arms. Brooke looked at the waiting faces, at the shelf with its gaps, at the boy watching her. The road to the coast had just grown heavier. She picked up her pencil and began a list of every title these strangers wanted, knowing she'd have to bring them all back, or lose the library she had built.