Chapter 22

The librarian carried his daughter one last time. They squeezed through the narrow aisles of the various libraries and book collections, guided by her muffled directions. She wanted to go home. Maybe their quilt still held his scent. She could lie on the bed and remember last night, their last night together. Her weeping and trembling broke the Librarian’s heart as much as Gaspode’s occasional mournful howl.

As they journeyed through the maze of gathered knowledge, she realized she wanted something; she needed something. “Daddy wait, put me down.”

“Ook?”

“I have to do something you won’t be very proud of ... don’t worry, it’s horrible, but it’s not terrible.” Before he could stop her, she dashed down a side aisle and was lost to view. Gaspode lay down blocking the aisle and behind him Mesquite leaned diagonally across the aisle blocking Bruce Dinkum and Bruce Bockschecker from advancing as well.

Octavia appeared shortly, and they proceeded, a book cradled tightly in her arms. It was done. Façade Incognito had committed the unthinkable; She took a book from the library without properly signing it out. (ok, it may only be unthinkable to a librarian, but it’s unthinkable to someone.) Soon the sad group entered Nick and Octavia’s Book Store, and its stark familiarity stabbed Octavia to the core. She and Nick both fell in love with this little redoubt the moment they entered it. It was their fortress of solitude, a place where they could hide from their fears and terrors. They could take a book from any shelf and find themselves transported to worlds of wonder and joy. Two comfortable chairs next to the little potbelly stove had promised a warm nest for reading this coming winter. All of that was gone.

Bruce Dinkum noticed the Thaumatin Vellum in the out box waiting for him and he picked up the package and handed Octavia a pouch full of moolah coins. “No, I don’t...” she said, trying to avoid the money.

“You’re going to need that darlin’,” said Bruce as Bruce Bockschecker placed a stack of “raw” vellum in the In Box, earning him a glare from Bruce Dinkum.

Octavia unlocked the front door and stepped into the fresh mountain air and her daddy joined her, but Bruce stayed back a little and opened a drawer that Nick had shown him, “Missy!” he called, but Octavia was walking toward their cottage, ignoring him.

The two Bruce’s were overwhelmed with the beauty of the countryside and the quaint, pleasant little village that was Creel Springs. Next to the bookstore was the blacksmith’s shop, which looked like every poem ever written of that metal worker’s paradise right down to the broad, shady tree that cooled the men of the village as they watched the blacksmith work.