by Mak K. Han
Susan responded with a halfhearted wave of her hand.
I could have cared less about Susan. She would calm down sooner or later. I wanted to go outside. One thing I missed about being in a rural area was the outdoors. In the city, I'd always felt claustrophobic. I could smell the pollution and the pavement and car exhaust.
I stepped outside into the bright morning. Birds were chirping. The air was humid and crisp. It had rained the night before, and though the sun had taken care of the puddles throughout the morning, the heady aroma of soil hung in the air.
I meandered around the side of the library and stepped over the guardrail that protected cars in the parking lot from driving over the embankment. For good reason, too, because the slope was a good forty-five degrees and lead straight down into a swamp. Carefully I maneuvered my way around to the back of the library.
The rear face of the library overlooked a small clearing. I liked it back here. It was peaceful, and didn't see a lot of traffic because it was so hard to get to. The right side of the library was the embankment, and the other was thick with trees. There were a couple of beer bottles nearby, suggesting that the local kids knew about this area too.
I wanted a place to sit down with my back to the library, but the back here was largely overgrown with flora. As I scanned the wall, I noticed something unnatural. Sticking out from the overgrowth was something rusty and circular.
Curious, I navigated through the underbrush and pushed the vines aside.
A door!
My heart skipped a beat. I took a step back to figure out where I was in relation to the rest of the library. As far as I knew, the library didn't have a basement, and the door lead somewhere underneath the first floor. What was this room?
I cleared the vines out of the way, taking care to watch out for poison ivy or other unpleasant growths. Yes, it was a door. When I'd sufficiently cleared the vines I tried the knob.
The door budged!
Years of humidity had caused the wood to warp and expand. I turned sideways and gave the door a good heave. It budged a bit more. Parts of the door disintegrated along the top, where the wood contacted the frame. I leaned back and gave it one more bash.
The door partially exploded. A cloud of dust rose into the air. Coughing, I covered my mouth and squinted until the dust cleared. It was dark down here, but I knew what I'd found. I could see enough just from the sunlight flooding in from outside.
"No way,” I whispered to myself.
Chapter 4
“Susan! Susan! Come here! I found something cool!”
Susan gave me the cold shoulder. “Buzz off, Laura.”
I grabbed her by the arm. “Would you get over it? I found something amazing!”
Susan stumbled out of her chair. “Wait! What about the desk? We can't leave it unattended!”
“Yeah we can! Come on!”
“Okay, okay!” Susan shook free of my grip. “What is it? What's so important?”
I lead Susan out the front door and into the parking lot. Daniel Berkshire's van was there. Daniel himself was opening up the rear doors, revealing an assortment of rebar, two-by-fours, and construction equipment.
“Daniel!” I called. “We'll be right back! You know what to do!”
Daniel waved and I lead Susan around to the back of the library, this time taking the wooded area so neither she nor I would go tumbling into the swamp. I brought her to the door. Panting, I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand and pointed at it. “Look!”
Susan cocked her head. “I've never seen that before...”
“It's a secret room under the library! It's full of old books!” I took Susan by the hand and gently lead her inside. “These books date back to 1778! This place is a goldmine!”
“Holy crap.” Susan blinked a few times, looking over the shelves. There were about twenty shelves total, covered in dust and lined with ancient texts. Bibles, books on shipbuilding, logs—just about everything that had to do with the history of Strawberry Shores was here. “We have to tell Alex's dad.”
So we did. We stepped outside and called him from the back yard. Alex's dad, Jason Shade, was a bit annoyed that we'd interrupted the Strawberry Days meeting, but his irritation turned to curiosity when he heard what I'd found.
“I'll be right there,” he said.
Fifteen minutes later, Jason was there as promised—he and everyone else who had been at the Strawberry Days meeting. At least thirty people congregated around the secret room.
“Good find,” Jason said.
I beamed.
Jason smiled back and headed into the secret room. He was in there for about ten minutes before reemerging. “That's quite the collection we have down there.”
“Well?” Miss Tisdell prodded. “What are we going to do with it?”
I stepped forward at once. “This stuff belongs in a museum. Or maybe we can donate it to the Strawberry Shores Athenaeum.”
“Nobody asked you,” rose a voice from the back of the crowd.
Everyone turned. I could see someone—an unfamiliar man—parting his way through the group, saying things like “move,” and “get out of my way.” He was a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair, dressed in a black suit. He looked me in the eye and smiled. He looked like a shark.
“You're new here. Let me explain how things work. Nobody cares what you think. We've been here longer than you, and we're going to decide what to do with the room.”
Stunned, I took a step back. The man waited for a moment to see if I would respond and then turned to Mr. Shade.
“Did you have something to say, Edward?” Mr. Shade asked.
“Yes. I think we should leave the room as it is. There was clearly a reason the room was locked up. Who are we to disturb it? I say we block off the entrance to preserve our beautiful town as it was meant to be.”
I stepped forward again. “Sir, if we put these books in a museum, we would be able to preserve—”
“What part of shut up did you not understand?” he snapped.
I could feel my blood boiling, but Jason replied before I could. “Edward, we don't know what we're going to do with the room.” He turned to the crowd. “Everyone, listen, we're all tired from the meeting. Let's all go home. We'll figure this out in the morning. For now, we'll have Daniel Berkshire close it off. Nobody in or out.”
“Daniel's inside, taking care of the mouse traps,” Susan piped up. “I'll go get him.”
The crowd started to disperse.
“That's right everyone, nothing left to see here,” Mr. Shade directed, waving his arms back and forth to get people to leave.
I met eyes with Edward. He gave me a smug grin and then walked away, as though he'd squished an ant.
I waited for a moment for my hands to stop shaking.
“That's just Edward,” Mr. Shade said. “Take him with a grain of salt. He treats everyone that way.”
I barely heard him. I'd already turned on my heel and started for the desk.
Chapter 5
“What a jerk! Who does that guy think he is?”
Susan put her hands on my arms. “Laura, calm down—”
I shook off Susan's grip. “I've never been so humiliated in my entire life! Who does he think he is?”
“Laura, calm down.” Susan maneuvered me to the seat behind the counter. “That's Edward Brooks. You're right, he is a jerk. Don't take it personally.”
I was fuming. “I don’t know what I’ll do the next time I see him.”
Susan chuckled. “I'd advise against that. He's one of the library trustees. Spit in his face and you can kiss this job goodbye. Don't worry though. Sooner or later he'll get what's coming to him.”
I took a few deep breaths. My hands were still shaking, but not as badly. I closed my eyes, pushed away the negativity, and when I opened them again Daniel was standing there. He was a big balding guy with a beer belly, dressed in a pair of paint-spotted jeans and a stained white t-shirt.
“The mouse traps are
reset,” he said. “Now about this room?”
Susan nodded at the door. “It's out back. I'll show you.” She looked at me. “Are you going to be okay? You're not going to go homicidal, are you?” she asked with a grin.
“No, I'm fine,” I said, brushing her away.
Susan stood and started for the door. I rubbed my forehead and glanced at the clock. Four. Just an hour–
“Excuse me?” a male voice interrupted my countdown to getting off work.
I squeaked and spun around in my chair. Since when was there someone else in the library?
He was a handsome guy, around my age, with wavy blond hair. From the looks of his arms in his tight shirt he worked out. When he smiled it was like staring into the bulb of a spotlight. “Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you.”
I leaned forward, thumping my elbow on the desk and setting my chin in my upturned palm. With my free hand I brushed the hair out of my eyes. “No, it's fine. I mean, you didn't scare me. I mean…hi. Can I help you?”
“I'm Harold,” he said, handing a book over to me. “I'd like to check this out?”
“Sure. No problem.” Without looking down to see what I was doing I groped around for the barcode scanner and then waved it around under the laser until I heard it beep.
“So, what's all the excitement? Why was everyone here earlier?”
“We—I found a secret room under the library.” I heard the computer bleep. It was telling me when the book was due. Without taking my eyes off Harold, I hit the keyboard a couple of times until I hit the 'Enter' key. “Here,” I said, handing him the book. “It's due sometime. Do you want to see the secret room?”
Harold smiled. “Well, I wasn’t—”
“Are you sure? It's really cool. There are books dating back to 1998. Er, 1778.”
Harold chuckled again. “Sure, I guess.”
For the second time that day, the library front desk went unattended. I lead Harold out of the library and around to the back. Daniel had already blocked off the door with caution tape and set up his work space—a tool box sat near the door and with it a radio. “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash was playing. Susan was standing nearby with a man in a suit.
“Can we go in?” I asked Daniel. “Just real quick.”
Daniel shook his head. “Sorry, sweetheart, I got orders from Mr. Shade. I'm supposed to keep this blocked off until we figure out what we're going to do with it.”
“Come on, Daniel,” Susan piped up. “The room belongs to all of us. And we're not going to screw around with anything—I just want to show it to Chester. He didn't get a chance to see it earlier.”
Daniel was resolute. His head shook and didn't stop.
Scowling, Susan turned away from Daniel. That was when she spotted Harold and me. “Oh. Hi, Laura. Hi, Harold. Who's watching the desk?”
“There's no way in?” I asked Susan. I could feel my cheeks growing hot. I'd promised to show Harold the secret room—this didn't seem like a great way to start out friendship.
“Daniel won't let us. By the way, this is Chester Rutherford.” Susan gestured to the guy standing next to her. He stepped forward and extended his hand. His eyes, a dark shade of hazel, seemed to cut through me as his gaze met mine. “Hi, Chester Rutherford.”
I shook his hand. “Nice to meet you. I'm surprised you didn't see it earlier.”
Chester shrugged. “I had to work late. I work at Allied Innovation. Usually I work from midnight to noon, but today I had to work until 3:30.”
I scrunched my nose. “That's a weird schedule.”
Chester chuckled. “Yeah, it is. But, rumor has it, Mr. Brooks is retiring soon. Once he's out of the way, I'm a shoo-in for management. Then I make my own hours.”
I opened my mouth to ask about Mr. Brooks when Harold cried out beside me. I turned. “Huh? What's the matter?”
Harold was looking down. “Sorry. I stepped on a nail.”
I scanned the ground. I didn't see any nails. I did see a mouse, probably displaced by Daniel, scurrying toward the woods. “Are you afraid of mice?” I asked him.
Harold swung around, scandalized. “Are you serious?” he asked coolly. “Me? Afraid of a stupid mouse? No way.”
I heard static. I almost didn't hear it at first. But, I'd been hearing it for the last ten years—ever since the — and it had a very distinctive, unmistakable sound to it. I tried not to giggle aloud as I thought about big, tough Harold afraid of mice.
“In any case, I have to get going. Thanks for the book.”
I hopped after him. “Do you want me to walk you to your car?”
Harold shook his head. “I think I'll make it on my own,” he laughed and disappeared around the corner.
I turned to face Chester and Susan. They too were on their way back. Chester paid me no attention, but as she passed, Susan gave me a glance.
“Shut up,” I said as I fell a step behind her.
Chapter 6
“You like him.”
“Be quiet, Susan.”
“Admit it! You like him!”
“Be. Quiet. Susan.”
I sat at the counter with my arms crossed. Susan sat facing me.
“Like who?” rang a familiar voice from near the front door. I looked over. Alex and Emily were there, headed for the counter. Emily had a bow in her hair. Alex's hair was black with a red stripe across it.
“Laura likes—”
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked. Emily looked at Alex who apathetically looked up from her phone for a minute and then went back to what she was doing.
“It's cupcake night,” Emily chirped. “Remember?”
Right. Cupcake night. Emily's goal in life was to start a cupcake business. To perfect her craft, once a week we all met to make cupcakes.
“What were you saying, Susan?” Emily asked.
“Laura's in love with Harold Friedman.”
It’s fine. Susan was going to blurt it out sooner or later anyway.
“Harold Friedman?” Alex looked up and scrunched her nose. “Gross.”
“I didn't know Harold was back in town,” Emily said, tapping her cheek with her pointer finger. “I figured Miss Tisdell would have mentioned it.”
Susan snorted. “Miss Tisdell has plenty of other stuff to talk about. Like the secret room Laura found under the library earlier today. Or the standoff she had with Edward Brooks.”
“Enough,” I said sharply.
Emily hopped up and down on her toes, clapping her hands. “You found a secret room, Laura?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Let me show you. The library's just about closed anyway.”
Susan and I herded Emily and Alex to the door and locked up the library. We headed out into the parking lot. In the time it had taken us to lock the library, two more people—a woman and a man—had showed up. I recognized the woman from earlier. The man, I hadn't met.
“I'm sorry,” I explained in my best sympathetic-but-not-in-the-mood-for-trouble voice, “The library is closed for the evening. You'll have to come back tomorrow.”
The man smiled warmly at me and produced a set of keys. “Not if you can let yourself in. Hi, my name is Dennis Arbour. I'm on the board of trustees. I'm here to check out the discovery that was made here earlier. I trust that you are Laura?”
I smiled. Dennis immediately put me at ease. He stood tall and looked me in the eye when he spoke. He had slick black hair that made him look kind of like a salesman or a politician, but his smile seemed sincere. His suit was crisp and his black leather shoes were shined. As he neared to shake my hand I caught a whiff of cologne—just a trace—and when he released my hand I felt as if I smelled my hand it would smell like lotion.
“I am,” I said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Certainly. Now, where's this secret room Edward's been harping about?”
The name hit me like an electrical jolt. I gritted my teeth while the thought of him passed. “Right this way. We'll have to go through some woods to get there. Are you sure you
want to risk ruining your pants and shoes?”
Dennis waved away the concern. “If I learned anything in Vietnam, it's that there are more important things than getting a bit of dirt on your pants. Lead on, Laura.”
We rounded the library. The woman that had showed up with Dennis lagged behind. Emily was talking with her quite excitedly, though, so I didn't pay her much attention.
“Yes, that's quite the discovery. I'm surprised you caught it through the vines,” Dennis remarked as we stood in front of the door.
“I saw the doorknob poking through,” I responded. “It was one-in-a-million.”
Dennis approached the doorway. Daniel was no longer there so I stepped forward. “Wait! Mr. Shade wants people to stay out of there until they've decided what to do with the room.”
Dennis looked over his shoulder and smiled at me. “A smart idea. Then again, how am I going to decide what I'm going to do with the room if I don't know what's in there? It'll be our little secret.” He gazed at me for a few moments. When he was certain I'd grasped what he was implying, he ducked under the caution tape and disappeared into the murky darkness.
There was a tap on my shoulder. I turned around. It was the woman. “Hi,” she said. “You were at the meeting earlier, correct? You're the one that found the room?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“And my husband—Edward—you're the one he spoke to?”
I took a deep breath and crossed my arms tight over my chest. “Yes,” I said, trying to remain polite.
The woman nodded solemnly. “My name is Jane. Like I said, I'm Edward's wife. I'm sorry he spoke to you like that.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
“I mean it,” she pressed. “He's always been a little rough around the edges, but nowadays – especially with work—he's been stressed. I keep telling him to relax and retire, but he won't listen.”
I shrugged. “Maybe he just likes working.”
“He doesn't,” Jane cut me off. “He despises his job, but he's too old to get a new job. At least, one that pays as well as Allied Innovation. So until he retires, he's just going to keep making people miserable. You, me—”