Page 101 - NS 2024

and Owen have played together at all if it hadn’t been for Sienna? e uestion scared me. Even though our memories existed, I suddenly understood the fragility of them. None of it was permanent, but at least it existed at all.
“It’s not a secret,” Owen said.
“What?” I asked. I’d been under the impression that it was.
“e second cabinet from the le on the top row in the kitchen,” Owen listed. “at’s where
she keeps all of her recipes.”
I was shocked I’d never known that.
We spent the rest of the drive recounting our favorite memories and secrets of our Mom. I was a bit surprised by how well Sienna could contribute to the conversation. Sienna pulled into the empty parking lot of the college’s library. It was a bit eerie with no one around. I’d been inside numerous times. It had always been an honor to accompany Mom at work. I loved being surrounded by the endless realm of books. As a kid I was worried the college students would run out of books to read. I didn’t realize there were way more books inside the library than anyone could ever consume.
I probably couldn’t comprehend most of the books on the shelf at such a young age, but I liked being surrounded by the words. I enjoyed the possibility that was contained from cover to cover. I used to take books o the shelves at random, feeling their covers and studying the style of the font. I would ip to pages, choosing words. I would ask my mom what they meant, and when she was busy, I would ask Owen. He probably just made up denitions to please me, but I always believed him.
e library was technically closed, but the door was unlocked, and we slipped inside without trouble.
“Did we discuss what we’re doing in here?” I asked.
If my backyard grass was one place that knew my touch, the library was the other. I wonder how many of these books I had run my ngers across.
“One of these keys must lead to some secret room or something. A secret library, maybe?” Sienna suested.
“Let me guess, it’s some puzzle that we have to solve by collecting every seventh book on the shelves, because there were seven dragon es on the island,” Owen droned.
“at sounds good!” Sienna chirped.
“He’s joking,” I murmured.
“I’m joking,” Owen conrmed. “I say we try Mom’s oce. ere’s no secret library here. It’s a
college library. I guarantee a bored college student would have found it already and we would’ve heard about it.”
“Alright, lead the way,” I urged.
A few dim lights guided us as we weaved through the bookshelves. We’d been walking for a