2 Library
I’D ARRANGED TO MEET LENNIE in the town square for pizza after my haircut.
Yeah, I’d decided to go for it. I mean, after a lot of discussion with Lennie, Krista, and Avery, because I had the kind of friends who liked to be seriously involved in big decisions.
I couldn’t wait to show them now! I’d asked Mindy to go even shorter than the picture I’d shown her, so now my hair sat just under my chin instead of halfway down my back.
I hadn’t had hair this short since second grade, and I loved it.
I put up my hood so I could do a big reveal when I saw Lennie, and I wove down Main Street, trying to avoid large groups of people.
It was weird, having so many visitors in Oak Falls these days.
Sure, it was great for the local businesses, but I was so used to walking down the street and knowing everyone that now it almost felt like I was the tourist here.
Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to be the one passing through.
To see new places, to meet new people, to be somewhere nobody knew my name.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved Oak Falls, but sometimes I daydreamed about living somewhere with more than two restaurants and more than one coffee shop to choose from.
Somewhere I could see a movie the week it came out, not three months later …
“Hey, Willa!” There she was, surrounded by a small crowd on the edge of the square. Lennie was waving me over, and I recognized that her grin was far too big to be real. My reveal would have to wait.
The woman next to her spoke urgently. “Hello, do you live here too? Your friend … she tell us that Oak Falls is four hours away, right back down the highway?” She had a European accent.
German? How awesome that they’d come all the way from Europe.
I was about to jump in and ask some questions about where they were from when Lennie spoke again.
“Could be even farther than that,” Lennie said, shaking her head sympathetically. “I’m so sorry you’ve come all this way, ma’am.”
The poor woman looked so upset. I was about to have mercy on her when a man in the group stepped toward us.
“Maybe we could stay here? It looks like a nice town, what is it called?” he asked, clearly hoping for some advice.
Lennie pushed in front of me with a fierce stare. “Lenniville …” she said, deadpan. “But you wouldn’t want to stay here. Do you see that building over there?” Lennie pointed at the doctor’s office. She cupped her hand over her mouth. “That’s the murder house …”
The group gasped.
“Murder … house?”
Lennie nodded. “The Peterson murders—1994,” she said solemnly. “They never found the …”
I elbowed her and she coughed.
Then she pushed me forward. “This is Mary. Mary Peterson, if you have any questions. But she doesn’t talk much, not since she found out what really happened … the hood … you can see … she doesn’t like to be recognized.” Nobody knew how to react.
“But like I said, you can take the road back out of here and just keep on going, all the way until the highway ends, and then you’ll find Oak Falls. Gorgeous. So quaint. If only we’d been lucky enough to live there, right, Mary?” Lennie looked at me and winked.
I waited till they’d walked away before punching Lennie on the arm.
“Ouch!” she squealed, then burst out laughing.
“Len, what the hell was that?” I demanded.
I genuinely felt horrible for the group of people and the vacation they had planned.
Leaf-peepers waited all year for weeks like this!
“A murder house? Really?” I asked. But it was hard to stay mad at Lennie.
She had one of those faces that looked like she was always happy at all times.
“Oh, come on, you were perfect! All mysterious and traumatized.” Lennie grabbed my hand and pulled me toward Pepe’s, where we managed to get the last free table. I didn’t care that it was the one right next to the bathroom—I was tired and starving.
“As perfect as your cosplay was, you can stop being Mary Peterson now,” Lennie said. She reached over and pulled down my hood.
I grinned as her shocked expression morphed into the biggest smile.
“Oh my God, Willa, it’s gorgeous. Like it’s really short. Did I know you were going to cut it this short? Did you send a pic to the group yet?” Lennie snapped a photo and I heard my phone buzz as our group chat got a message.
“You really like it?” I asked, basking in her positivity.
“Like? I love it. Très chic. Isn’t that what they say in France? Or in those French movies you watch?”
“Yes. Yes it is,” I said. I was glowing with pride.
The pizza arrived, we devoured it in two seconds, and Lennie said, “I forgot to get my book at the library. Mind if we swing by there next?”
I shrugged. “Sure.” I mean, I’d only be going home anyway.
The library was one of those buildings that looked way too grand for the town. Big stone pillars and a statue of some man author who’d lived here a million years ago. Being friends with Lennie meant I’d spent a lot of time here.
When we walked inside, I caught Jo’s eye. She’d been the librarian for as long as I could remember, and there was something warm and welcoming about her. Jo always kept books for Lennie under her desk, along with candy for both of us.
Jo was wearing one of her famous printed dresses, fuchsia with flowers.
She was about Pop’s age, and unlike most of the people in Oak Falls their age, who dressed in jeans and flannel shirts, Jo had always stood out in her bright colors and patterns, refusing to let Oak Falls winters dim her shine.
When we were little, Lennie and I used to try to guess what color she’d be wearing before we even walked into the library.
Once Lennie made her mom get her this dress that looked just like one of Jo’s, a bright green one, and then she cried when she decided it didn’t look as good on her.
“Oh, did Pop manage to fix your leak? He said it was a tricky one,” I whispered. For a moment Jo looked at me as if she didn’t have a clue what I was talking about—and then she burst into life.
“Oh, he did, thank you, Willa. He’s a talented man, your pop.” She played with the scarf in her hair. Then she smiled, reached under the counter, and pulled out Lennie’s book.
“Football for Dummies?” I laughed, then stifled it, trying to keep my voice down. Lennie was really going all in on the sports-slash-Sara-impressing.
Jo turned to me. “Oh, don’t worry about the noise, at this hour there’s next to nobody here, except for Martin Gray. You could holler right in his ear and he wouldn’t hear you, God bless him. So … what about you, honey? Any books you have your eye on?”
I scanned the library, as if a book was just going to jump right out at me. “I don’t think so.”
“You could check out the romance section.” Lennie pointed to the corner she sat in every time she came here.
“So that’s why you sit there,” I joked. “Now it all makes sense.”
Jo handed me two caramels. “Something sweet for two sweethearts.” It was the same thing she had been saying to me and Lennie since we were eight.
“Thanks, Jo, catch you later,” I said. I put the caramels in my pocket and waved goodbye before catching up with Lennie in the new books section.
“So, how about you learn about football and give me a summary next Friday before the game?” I asked hopefully. “You owe me, after those Germans.”
Lennie shrugged. “Deal. And … nope. I really don’t. I’m going to stick around here to figure it out once and for all.”
I gave her a knowing stare. “You’re nothing if not dedicated in your pursuit of love. Fine … Catch you later, loser.”
The wind had picked up by the time I left the library and Lennie behind.
It was strong enough to whip piles of leaves from the grass and send them flying around in front of me, threatening to ruin my new hair.
I buried my face in my green scarf and reached into my back pocket for one of Jo’s caramels.
As I struggled with the wrapper, I heard a voice.
“Do you mind?”
I looked up to see some guy, early twenties maybe, all in black and wearing glasses, crouched down in front of the library with a sketchbook balanced on his knee. When he wasn’t glaring at me, he was muttering to himself, clearly frustrated.
A gust of wind blew onto his page.
“Dammit!” he said.
I should have kept walking. But I didn’t. I went into small talk mode, like I was still at work or something.
“Yeah, the wind’s pretty bad today,” I said. “Not sure where it came from, it wasn’t like this earlier.” I even smiled.
He didn’t even look at me, just made another few marks on his page. “Uneven heating of the earth creates differences in air pressure. Hence, wind.”
I blinked. What? “Um, thanks for the science lesson?”
“You’re welcome.” He still wasn’t looking at me, just studying the library’s facade, his pencil moving quickly across the paper.
“You’re drawing the library?”
“You’re very observant.” Deadpan. Then he sighed before glancing at me for a split second.
“It’s the only building worth drawing in this place.
Everything else is just generic small-town America.
I mean, it’s fine if you like that sort of thing.
And the whole aesthetic is quaint, I suppose, the decorations, the people, the … plaid epidemic.”
He actually gave me a once-over then, before picking up his stupid sketchbook and adding some more details. Meanwhile, I was about to explode. How dare he!
“Generic?” My face was red-hot. Matching my plaid shirt …
“Historically derivative. No original design elements.”
“I know what—” I stopped myself and took a breath, even though my rage was burning. “Enjoy your drawing and have a great evening.” I had never had to force myself so hard to be polite. Then I walked away, with my hair whipping all around me.
From behind me, I could hear him mutter, “Unbelievable.” Like I was the rude one.