22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gauge
It took all of my very limited self-control to let Emma peruse the library shelves unmolested, but I knew how important this was and was as eager as she was to get the hard part over with so we could get to celebrating.
We were browsing the local history section, and while she was looking at the book titles, I couldn't stop watching her.
I knew I wasn't being helpful, but at least I wasn't hindering her process, so I counted it as a win.
She eventually pulled out a few books and handed them to me. I grabbed them and waited while she continued to pile more into my arms. When I couldn't see her over the stack I was holding, she finally said, "Okay, that's probably good enough."
"You think?" I asked, raising an amused eyebrow at her. "How long do you plan to be here?"
"As long as it takes."
I would have been worried if I wasn't sure the librarian would kick us out at some point.
A few hours in and my eyes were swimming from all the reading I'd done. I hadn't found anything helpful and was grateful when the librarian started to make her rounds, knowing we'd be kicked out and could stop reading for tonight.
Except when the librarian got to us, she saw Emma and smiled. "Long night?" she asked.
"It will be if I have anything to say about it,” Emma replied. “It's for the Save the Railways project."
The librarian nodded. "Stay as long as you like. You know you have my support, and please let me know if there's anything I can do to help."
I fought not to groan at the fact that we might be here all night.
Thankfully, Emma was too distracted to catch my disappointment, and told the librarian, "Actually, there might be something you can do.
I'm trying to find something—anything really, grasping at straws over here—that proves the railways should be considered a historical landmark—"
"Which would lend them historical protection and stop the motorway initiative in its tracks. That's brilliant!" the librarian added.
Emma nodded enthusiastically. "If I can pull it off. So far, I haven't found anything useful. Any recommendations?"
The librarian looked thoughtfully at the books in front of us. After a moment, she pulled a title from my pile, asking Emma, "Have you read this one yet?"
"Not yet," she replied, taking it from the librarian's hands and opening it to the table of contents. "What are we looking for?"
"If I'm remembering right, you'll want the section on the flood of ‘94."
Emma ran her finger down the index, found what she was looking for, and quickly flipped to the page. Her eyes lit up when she saw the headline.
"This might work!" she said. "Thank you!"
"Thank me if it works out. If not, we'll keep trying," the librarian said. "Us locals have to stick together. Stick it to the man."
Emma laughed, but her attention was mostly focused on the book, so the librarian excused herself to make the rest of her rounds.
A few minutes later, she looked up at me with a grin. "We've got it."
"It'll work?"
"Absolutely. Miles and the rest of Big Car-ma are going down."
I grinned at the look on Emma’s face. "You look like you'll eat him alive. It shouldn't turn me on, but engines, it's hot."
"We'll destroy them. I just need to take some copies of this, and then we can go home."
"To celebrate."
"Definitely," she said with a smile that was colored by her blush.