Bookshelf

Dipper sat in Stan's chair facing the TV with a pen in his mouth, the journal in his lap, and a note book on the arm rest. The journal was opened to the page the author had given a brief history of Gravity Falls but some sort of code was written below the bit about 1000 AD.

Dipper's eyes opened wide as he mumbled, "Isn't this the…" His voice trailed off as half the thought was said in his head. He took the pen out of his mouth and flipped to the last of what the author had written to find a cipher wheel with an eye in the center. The author admitted to not writing down the wheel and that a he was trying to control him. Dipper figured the he might mean Bill, since the author obviously knew and feared the floating nacho chip.

Dipper started to flip between the two pages, finding the symbols to be the same. HE turned back to his notebook and started copying down the wheel.

"Dude!" Soos exclaimed, appearing in the living room doorway. Dipper looked up and the overweight man continued. "I just found something super cool!"

"What?" Dipper asked, closing the journal and stashing it in the inside pocket of his vest before dropping out of the chair to follow his friend.

"Well, you know how you gave me the room, thanks again, little-dude," Soos added before continuing, the two walking into the room. "Well I was going to move the table when I noticed it was filled up with books and stuff."

"Oh cool!"

The two walked into the room and, to Dipper's relief, the hard wood still was bare. Soos walked over to the table in question and knelt down as he slid the door on the side of the table to show old books.

Dipper carefully pulled out the first one, a big hard back book with tape holding it together only to read the cover. "Big Big Story Book?" He pulled out the second one that looked as worn as the first and read "Animal Stories? Are these Grunkle Stan's children books?" He carefully opened the first only to find the first few pages had fallen out and more tape held some pages together. He sat down on the floor and laid the Big Big Story Book on the ground next to him and Soos. He opened the Animal Stories to find it in better shape. In a woman's handwriting was Given to Stanford Pines on his first birthday, June 15, 1949.

"That party was his birthday party!" Soos exclaimed, reading over Dipper's shoulder.

"Did somebody say party?" Mabel asked, poking her head into the room. She took a step inside and plopped down on the other side of Dipper, looking at the book in his hand. She took hold of it and asked, "Oh cool, what's this?"

"Hey look, some Sibling Brothers," Soos said, pulling out five original copy mystery books.

"What? No way!" Dipper took them from Soos and read through the covers. "I'm so reading these next."

"Hey, what are you three doing?" Stan asked, stepping into the room only to stare at the open shelf of books His eyes trailed over the three and stopped on the books in Mabel's hands.

"We found these old books," Soos offered, pulling out the next book only to see it was about ghosts.

"I haven't seen some of these in years," Stan admitted, pulling over the desk chair so he could sit behind the three. Mabel handed him the Big Big Story Book and smiled as he flipped through the pages.

Soos decided to just start pulling books out and putting them in front of the twins. Dipper picked up book after book, reading titles anywhere from Confessions of a Football Purest, clearly Stan's from his past and love of sports, to a set of the Bible on tape that didn't seem to belong to his Jewish great uncle.

"Hey, why do you have a cook book called Eating Well Through Cancer?" Dipper asked, finding the book as Soos had finished unloading the one side of the shelf. The big man had moved on his knees and slid the doors open to reveal the other side only to look at Stan at the mentioning of cancer.

Stan now had a Roy Rogers book in hand and looked down at the book Dipper held, all eyes on him. "That must've been Shermy's," Stan said, leaning down to get the book from Dipper so he could look it over. "He had lung cancer back in the early 80's. Got him to quit smoking and he went a little religious."

"Oh yeah, I remember Dad saying something about that," Mabel nodded her head. She picked up another big book and started going through the pages only to exclaim, "Oh Cool! I found your old year book."

"Oh!" Stan took a moment before asking, "Can I see it?"

Mabel handed it up to the old man as Soos stood up. "What'd you look like back then, Mr. Pines?"

Stan flipped through the pages as Dipper and Mabel stood up to look. "Here I am," Stan said, pointing to Stanford Pines.

"Who's Amelia and Stanley Pines?" Dipper asked, seeing the two next to his great uncle's picture. He squinted his eyes, surprised at how much alike Stan looked to the teen next to him.

"Stanley was my doppelgänger and Amelia was his sister," Stan explained. "Thankfully I didn't have many classes with them."

"I think it's cool," Soos smiled. "To run into someone that looks like you."

Dipper turned back to the pile of books now on the floor and dropped down as he picked up one called Amy Vanderbit's New Complete Book of Etiquette. He opened it close to the front and started reading to hope and find out what the book was about.

Brassieres have come a long way since Aunt Nellie was an adolescent and they bound her flat with a straight, tight bra which eventually broke down her muscles and, in her otherwise attractive forties, made her droopy.

Dipper's face reddened, now not sure if he wanted to flip through anymore. After looking at the pages a bit closer he realized he had opened the book to a section dedicated to The Well-Dressed Woman and quickly flipped past it.

"Oh cool. Look dudes, I found some records," Soos said, pulling out the old vinyls. "I'll go get the record player." The man jumped to his feet and left the room.

Dipper looked back at the book and found he had turned to How to Eat Various Foods. He found the book to be something Pacifica might have been forced to learn as it told the placement of more silverware than he'd seen on his home table at once all for one person. He closed it and moved on to the next, finding a few more normal cook books and dictionaries.

Soos lumbered back into the room with Stan's record player in his arms. He sat it down on the top of the single shelf and plugged it into the wall.

Mabel shuffled on her knees to the records still in the shelf. "Let's see what we've got. The Beatles, The Beach Boys," she pulled that one out and gave the four guys a smile before sitting it aside. "You four are coming with me." She turned back to the pile as Soos picked up the Beach Boys she had set aside and pulled out the record to play it.

Dipper leaned back on his hands as he let Mabel go through the rest of the records.

"Old and In the Way? Tall Pines, A Pig in a Poke? Aw! That one sounds cute. Bluegrass Country Christmas?" Mable looked up at Stan who was now going through Robinson Crusoe. "I didn't know you liked bluegrass Grunkle Stan."

"Liked." Stan enunciated, looking back at his book. "Crazy fad I got into just after moving here." He closed the book and sat it on the floor with the rest. He kept the year book in his hand as he stood up and stretched before saying, "You can keep anything you want." He looked at the books again and picked up the two normal cook books before leaving the room.

"So calling the Beach Boys," Mabel said, turning an eye to the music coming from the record player.

"You know they're really old by now, right?" Dipper pointed out, collecting the Sibling Brothers and books on ghosts and cryptids into a pile for himself. "If they're not dead."

"So," Mable stuck her tongue out at her brother.

"Who knew Mr. Pines had a bluegrass faze," Soos said, looking through the records to find it equal parts bluegrass and popular music from the late 70s and early 80s.

"Isn't it strange he didn't remember this room?" Dipper asked, standing up with his books in arm.

"Bro-bro, he's old," Mabel reminded. "Last time he used this room was in the 80's."

"Then why'd he stop using it? And whose experiment was the carpet?" Dipper asked.

"Knowing Mr. Pines, he probably got it at some yard sale or something, dude," Soos offered.

"What if there's something in this room he was trying to hide?" Dipper tried.

"Hide what? His lost love of bluegrass?" Mabel asked. "Maybe, for once, there's no mystery here. Things got moved, he ended up moving the bookshelf outside in front of the door and just never moved it back."

"Maybe you're right." Dipper looked around the room, his eyes resting on the file cabinets Soos hadn't found the key to, wishing he knew what was there. Or why this room had its own bathroom. Was there any more hidden rooms in this old shack?

The End

Sautfht 4 dn bpaqz oq lqzkot ku lexj lgyoumdro.