If you can figure out one or more of the clues, then you get an ice cream cone.
If you figure out, more than one, you get a special prize...
It was a sweltering hot Saturday, and I was in desperate need of another book to read.
The library was just what I needed.
So, naturally, I would go.
I picked up my wallet off of my dresser, got my shoes, got the car keys, and told my mom that I was about to leave.
"Where are you going?" she asked once I told her.
"The library!" I told her over the kitchen faucet. She was washing off fruit from her garden.
"Okay! Be back by five thirty, for dinner!"
"Okay, bye!" I told her as I opened the front door and left.
Freedom.
I put the key in the ignition, and waited for the car to warm up. And I made sure the turn on the a/c. Mom always said to let the car run for a few minutes before driving. She said something about tearing up the ignition...
I was soon on my way to the library, for peace, cool air, and reading.
Bliss.
I walked through the automatic doors, into the refreshingly cool air. The smell of books overwhelmed me.
The first level had nonfiction. Second, all fiction. Third is the children's room and video and audio tapes.
I always would work from the second down. I had no interest in video tapes or the like.
I walked slowly along, shelf after shelf, trailing my finger on the spines of the books, reading the titles, picking up a book whenever it piqued my interest.
When I slid the tenth book off the shelf to look at it's summery, a blaze of green and red peeked out.
"Hey Noah!" Izzy exclaimed, waving at me.
The librarian shushed us, along with most nearby readers.
Izzy rolled her eyes at them.
"Wha'cha doing here?" she asked.
"Looking. For. A. Book." I say between clenched teeth.
I must remain serene. No need to blow a fuse over Izzy.
"Oh, yeah. Stupid me." she responded, palming herself in the middle of her forehead.
"Izzy, what do you need?" I ask.
"I just wanted to say hi."
She darts over to the opposite side of the shelf, where I'm at.
"Can't I do that?"
"No, not to me." I respond.
"Okay, if you insist." she says, then walks away.
"Thank god." I mutter.
I continue with looking through the titles.
Several minutes later, she's back.
"Oh, by the way, I hid your wallet." she says with a grin. I roll my eyes, then get back to book searching.
"I'm not lying. You can check your pockets to see."
As soon as she said that, I checked. All my pockets. All six. All empty.
"You did what?"
So much for bliss...
"Don't worry, they're safe. Including your keys."
"Izzy, give them back. Now."
"I will – if you play a game with me, that is."
"I refuse to. Now give me back my wallet and keys."
"Nope. Play the game first, and win. Then you'll get them back."
"Then how about I call the police then?"
"Then how about you show them the proof?" Izzy reported, smugly. She placed her hands on her hips, and smirked.
I thought about what proof exactly I had. None. She had won me there.
"And plus, I'd ran from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police before, I can deal with something less intense."
I glared at her.
"Play the game, Noah." she told me in a sing-song voice.
My teeth clenched together again.
"Fine. I will."
"Great." she said, grinning evilly, and rubbing her hands together.
"How do you play the game?" I ask.
"Simple. I tell you a clue, you follow it through the library to the next clue, and so one."
"How long it this going to take?" I ask.
"Maybe three hours, given how smart you are." she tells me.
I sigh.
"Fine." I tell her. "Tell me the first clue."
"Okay. This one's simple," she said.
"A party is where they met, love they let.
One boy and one girl, their relationship open and unfurled.
A classic, the book.
Down on this level you look."
"That, was idiotic." I told her.
"Hey, it'll get better. I thought of that from the top of my head."
I rolled my eyes.
"Well, I'm off." she said, then sprinted off away from me.
A party is where they met at...there was something about love...it wasn't a gay relationship...it was an open relationship...the book is a classic...and I'll find it on this level of the library...
Think, Noah, think!
Seconds passed. I remembered.
Romeo and Juliet.
Of course; we , as American's, are required to read this story in high school.
I looked for Shakespeare, William.
I found three different books of the same story. The note was in the second one I looked in.
Okay, so it was easy. I know. But try a word scramble:
Owh ot likl a inckrimdogb
Given how smart you are, this should be a piece of cake.
I found a table, and sat down, note in hand.
How to Kill a Mockingbird.
Five minutes to figure it out. Five minutes to find it.
I cracked open the book to find the note behind the front cover.
Too easy? What about this?
On June 26, 2-4 decades ago, this changed the way people lived.
Go to the nearest computers to look it up.
I couldn't think of anything that rung a bell.
Onto the computers I went...
I tried to log into the computer, but since I didn't have my wallet, and I needed my library card to log in, I couldn't.
I got up, and searched around the computer desks, remembering the last part of the clue.
I found a sticky-note on one computer.
73150000180070
I typed it into the nearest computer. It worked.
Who's card it was, I didn't know...but it did remind me of mine...
I opened up Windows Explorer, then typed in Google, then typedJune 26 into Google. Several results popped up.
I spent what I imagine a good twenty minutes looking through the different sites. A lot of important stuff happened on June 26, obviously.
I copied down all the different events by year, and went down to the first level.
All nonfiction was housed down there.
It took forty-five minutes until I found the right damned book.
I went through the topics of: Native American wars, yearbook, calendars, car models, and commercials. Turns out it was about UPC codes.
Did you know that it made the first damned swipe across a damned supermarket scanner? And that a fucking ten-pack of Juicy Fruit gum was purchased in Troy, Ohio?(1)
I surely didn't.
I guess I pissed you off, huh? Sorry for taking up so much time. Two more clues, I promise. And this one's easier.
One of four, plus one novella, and one unpublished one makes up the series.
Almost the entire series is about the supernatural falling in love with the natural. (2)
I thought long and hard about that one.
Four books. One novella. And there was an unpublished one...supernatural...what are the most common supernatural people in novels nowadays?
Werewolves, Super heroes, and something else. Vampires! Yes, that's part of it.
A minute passed.
The Twilight Saga!
I nailed it.
I couldn't remember what section the books would be in, so I went to the computer to search it.
Fiction, Young Adult, it said.
Onto looking for Meyer, Stephenie. (3)
Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner...and several copies of each.
It took a long, time, I tell you.
Okay, now this one's the hardest.
I groaned.
Read page 510 of New Moon and Eclipse. Decide which one has the most meaning. Go to the book store. Go to the section that seems to correspond. You'll find the note in plain view.
Onto reading...
...fifteen minutes later, I was in the romance section of the book store, looking for the note.
She said in plain view, didn't she?
She and I have very different ideas of that term, then.
I spent fifteen minutes looking in that section. Then I spent twenty in the rest of the book store.
Then I thought hard about it.
I could see the parking deck through the nearby side window. I walked over there.
Sure enough, there was a yellow sticky note on it.
This is the last, and easiest, one.
In the car.
I was ecstatic. I was finally about to get my keys and wallet!
Thank god! I thought.
I almost literally ran out the library, into the parking deck.
I went to level three, I level I left it on, and began to search for the car.
Only, it wasn't there.
It's only a mind trick. I told myself. She probably just drove it onto another level.
I walked through every single one, looking for the car.
Thirty minutes.
When I was about to give up, I saw the car drive by me, then stop.
I heard the car doors unlock, and then she reached over to open the door for me.
"Wasn't that fun?" she asked me, a big grin plastered on her face.
"Hell. No. You made me waste three fucking hours with this." I tell her, climbing into the passenger seat.
"Gosh, no need to be so mean about it. Or cursing." she told me, driving out the parking deck.
"Now where's my stuff?" I ask her, buckling myself up.
"Here," she says, handing my stuff over. I count all the money in the wallet, check to make sure my license was in there, etc.
"No need to do that, I didn't steal anything." she tells me.
I believe her.
She smirks. I wonder what's she up to.
I notice how cute she looks while she smiles.
She pulls over into a strip mall parking lot. (4)
"I am about to steal this, though." she tells me.
She leans in to kiss me.
It was short, but sweet, and it felt nice.
I felt myself smiling.
She was, too.
"And I'm about to steal this," I tell her, then I lean in to kiss her.
I guess the trip to the library wasn't that bad after all.
Okay, well, I liked this one...
(1) I learned this fact from a yellow Trapper notebook...
(2) If you figured this out, then you're a major Twilight fan.
(3) I love the saga.
(4) I always thought that strippers worked in a strip mall...