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“Not at all.”

“You know we had a show here, right? And a grant pays for the books now. We have everything you can imagine.”

“Everything?”

“Oh, yes. Whatever’s out there, we have. Check it out. A lot of it is upstairs.”

My feet turned in that direction and I was about to go see it for myself.

I stopped, however. “I can’t. I need to watch Agnes and Beatrice.”

“So responsible. We’ve got it, kid.”

“No, you don’t. They’re a lot.”

“And I can watch them for an hour or so. Hell, Henrietta already went over there. We’ll trade off.”

“I can’t ask that of you. I’m not kidding when I say they will ruin your life.”

“You’re in Strawberry Springs, Gabriel. This isn’t a random place. We’ve got your back. Though, I might teach them a few curse words.”

A warmth filled me, something I hadn’t felt in years. “Thanks. And you can’t teach them anything new. You might actually learn one for once.”

“Ha! They’re my kind of kids. This’ll be fun!”

Marjorie headed in the direction of the kids’ area. I desperately wanted to go see the bookshelves, but I followed just in case they needed me.

Henrietta had a puppet show going. Marjorie snuck behind her and put on a giant comet costume.

They’d be just fine.

I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face when I turned to go upstairs. That quickly faded when I got to the top and saw all the new books on all the shelves.

Holy shit. This was unreal. This was more than even the city libraries in San Francisco.

I had to swallow before going through all the shelves. True to Marjorie’s word, everything was new. I remembered this space as I’d left it. Hot with no AC and barely hanging on.

This was a cornerstone. This was incredible.

I spent way too long wandering through the shelves. I was lost in books and all the change that had happened, so lost, that I ran right into someone as I came out of an aisle.

“Shit, sorry.” I caught the person, noticing that they were Jade’s height. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Comparing this place to the big city library?”

I blinked, realizing that this was Jade.

Again.

“Oh, uh. Hi. I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“I had a feeling I’d find you somewhere. There’s two mini-yous taking over the first floor.”

“Please tell me they haven’t murdered Marjorie and Henrietta.”

“Marjorie and Henrietta are tough. They’re having the time of their lives.”

I let out a sigh of relief before I looked around again. “This place is nice.”