The Mysterious Disappearance of the Reluctant Book Fairy Read Online Free

otherwise than Annapurna’s agreeing to give her old friend a bit of respite from the drudgery of her life? While it took more than an initial two or three hours in the company of Monie’s children to effect a form of harmony between the women on the subject of literary escapes, they reached an accord on the afternoon when Monie’s youngest had a bout of projectile vomiting so severe that nothing other than The Exorcist popped immediately into Annapurna’s mind. Annapurna then began to see the problem in terms of taking her friend—even for a brief hour or two— out of the horror novel in which she was living instead of depositing her into another. And so it happened that Annapurna began to investigate where she could—for want of a better term—set up shop. It had to be in the library, naturally. Her days were spent there, and it was only during the day when Monie’s children were in school that it was possible for Monie to escape the chains that bound her to hearth and home.
    Such a location had few requirements beyond privacy and the space for a small cot on which the literary traveler could recline. There was the necessity of a temporal anchor, of course, that would bind the traveler to the here and now in much the same way in her previous life young Janet Shore had used her canine’s leash for her own trips and her hand within the hand of the traveler when she was entertaining her friends. A boat’s line—easily had from the town marina—would do for this, she decided. She would fix it to the door knob of a convenient room so that when she opened the door after Monie’s excursion, her friend would rise as if from a pleasant and refreshing sleep. This would, admittedly, be effected by means of a preemptory and rather rough jerk on her wrist from the boat line that would be tied around it, but some things could simply not be helped. Had she been able to be at Monie’s side throughout her trip to Monte Carlo or Manderley—really, it was up to her, as Annapurna had no thoughts on the matter other than wonder that Maxim de Winter had not disposed of that nasty bit of business Rebecca much sooner into their tormented relationship—nothing more than her hand in Monie’s would have been necessary. But she had to see to the needs of the library’s patrons and as luck would have it, Monie’s choice of traveling day occurred in the middle of the Red-Hatted Ladies’ Book Club Morning, which generally leaked over into the Red-Hatted Ladies’ Book Club Afternoon if the edibles were good enough and the literary discussion was fierce.
    With all of this in mind, only the library’s supply room would offer sufficient space for a cot, privacy from the prying eyes of other library patrons, and a doorknob. Because it contained vast library valuables such as paper stock for the coin operated copier, it also was lockable, a decided plus.
    Thus on the very next morning following Annapurna’s brief, “All right, I’ll do it,” which itself followed soon after the Pillerton offspring’s impressive show of projectile vomiting, Monie presented herself at the library. She’d dressed for the occasion. She’d chosen a form of thirties’ garb that she deemed suitable, considering the time period in which she supposed the book took place: between the two great wars. At the local thrift store, she’d managed to put together an approximation of that period’s dress. That she looked rather like a cross between Queen Elizabeth the Queen mother (that would be the hat and the shoes) and Bonnie of Bonnie-and-Clyde fame (that would be the skirt, the belt, and the sweater), did not appear to concern her. She announced herself as ready and excited and “oh how I’ve longed for this moment since you first came back to Langley,” in rather too loud a voice that caused Annapurna to shush her. The last thing she wanted was a