I’m an emotionally secure woman attracted to an unattached man and the reason I haven’t expressed to him said attraction is...
I chew on the inside of my cheek again. Oh look. There’s more letter to read.
I finish reading more about Levi’s family and how he learned he liked working on cars after he and his dad restored a 1970 Pontiac GTO during his freshman and sophomore years of high school. Levi signed his name without any type of formal closing likeYour FriendorWarm Regards. Just his name in his nearly illegible but endearing handwriting. I go to refold the letter but stop when I notice a postscript.
P. S. Maybe you’re like me and also wished for clues and riddles to lead you to a hidden treasure (when you weren’t dreaming about your very own Jervis Pendleton, that is). If that is the case, then here is your first clue:
ORAL, p. 286, l. 12
ORAL? Like, relating to the mouth? That cannot be right. I refuse to believe his clue has anything to do with tongues, teeth, or saliva.
P. 286? Wait, does thatpstand for page? Page 286? Which would mean thelstands for line. Line 12 of page 286 of a book with the acronym ORAL. What book has a title that could be shortened to those four letters?
I rack my mind trying to come up with a title, but without even a genre to narrow things down, there could be millions of options. Funny enough, my brain can’t think up a single one.
I grab my phone. Time for reinforcements.
Me:
Do either of you know a book with the title acronym of ORAL?
As I wait for Martha and Evangeline to answer, I retrieve the library’s tablet and power it on. While the handheld device boots up, I mentally flip through options. Once the library’s logo loads, I type in my employee username and password and log on to the library’s database.
Our Rogues and Ladies? The closest hit isLady Rogueby Suzanne Enoch. That’s not it.
OneRoyal Announcement Later? My screen tells meWe couldn’tfind any titles matching your search terms. Try another search.
Over Rivers and Lakes? A children’s book for aquatic adventures pops up.
My phone vibrates where it lays on top of my thigh, and I snatch it up.
Evangeline:
Do you know who the author is?
Me:
If I knew the author, I’d just look up all of his/her titles until I found one that matches ORAL as a title acronym.
Evangeline:
Fair point. Is this for a patron? A search like this will be almost as hard as when all they know about a book is that it has a blue cover.
Martha:
Could it beOf Roses and Lilies? It’s the first book in a popular YA fantasy trilogy.
I have no idea if that’s the clue Levi left, but I quickly type the title into the search bar. A cover appears in dark colors. Blood-red roses and snow-white lilies intertwine with thorny vines that add an element of danger to the mood, especially when one thorn seems to pierce a rose, its color bleeding onto a single lily in an ominous way. A shiver runs up my spine. I think this is it.
My gaze moves to the right of the cover image, and my heart falls to my stomach. The library has two copies, but they’re both currently checked out. I could buy a digital copy and send it to the Kindle app on my phone, but ebooks show locations, not page numbers, so I wouldn’t know when I reached page 286, much less be able to figure out which was line 12.
I groan but place a hold on the book and tell myself a little patience never hurt anyone.
Me:
Thanks! I think that’s the one I was looking for.
Evangeline:
