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Tyler snorted, handing Josh a huge, greasy drumstick and a mug of cider. “I got you pretty good.”

The cider was cold and tart. “You just can’t handle defeat, Fantana.”

“Maybe ’tis you can’t handle victory, milord.” Tyler claimed his own leg and tankard from the counter, then asked the server, “Might I steal a couple sheets of that parchment?” He rolled the blank pages and tucked them in his belt.

As they walked away, Josh took an enormous bite of turkey, savoring the burst of flavor. “Wow. So good.”

Tyler tore into his own turkey leg with gusto, leaving a smear of grease on his cleft chin. “Let’s find a table.”

“You know I went easy on you.” Tyler’s eyes crinkled at the corners, teasing.

Warmth flooded Josh’s cheeks. “I certainly didn’t go hard on you.” He realized what he’d said and stopped while he was ahead.

Tyler shrugged with a roguish smirk. “Well. Hard or soft, what would I not do to protect my liege?”

They found a semisecluded picnic table under a broad oak and sat to watch the crowd drift by. Up on a stage across the way, a troupe was doing some kind of lowbrow farce with a wizard, a jester, and a dragon puppet that farted fire.

Tyler took another bite of turkey and washed it down with a swallow from his mug. “You having an okay time?”

“Okay? Tyler, that was— You’re so— The best Sunday, maybe ever.” Josh shook his head, trying to find the words. “I don’t know. In my life. Thank you for this.” He wiped his face with a paper napkin. “I don’t even think I can explain. I’d never be brave enough. Or crazy enough. You always make me feel like I can do anything.”

Tyler gave him a funny look then and blinked. “Uh. Likewise.”

“Well, yeah. Okay, running and dumbbells. But I mean….” Josh looked down at the embroidered waistcoat. “This costume? A sword? Ye Olde Times wish fulfillment? Turkey? You in a bedazzled codpiece flexing your tight end with a thousand people clapping for us?”

“More like forty, but point taken.” Tyler raised his tankard and did the accent again. “You are most welcome, sir. And as you are a clever lad, you’ll have realized by now that all this abduction and Renaissancing isn’t just for sweaty fights and fistfuls of greasy meat.” He pulled out the paper and a pencil.

Josh didn’t follow. “It isn’t?”

“It’s also a solution to Hamilton’s busybody problem. Your library dilemma.” Tyler put his half-eaten turkey leg down on a napkin and wiped his greasy hands before picking up the pencil again. “So, I was thinking the reason this place works so well is that it meets the visitors where they need to be met. It interacts with them, but each of them differently. They willingly do most of the work.”

“I don’t understand.”

Tyler began doodling a familiar building. “The library. The reason dummies attack libraries is that books are quiet and still.”

Josh squinted and chuckled. “Well, yeah.”

“A building for readers seems passive to bigots who don’t know better because they’re too lazy to pay attention.” Tyler drew a tiny mob with pitchforks. “Libraries just sit there full of books. Books are inanimate. They can’t fight back. They can’t vote. They can’t shout assholes down. They have to take the abuse like a tackle dummy unless someone fights for them.”

“Oh. Oh!” He nodded now.

“Let’s just say… what if we make the library more than a single inanimate thing and make it into a Pleasure Faire?” He opened his arms to include their surroundings. “A bunch of interactive experiences for different kinds of visitors. No longer a passive target.” He took another bite of turkey and wrote something down. “Bring the books to life a bit.”

“That’s brilliant. You’re brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Well, Joshua, I think probably because you got a full-time job with kids and you’ve been saving my ass and putting me back together on the daily. While I, on the other hand, have got time to spare and a crappy attitude.” Tyler winked and wrote something else down with another doodle.

“You mean we can raise money. Open it up so more kids use it for something other than napping and making out.”

“For starters.” Tyler nodded and wrote down FUNDS, circled it and drew a bunch of lines like rays of sunlight. “I mean yeah… a fundraiser, but more than just that. Remind people that the library is always doing all kinds of stuff that they forgot about. It only interacts with them if they bother to notice. Like put the ‘fun’ in fundraiser. We make them—” He extended his hand.

Josh reached out and squeezed his fingers. “Pay attention. Sorry.”

Tyler squinted in confusion. “For what?”

“I’m super greasy.”

“It’s turkey. I’m already covered in it, and it’s delicious.” Tyler grinned and sucked Josh’s grease off his fingers. He made another note, then looked across at the wizard and the dragon puppet snuggling on the stage. Behind them, the crowd applauded at something.