Chapter 6 - Hadley Explained Their Secret Shelf Game
Hadley and Mike’s “shelf game” was more elaborate than I remembered.
I had started it.
They had changed it.
Originally, I would point to a book and ask them to describe the cover without saying the title.
Mike turned that into a code.
Red meant first shelf.
Blue meant second.
Yellow meant third.
Objects represented individual books.
Then, according to Hadley, Mike added places.
“How?”
She took a fresh piece of paper.
“If he draws the thing alone, it’s a book.”
She drew a blue bird.
“If he puts grass under it, it’s outside.”
Then she drew a little roof.
“If he puts a roof, it’s a place.”
I stared at the reconstructed drawing again.
Seven book symbols were floating by themselves.
The red lantern was different.
Beneath it, barely visible on one surviving scrap, Mike had told Hadley to draw a brown rectangle with four legs.
At first I assumed it was a shelf.
Hadley corrected me.
“That’s your desk.”
My eyes moved automatically toward the desk I had broken when Celeste crashed into it.
Part of the front panel had split.
The drawers were twisted out.
Papers covered the floor.
The red lantern symbol was positioned beneath the desk.
My heartbeat changed.
Had Mike hidden The Lantern Boy somewhere in my desk?
I nearly started tearing through the wreckage.
Then Hadley touched my sleeve.
“Grandpa.”
“What?”
She pointed to the purple house.
Three green circles beside it.
Apple trees.
“That’s not part of the shelf.”
“No.”
“Mike told me that one mattered if Celeste took him.”
My hands stopped.
“Did he say what it was?”
“He said you’d know if you looked at the roof.”
Purple.
Three apple trees.
Something pulled at my memory, but not strongly enough to settle.
There were several outbuildings on the property.
Guesthouses.
A carriage house.
The old gardener’s cottage.
North House.
Some had slate roofs.
Some had orchards.
I couldn’t place it yet.
Then Hadley added:
“He said there would be two places.”
I turned sharply.
“Two?”
She nodded.
“First the blue bird.”
Then she touched the purple house.
“Then this.”
The blue bird did not only mean a book.
It was also a place.
Blue Heron.
The packing tape.
The bindery.
Or somewhere connected to it.
Mike had known Celeste planned to move him in stages.
He had not simply left clues about stolen books.
He had built me a route.
And suddenly Hadley’s drawing was no longer evidence of what had already happened.
May you like
It was a map of what was happening now.
---
