The Librarians And the Advent List

Dec 16

"Wait, we're doing what now?" Ezekiel asked after Cassandra gathered the group that morning.

"We're saving the Kiplinger's General Store from closing!"

"And this wasn't in the clippings book, right?" Ezekiel asked again, basically speaking for everyone.

"Nope," Cassandra said, turning to the board.

"So why are we doin' this?" Stone asked, jumping in before Ezekiel.

She turned to him, a look that he was reading as disappointment coupled with a hint of 'you should know this' and maybe a bit of betrayal, "Stone, haven't you been paying attention to those movies? One of the standard Christmas movie plots is saving some building from closing!"

"Not in the movies I'm familiar with," Baird added. "What movies are you talking about?"

Cassandra huffed. "Don't any of you watch the Hallmark Channel? Come on, Stone, you watched a half dozen . . . ."

And her voice trailed off as Stone desperately tried to make the 'cut it out' gesture at her. But it was too late. Ezekiel was doubled over laughing. Baird and Flynn were chuckling and even Jenkins looked amused.

"Hey, we were sick and she picked the movies and . . ."Stone just sighed. "Alright, Cassandra, if this is important to you, how can we help?"

"Well in your standard Christmas movie plot, they usually do something outlandish that sways the businessman who was going to shut the place down or in some cases raises enough funds to keep the place open. But I don't know if putting on a show or a Christmas tree competition or whatever is really gonna work."

"Well, why is it shutting down?" Baird asked gently. "Are they just having bad financial times? Because I don't think that's anything we can help with."

"They are, but not that bad. It's the location in town. The city wants to tear it down to build a park. But it's historic and . . . ."

"Historic?" Stone perked up. "Historic as in old or historic as in something happened there of significance? Because we might be able to get a stay if it's the later."

"I'm not sure, but it's worth looking into isn't it?"

Baird sighed. "Well, honestly Cassandra, if there's no magic involved and we're not putting on a show . . . " she looked over at Cassandra who looked hopeful. "Which were are absolutely not." And behind her Ezekiel, Flynn and even Stone shook their heads. "Then I don't think the rest of us are going to be of any help. But why don't you and Stone see what you can dig up, call us if you need any help and we'll call you if the clippings book has something. Okay?"

"Alright," Cassandra nodded. "Stone?"

"Yeah, yeah, comin'. I'm the only one besides Flynn who is gonna know what we're lookin' for anyway."

"Thank you," she beamed at him.

It wasn't exactly as exciting as most of their missions. And Stone had a moment of freezing when they were let into the town archives. But the archives themselves looked nothing like Collins Falls, the archivist was an old man and Cassandra's hand on his arm kept the memories at bay.

After a couple of hours of searching, Cassandra was sitting at the desk they'd been allowed to have looking downcast.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Stone asked, looking up from the document he was searching.

"This is hopeless," Cassandra said. "I really thought I could help. I really wanted to help. I wanted to do something for someone else for Christmas."

"Hey," Stone walked over and knelt next to her. "We brought gifts for a couple of kids that probably wouldn't get anything, didn't we?"

"Yeah, but . . . ."

"And we help people every day. That's our job, that's why we do it."

"I know, but this isn't magic or science or anything we can help. And I just feel like a failure."

"Well, we can always put on a show," Stone joked, but that failed to perk her up.

Sighing he went back to what he was doing. Cassandra clicked through newspaper articles, when suddenly Stone said, "wait, go back."

"What?"

"I think I found something and I think I just saw something on your screen . . . ."

Sure enough, between the article and the piece of paper, they had enough to give to the general store to order a stay on the demolition, at least until after the New Year. With the investigations that the state would have to do, it would be months before they'd have to close.

"Thank you for not giving up," Cassandra said as they walked back to the Door. "I don't know why I did."

"Hey, we all have bad days. But . . ." Stone took a deep breath. "You've never given up on me. Not when I was treatin' ya so bad, not when I was so down about Christmas. I owe ya to not give up when it's something important to you."

She reached over and impulsively squeezed his hand. That's all she had to do. They exchanged smiles and then they went back home. Ready for the next item on her list.