In all the time that she had spent in Daven’s Port, which admittedly wasn’t much, Dakota had never even set foot in the Public Library.
Not surprising because blah blah millennials, blah blah technology, blah blah kids don’t read these days. She had been perfectly content in spending her time meandering from one attraction to the other, happily repeating the fun ones in lieu of traversing the less stimulating sights that Daven’s Port had to offer. Excluding Abida’s Eclectics, Dakota had done a pretty stellar job of not culturing herself since the move.
So imagine her shock when, out of nowhere, Piper asks—no, insists—that she come to one of the library’s reading rooms.
”Come on Dee, it’s really cool!” Piper had plead with her, ”I’ll be in the room in the back—seriously you’ve gotta come!”
And, well… it wasn’t like she had anything better to do. Zack was stuck at home taking care of his younger siblings, and her Mom was taking Kenny and his friends to the mall. Since Dakota knew all of, like, three people in Daven’s Port so far, that meant that her options were pretty limited. So she threw on a tank top and some shorts and hoofed it to the library…
Inside, it was pretty much exactly what she had expected. Lots of books, some green carpeting that was more or less the physical embodiment of nausea, and lots of faded schoolhouse posters—complete with a rickety old rail of a librarian. It looked like the place hadn’t gotten a decent makeover since the 90’s; why Piper had determined that this was the cool place to hang out for the day was beyond her…
Avoiding eye contact with Ms. Chapman or the strange goth girl shelving books, Dakota headed straight for the back, as instructed. There were a series of reading rooms laid into the back wall, each with a little window in the doorway so as to see if it was occupied. The only one with the light on was the one in the corner, hidden away from everyone else as it stood directly behind a bookcase. Dakota could only roll her eyes as she figured of course that would be the one Piper picked—no doubt she was doing something that she ought not to have been doing in that poor, innocent reading room…
“Hey Dee!” Piper said in an excited whisper, “C’mere, you’ve gotta see this!”
Much to her surprise, as the door clicked softly behind her, Dakota had caught Piper right in the middle of… studying a book intensely. Like, super intensely. She had a magnifying glass and everything. Hardcore?
“Piper are you… reading?” Dakota’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “For fun?”
“What?” Piper looked up again, “Pssh, n-naw! Just… y’know… something to do, right?”
‘Something to do’ had to have been an understatement. Dakota had walked in on a real study session; Piper had pulled one, two, three four… five books from the library shelves, all of them exceedingly musty and old. They were stacked on top of one another, not counting the one Piper was pawing through, and were each about as big as an encyclopedia. Their pages were yellowed, and smelled strongly enough that Dakota could catch a whiff from the doorway…
“S-Shut up and c’mere, wouldja?” Piper said, flustered, “Take a look at this picture.”
Dakota shrugged her shoulders, and started towards the center table. Piper had dressed down for the occasion, wearing an old ratty tee with flowers on it and jeans that were far too faded to have been intentional. Her long black hair was tied back and her eyes were tired—how long had she been here?
“I was thinking last night about this ring, right? The family that owned it—the Rosewaters—“ Piper said the name like she hadn’t just heard about it four days ago, and that it was somehow supposed to carry weight to Texas-native Dakota, as she stroked her favorite piece of jewelry, “So I figured I’d look ‘em up! I was doing some digging, and they’re in all these history books! Isn’t that crazy?”
“Yes Piper, it’s crazy that an old family is in an old book about an old town.” Dakota said with just a smidge of sarcasm as she sat down, “Absolutely insane.”
Dakota was on the receiving end of one of Piper’s arm-punches (holy crap those hurt!) as Piper rolled her eyes.
“Dee, c’mon, you’re starting to sound like Zack.” Piper said, hurt, “I’m really into this stuff, okay? So if you’re gonna be a bitch about it—“
“Jesus P, I’m sorry.” Dakota groaned, “Just… show me the thing, okay? Then we can go get some breakfast or whatever.”
Piper’s frown turned upside down as she scooched the big old book closer to Dakota and handed her the magnifying glass. This was one of the old history books about Daven’s Port—the pages were a mustard yellow around the edges, and so fragile that they were crisp to the touch. The faded picture in the right-hand corner read Rosewater Family, 1857, with a picture of three figures. Dakota recognized them as the butterballs from that old picture Abida had showed Piper when she bought the ring, except much butterballier. Guess she wasn’t lying. At least, about the Rosewater family existing.
“This is William Rosewater, Sarah-Beth Rosewater, and William Junior Rosewater.” Piper said proudly as Dakota eyeballed the picture, “This is, like, riiiight before Junior here decided to run out on his poor family.”
Ignoring how intimately familiar Piper had become with the situation since they had discussed it last, Dakota continued in hopes of finding a point to all this. Piper had become obsessed with that ring, so it must have had something to do with that. But it looked way too small for it to fit on a man’s ring, so even if William and Junior weren’t contenders for Fattest Men of the 19th century, they were out. Sarah-whatever Rosewater was out too, considering that that ring was way too snug on Piper’s hand to fit around her sausage digits…
“And that—“ Piper said proudly as she pointed to the neckless dangling beneath the matriarch’s swaddling second chin, “—is my ring.”
Dakota squinted and, damned if it weren’t, the ring that Piper had taken such a shine to was threaded between a tiny gold chain that sat atop Sarah-Beth’s flabby chest. Apparently the ring was a relic from even older, much thinner days for Mrs. Rosewater...
“Awesome.” Dakota said rather flatly, “Now can we please get something to eat? I’m starved.”
“Gotcha covered.” Piper said with a smile, reaching into her backpack and pulling out a thoroughly grazed package of Double-Stuf’d Oreos, “And you said my chocolate cravings wouldn’t ever come in handy.”
“Jesus Piper, I never pegged you for a chocoholic.” Dakota snorted as she plucked out a cookie for herself, “But then again, I never figured you for a reader either.”
“Yeah, that’s right.” Piper said with a smirk, “I’m deep, bitch. Accept it.”
Dakota reached to grab a second one, having to feel around blindly beneath the plastic wrapping to find one that hadn’t already been eaten.
“Jeez, save some for the rest of us, why don’tcha?”
“Mm—I can’t help it!” Piper exclaimed as she bit into another cookie, “I’ve just been craving chocolate like crazy for some reason.”
“Well you better knock it off, or you’ll wind up like Mrs. Rosewater here.” Dakota pointed to the doughy landwhale’s faded countenance, “And we’ll have to grease you through doorways.”
“Oh ha ha—very funny.” Piper rolled her eyes as she packed up her things, “Just for that, you can pay for lunch.”
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