The Lost Library

Two third graders bring a wagon full of books to the little free library. That evening, Al brings Mortimer dinner and tells him she is worried about both Ms. Scoggin and Mr. Brock. Suddenly, Al races back to the History House: The third graders have returned, one of their fathers in tow. The children ask about Al, but the father cautions them to leave her alone.

The children and father make a bed for Mortimer with a towel and stake an umbrella into the ground to shield it. Mortimer likes the bed very much.

Al recalls beginning her job at the Martinville Library at the age of 17. She liked Ms. Scoggin’s metaphor about each book becoming a new room inside of the house of one’s mind. Al decided she would attend library school after graduating from high school.

Rafe phones to tell Evan he learned that the library fire took place on the same day as the due date stamped in the books: November 5, 1999. The cause of the fire was not determined, according to the newspaper article Rafe read.

Evan pulls out the Polaroid picture and studies it, realizing the library is pictured in the background. He wonders if the person calling himself H. G. Higgins was present when the library burned down. Evan studies the young man in the photograph and decides that H. G. Higgins is the primary suspect in the library fire mystery.

Al recalls the boy at the library developing an affinity for mice after reading a book about one. When a mouse appeared in the library, the boy feared the library’s cat would harm it. The boy captured the mouse and convinced Al to keep the mouse at her house. Later, he gifted Al a wooden mouse.

On Thursday morning, Evan and Rafe meet at the site of the former library to look for clues. Evan is reassured to see the cat from the little free library as he crawls through the bushes and brambles.

At the center is a clearing and a pile of rubble—the remains of the library. Evan and Rafe are surprised to discover there is no basement, though they hypothesize that it has been filled in. They search around the rubble until Evan finds a keyring with two keys on it.

Ms. Scoggin continues to be in a bad mood, ordering Al around as if they were working in the library again. Al bursts out in frustration, reminding Ms. Scoggin that the library burned down. Only the books on a single library cart survived. Al recalls pushing it out of the building with Mortimer on top. She thinks back to setting up the little free library at night; even though she is a ghost, people sometimes see her.

In the journal where he is tracking the mystery, Evan writes down “keys” as one of the clues. However, he is not sure how this information helps him or whether the keys are even relevant to the library.

On the final day of school, his class is given free time, so Evan researches H. G. Higgins. He learns that he did not publish his first book until 2009 and that H. G. Higgins is a pseudonym. He asks the school librarian how to discover Higgins’s real name. The librarian is not sure how to help him but suggests that if Higgins is indeed a former resident of Martinville, as Evan suspects, there may be newspaper articles he can search through at the History House. Evan realizes that the house may also have newspaper articles about the fire. The librarian tells Evan that she knew his father, whom she worked with at the library when they were both in high school.

Evan returns to Rafe, who is researching tomatoes. Evan recalls a time when they were kindergarteners and Rafe picked up a snake at recess. After this, Rafe’s parents made numerous rules for him to follow. Many of these rules, however, are set to expire when Rafe reaches middle school.

Al recalls the night she made the little free library. Ms. Scoggin acted as a lookout for her, though she complained that she was eager for the task to be done so that Al could make their breakfast. Once the task was complete and they headed inside, the cat did not follow them. Al was concerned at first, but Ms. Scoggin assured her the cat would come in eventually. It was Monday—the day Al usually conducts errands while invisible—so Ms. Scoggin said that she would cook breakfast while Al ran the errands.

On the fourth day of guarding the library, Mortimer helps the boy and his friend (i.e., Evan and Rafe) when they become turned around in the patch of debris nearby. After this, Anne Baker, a woman Mortimer knows, visits the little free library with her daughter. They bring a suitcase full of books; Anne selects one and reads aloud a poem by Langston Hughes. The poem calms Mortimer. It rains a little, and the three of them huddle beneath the umbrella. Then Anne and the girl leave, leaving the suitcase of books behind.