middle finger back.
‘We’re all set,’ I tell Martin before he leaves. ‘Yep. I have a great feeling about tonight.’
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Letters left between pages 74 and 75
15 January 2016
Dear George
I’m looking forward to going to the party tonight. I think it’ll be fun.
Martin
P.S. I like the idea of the Letter Library.
Martin
Never write to me in this book again.
George
Dear George
It’s lovely to get your reply. You’re as charming in print as you are in person. Why can’t I write to you in this book? I see you checking it all the time.
Martin
Martin
I check it because I write to someone else in this book. It’s our book. Not your book.
George
Dear George
Can I write to you in another book? We work together. I’d like to be friends. Please? It’s a LONG day, cataloguing all the books in the store. I’m typing out the names of EVERY SINGLE BOOK here. No matter what you think I’ve done (what have I done to you?) it can’t be so bad as to make me do this with NO relief.
Martin
Martin
You hang out with a girl who calls me a freak.
George
Dear George
I’ve never called you a freak. I don’t think you are a freak. In fact, I’ve been trying to be your friend at school since you started. You’re the one who ignores or insults me on a regular basis. Do you have any evidence that I’m a bad guy?
In the whole time that I’ve known you, I’ve always told Stacy that you’re an interesting person. It seems to me that you’re treating me like Stacy treats you. I think, at the very least, you should give me a trial as your friend, as well as your employee. It’s summer. Can’t we forget how we are at school? Maybe we could call a truce?
Martin
Martin
Okay. Since you seem like you’re about to cry, you can write to me. But NOT in this book. Write to me in Peter Temple’s The Broken Shore. I saw you reading it and there’s a copy in the Letter Library – leave your letters between pages 8 and 9.
George
Dear George
I’m absolutely overwhelmed by your offer of friendship. Thank you. Really, thank you. It’s almost too much. I look forward to all future correspondence.
Martin
Rachel
a constant rain inside
I leave Howling Books, making sure that Henry sees my raised middle finger. I raise it again for impact and sound the horn so Martin knows I’m ready.
I don’t want to drive him home but on my first day Sophia offered to fill my car with petrol if I took him because he has to be home by six so he can look after his sister until his mums finish work. That means we have to leave by five, which is a plus for me.
I’m ready to leave Howling Books when I walk in the door each morning and start the job of cataloguing the random, boring thoughts of every person who’s passed through the pages. I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care, drums through me every minute of every day, a constant rain inside. I. Don’t. Care.
There are five hundred books in the Letter Library. Maybe more. Five hundred is my estimate. Ten shelves, roughly fifty books on each one, maybe sixty. There are marks on almost every page of every book: some are wordless underlines; some are notes in the margins. Most of the books have a note or a letter left in them, and for some reason, Michael wants a record of every one.
‘First I need you to alphabetise them,’ Michael had said on Monday. ‘And enter their details – title, author, publisher, date of publication. Then I’d like a record of all the letters in the books, the contents of the letters, and a record of the main markings in the margins. If it’s possible, I’d also like a record of the main words and quotes that are underlined.’
‘You’re kidding, right?’ I looked around but Henry was busy serving and George was busy ordering Martin around. ‘It’s not a joke on the new person?’
‘Not a joke, no,’ Michael said, running his eyes across all the books. ‘It’s a big job, and it’s not what Sophia hired you for exactly. But this is what I’d like you to catalogue. Martin can do the rest of the shop, but this is important.’
I’ve known Henry’s dad all my life, so I felt like I could be honest with him. ‘It’s insane, Michael. It’s completely insane. Not to mention impossible.’
‘Not