Light as a Feather, Cold as Marble

Chapter 25

"What about there?"

Trey pointed ahead toward a small modern building that looked so warm and welcoming I almost started crying—and I really had no reason to cry, it was Trey who wasn't wearing a coat. We'd taken turns a few times sharing the coat that Mrs. Richmond had given me, but as soon as Trey saw me begin violently shivering, he'd insist that I put it back on. The building was not far from the water's edge on a residential street, and a vicious wind slipped through the pine trees separating us from Lake Huron. We'd been wandering through the streets of St. Ignace for what felt like an hour but was really more like twenty minutes, bypassing the few motor inns we'd encountered out of fear that we'd be turned over to the police faster than we'd know what was happening if we dared to enter any of their warm lobbies. A hotel or motor lodge wouldn't do—it would be too suspicious for two teenagers to hang out. Neither of us had a credit card to make it seem like we were actually interested in renting a room, and between us we only had the cash that Mrs. Richmond had pressed into my hand so many, many hours earlier that day. What we really needed was a simple, ordinary fast food restaurant... someplace warm with a bathroom (but more importantly, warm) where we could sit down and pass some time inconspicuously.

There were seemingly no such fast food restaurants in the town of St. Ignace, Michigan, or if there were, they were further along Interstate 2, the highway on which we'd driven all day. In our collective haste to deal with the guy whose car had plowed over the edge of the bridge as efficiently as possible, Henry had forgotten to tell us the passcode for his phone, and we'd forgotten to ask... so the phone was useless to us for anything other than incoming calls. We were pretty helpless until he found a way to call us from a pay phone.

An American flag waved apathetically on a flagpole in the parking lot of the building we approached. It was a one-story building in an L-shape, with a snow-covered peaked roof and a strange circular turret on one side. As we hurried toward the double doors of its entrance, we were comforted by the cars in the lot. Whatever this structure was, it was still open at almost eight o'clock at night, which was miraculous.

"It's a library," I exclaimed with relief as we got close enough for me to read the WELCOME sign over its doors. A book return chute was built into the brick wall next to the doors, making me desperately homesick for Weeping Willow the moment I noticed it.

We noticed as we entered the building that it was closing in fewer than twelve minutes for the night, but even knowing that we couldn't stay long didn't prevent us from entering. The familiar, comforting smell of yellowing book pages greeted us, and without exchanging words we marched directly into the aisles of books in the back, shivering and leaving a trail of snow behind us. Thankfully, the library was mostly empty, except for the small line of people waiting to check out books, which fortunately kept the two librarians on duty behind the counter near the entrance from paying us much attention.

"You're so red," Trey said as we both shook in an aisle of hardcover biographies.

If my cheeks and nose were red, Trey's was certainly redder. Our faces were chapped by the wind and our eyes were bloodshot. Trey's lips were cracked and dry, and when I ran my thick-feeling tongue over my own lips, I was surprised to feel that they seemed to be similarly haggard. His forearms and fingers were bright red, and I knew that venturing back outside and wandering around aimlessly was not an option for us. One of us (or, both of us) would end up with frostbite.

"We both must look like a mess," I said. "What are we going to do? This place is closing soon and I don't know if I can handle going back outside."

Trey peeked around the edge of the bookshelves. "There's an internet station," he said after scanning the layout of the library. There was hope in his voice. "We could look at a map and see if there's anything else around here within close walking distance."