Page 65 of The Librarians
“You brought enough to feed a party,” Sophie says quietly.
Hazel turns to her and smiles. “The Chinese diaspora believe in shoving food at trouble. That way at least we’re facing problems with a full stomach.”
This sounds like a general statement to Astrid, yet somehow it also feels like reassurance aimed specifically at Sophie.
“I guess I could use some food too, since you’re sharing,” Sophie murmurs.
Hazel smiles again and sets out small containers of salsa. “Help yourself.”
But Sophie doesn’t sit down to eat yet. Instead she brings Astrid a Tazo English breakfast tea bag and a Republic of Tea Asian jasmine one. These are Astrid’s two favorite teas to have at work. She had no idea Sophie ever took notice of her tea selections.
Jonathan comes back with Astrid’s sneakers. Now her feet are no longer cold.
Astrid’s eyes swim with tears. They are all so wonderful to her, despite her stupid fake life.
She takes a deep breath and begins her account.
Sophie was already wound up tight. She nearly vibrates listening to Astrid’s ordeal. Even though the young woman is sitting right in front of her, safe and sound, she still can’t breathe until the Astrid in the narrative puts on her sneakers, slips out through the back door, and drives to the library for refuge.
She grips Astrid’s hand. “I’msoglad you’re okay.”
Keeping her distance from everyone means Sophie doesn’t always let herself think about how much she cares about her colleagues. She would be devastated if anything happened to Astrid.
“But are you sure they didn’t take anything?” Jonathan looks puzzled.
“They didn’t take my laptop, the single most valuable item in my house. I can’t imagine what else was there that anyone would have wanted.”
Sophie does not say it aloud but swallows at the possibility that the intruder didn’t come for any objects but for Astrid herself.
The likelihood must have also occurred to Astrid. “So I’m thinking—based on very incomplete data, of course—that either they came for me or—” She takes several rapid breaths; her fingers clench around the napkin she’s been using to rub out a tiny dot of salsa from her cornflower blue Austin Public Library hoodie. “Or they came because of Perry.”
Perry, Astrid’s situationship. It feels bizarre to be reminded that there is more than one active police investigation involving the library and its staff.
Astrid looks around the room, her eyes wide and beseeching. “I know it sounds outlandish, but is it any more outlandish than that I’m suddenly attracting housebreakers who go through my house and take nothing?”
Vaguely Sophie notes that Astrid seems to have lost her accent. Don’t people’s accents usually become stronger under stress?
Hazel, who has been leaning on the door—there are only three chairs in the Den of Calories—says, “It doesn’t sound outlandish to me.”
She speaks with such solemnity that little centipede feet march up the insides of Sophie’s forearms. Astrid, the one who gave voice to the idea inthe first place, stares at Hazel, as if she can’t believe someone agrees with her.
“In my early twenties, I had a—let’s call it a missed connection,” continues Hazel, a hint of wistfulness in her voice. “For a long time I held out hope that our paths might cross again. Yesterday it happened: We ran into each other at Peng’s Noodles.”
Sophie blinks. In her early twenties, Hazel would have been on the other side of the world. For her missed connection to materialize a decade later, on a different continent, in the most unremarkable, if delicious, of strip mall noodle shops…But wait, what does this have to do with the intruder at Astrid’s place?
“His name is Conrad. Unfortunately, Conrad was not interested in rekindling anything.” Hazel’s tone remains even, but she does stop for a second, as if the rejection is too monumental to be brought up without creating a momentary void. “But he happens to be Dr. Ryan Kaneshiro’s roommate—I think we’ve all heard of Ryan?”
Jonathan spoke to Ryan to find out more about how Perry died—Sophie remembers that. Astrid nods likewise.
“And Ryan was curious enough that with Conrad out of town last night he invited Jonathan and me to their place for dinner.”
Despite Sophie’s panic for herself, anxiety about Astrid, and sorrow over Hazel’s razed-to-the-ground dreams, she can’t help but feel a sliver of envy that Jonathan and Hazel socialized outside of work.
Jonathan, on the other hand, regards Hazel with rising uneasiness.
“When we were leaving, we saw Ryan’s car and I realized that I’d seen it before, parked right here on Game Night, a black Audi with two unmistakable bumper stickers. One says,It’s okay to decay, and the other,The dead know how to speak, if you know how to listen.”
Sophie starts.
