The Reading Circle Read Online Free PDF

didn’t get it.” She glanced briefly at the note he had left her, which she had cupped in the palm of her hand. “Couldn’t even come close to figuring out what you meant by D-T-Y-L-B-A-U—I-B-B-A-N.”
    He gave her one of those triumphant “I stumped you!” looks she had delighted in giving him over the past few months. “Don’t take your lunch break as usual—I’ll be back at noon!”
    She had taken the time to match the letters with his translation and actually chuckled there at the end. “Good one, Mr. Sparks!” Then, even though he had not asked her to, she began explaining. “I actually thought I was being efficient. Or maybe I’ve just become addicted to texting shortcuts. You don’t know this about me—actually nobody does—but I spend a lot of time on Facebook chats at home, especially late at night. As the young people say, ‘It’s awesome!’ ”
    He had leaned in, deliberately withholding his trademark smile from her. “Perhaps you should work harder at getting a life, Lottie. At any rate, your obsession almost cost you your job, I hope you realize.”
    And that had been the end of it. Mrs. Lottie Howard, as it turned out, was a keeper after all.
    Â 
    The drive out to the Cherico Nursing Manor was much longer than Councilman Sparks had remembered. So many twists and turns in the old two-lane road full of dangerous potholes—one that badly needed a new coat of asphalt, and one they had budgeted for back in November at the controversial hearings that had forced City Hall to continue supporting the library.
    That was what Maura Beth Mayhew, pretty and enticing as she was, would never understand in that compartmentalized librarian’s brain of hers. The roads, the utility poles and underground cables, the sidewalks, the sewers, the stop signs and traffic lights—indeed, the entire infrastructure had to come first in the budget. The citizens needed those things in place to conduct their ordinary lives in a successful manner without thinking about it. As for books—well, they could buy them somewhere if they were so darned addicted to them. When times were tough and money was tight, why must a struggling town like Cherico keep the library afloat at all costs? Heh, costs being the operative word.
    Councilman Sparks had darkened the front foyer of Cherico Nursing Manor only once before, and that was to visit Layton Duddney just after he’d first been admitted a few years back. But now he needed to confirm things for himself. His “mole at the Manor,” as he thought of her, had assured him that Nora Duddney had already come and gone that late January morning. He would not be running into her in what would be a beyond awkward confrontation.
    â€œShe only stayed about ten minutes, sir,” Nurse Trella Goodell had told him over the phone just before he had set out. “No one ever stays much longer. I mean, what would be the point? He just sits there, propped up in bed, staring at the TV if I turn it on for him. Or staring at the wall and all his pictures if I don’t. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, Mr. Durden, but he’s just a pair of empty pajamas, and that’s the God’s honest truth.”
    But Councilman Sparks wanted to see for himself as yet another year in office moved along, as he moved toward establishing his legacy for the town of Cherico. Not that he had doubted Nora when she had admitted her father was truly no longer there.
    â€œDaddy’s gone south for the winter,” she had explained to him a few months earlier, tearing up all the while. “And it looks like winter is gonna last all year now.”
    Finally, Councilman Sparks found himself in the parking lot of Cherico’s only nursing facility. It had all the charm of a one-story pedestrian motel on the outside, even though he knew the staff inside was more than qualified to look after its