There’s another book I wanted to find, Bird says cautiously. Our Missing Hearts. The librarian’s eyes snap toward him. For a long moment she studies him. Appraising. I’m sorry, she says curtly. That book I know we don’t have anymore. I doubt you’ll find it anywhere. With a bang, she pushes the long thin drawer shut again. Oh, Bird says. He’d known it was unlikely and yet deep down, he’d still nursed a flicker of hope, and it goes out in a small sooty puff. What did they do with them, he asks after a moment. All those books. He remembers a picture from history class: heaps of books in a town
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