When Unrelated Facts Aren’t Unrelated At All
Kwesi turned to Kwami. “Why hasn’t anyone come into the library all day?”
The two librarians looked outside. The weather seemed fine. As they left that evening, they noticed the walk just past the steps were sticky and smelled funny. There was also some odd rubble at the edge of the path. They shrugged it off and left.
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Sister Mary frowned. Why were the three new monks late returning from the new library? All they had to do was deliver the box of Bibles. It wasn’t even HEAVY.
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Tom frowned. He was in trouble. He’d spent five weeks teaching sixteen different animals in the preserve how to roll over on command. The circus was going to swap them out on his recommendation at much expense. The very first pair he approached wouldn’t roll today. The rep was going to be here any time–he was finished, FINISHED. He’d never get the animal training job without their recommendation . . .
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Luigi came to in a hospital bed. He tried to speak but his jaw was wired shut. His hands were bandaged and in restraints. He was baffled and very upset. His truck? His truck with the two oddly gray lions the circus had paid him to swap for the two ordinary ones, where was it? The bill of lading hadn’t mentioned they were gray, but they were in the right pen. Couldn’t raise anyone on that stupid radio . . . He’d had that wreck right after he passed the library with the featureless porch–He couldn’t seem to get anything across to the nurse . . .
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Kovacs’ crew was very upset. SOMEONE had a lot of explaining to do . . . Kev had left the delivery truck HALF A MILE from the building. It was just a dead battery! Then some fool ran another truck into theirs. Smashed the gray marble statues to smithereens. Kev had barely been gone an hour when he got back with Willem. They had brought back the unbelievable news with the truck with the smashed statues. Someone had ALREADY MADE THE DELIVERY . . .
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Craig frowned. He was in SO much trouble. He’d brought the wrong truck to the wildlife preserve this morning. It was full of gray volcanic ash instead of the mulch he was supposed to put in the lions’ feeding area. He’d gone ahead and dumped it out before he looked–and left for lunch in disgust at his mistake.
Credit: Cliff’s Library Front from SantaSwap3 to illustrate this story.
