Booking for Trouble

1

Lindsey Norris Sullivan strode through the front door of the Briar Creek Public Library and immediately felt her anxiety ease. She'd just come from the weekly department head meeting at the town hall and today's subject had been the budget. Mayor Eugenia Cole was a former librarian and Lindsey knew the mayor was doing everything she could to protect the library from budget cuts, but there was only so much she could do when certain town council members believed that libraries were superfluous and no longer necessary.

As the director of the small public library on the Connecticut shoreline, Lindsey felt that it was her duty to save the library. With the drastic cuts the town council was demanding in staffing, hours and materials, she couldn't help but feel that she was failing.

She needed to do something to raise the library's visibility in the community and she needed to do it fast. She glanced around the main room. Patrons were using computers, browsing the new books, having a meeting in one of the study rooms, and several mothers with small children were following a person dressed as a tugboat.

Lindsey smiled. Beth Barker, their indefatigable children's librarian, was wearing a costume that was essentially a cardboard box that had been reconfigured into a boat shape with a pointy bow and square back. It was painted a jaunty shade of yellow with a vibrant red trim, making it hard to miss. Beth was standing in the center of the reformed box, which was held up by a pair of red suspenders, and she topped it off by wearing a captain's hat, naturally.

"Toot toot!" Beth pumped one fist as if pulling an imaginary horn. "All aboard for story time, crew."

The mothers and their offspring marched past Beth toward the designated story time room at the back of the children's area. Spotting Lindsey, Beth held the cardboard boat by both sides and hurried over to her. The cardboard bounced as she jogged but Beth didn't slow down.

"How did it go? Was it as bad as we feared? Are they going to close the library? Are we soon to be unemployed?" Beth's forehead crinkled with worry.

"It went about how we expected." Lindsey sighed. "They want to take a chainsaw to the library budget and nothing I said seemed to sway them in the least. They simply don't care."

"What are we going to do?" Beth clutched her boat more tightly.

"I thought about it on the walk back from the town hall. I have to come up with a way to raise library awareness in the community, something that will give us support from the wealthier residents if I want the vote on the budget to go our way."

"You will," Beth said with a certainty Lindsey wished she felt.

Lindsey glanced into Beth's "boat" and noted that she'd managed to craft a bookshelf in the hull. The picture-book titles were all about boats, which explained her costume.

"A watercraft story time today?" Lindsey asked, knowing the answer was obvious but wanting to pivot the conversation to something else.

"You know it." Beth held up her books. "We have Lily Leads the Way by Margi Preus, Old Wood Boat by Nikki McClure, and Sal Boat: A Boat by Sal by Thyra Heder. And, of course, I'm going to talk about water safety."

"Of course." Lindsey watched Beth tuck her books back into her boat. It was as if Beth had made a bookmobile, but instead of the standard bus, it was a boat. Lindsey felt the zing of an idea hit her like a lightning bolt.

"What's wrong? You have a weird look on your face," Beth said. "Did you forget we have crafternoon today? We're supposed to have been reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf before we meet. I still need to finish the last chapter before lunch."

Lindsey nodded distractedly. "I finished it last night. It's not a light read, is it?"

Beth shook her head. "No, but Nancy is providing lunch today, so we know there'll be cookies." She glanced at the story time room to see that all the families had gathered. "Have to motor. We'll talk more later."

"Definitely." Lindsey nodded. "Hey, have I told you lately that you're a genius?"

Beth blinked and then pulled her imaginary airhorn. "Toot toot! Yes, but feel free to tell me that anytime you want."

She disappeared into the story time room, leaving Lindsey with a fabulous idea. If Lindsey wanted to create something tangible that the wealthier residents of the community could appreciate, while serving both their needs and the needs of the rest of the village, it had to be something that would cause a splash. She grinned at the thought. A splash was exactly what she planned to make. Lindsey was going to introduce a book boat-like a bookmobile but a boat-to serve the Thumb Islands, an archipelago of over one hundred islands-if large rocks were included-off the coast of their village Briar Creek. It was an underserved community made up of poor, middle- and upper-class residents, who could use a dedicated library service of their own. Also, a book boat would make for some excellent public relations for the library.


You’re going to need a boat,” Nancy Peyton said. Dressed in her usual ironed jeans paired with a lilac sweatshirt, Nancy’s blue eyes twinkled as she patted her short-cropped silver hair into place. She had made stromboli for today’s lunch and the aroma of the baked pizza dough turnover, stuffed with mozzarella, provolone, salami and pepperoni made Lindsey’s stomach grumble.

"And a captain," Violet LaRue added as she poured glasses of sweet tea. A retired Broadway actress who ran the local community theater, Violet's deep brown complexion and dark eyes were enhanced by the colorful caftans she wore and she moved with an ethereal grace learned from years spent on the stage.

"Good thing I'm married to a captain who has access to boats," Lindsey replied.

Both Violet and Nancy grinned. Mike Sullivan, or Sully as he was known around Briar Creek, ran the local water taxi and boat tour business that serviced the Thumb Islands. Having grown up on the islands, Sully was the perfect person to man the book boat.

When Lindsey had called him to get his take on her idea, he hadn't been able to talk as he'd been in the middle of navigating a double booking by two island residents who refused to share the same water taxi. He'd had to call in his part-time helper, Charlie Peyton, who was Nancy's nephew, to navigate the kerfuffle by picking up one of the ladies.

"Charlie told me that Sully was dealing with the residents of Split Island." Nancy rolled her eyes. "You'd think after living so close to each other all of these years that Gwen Capshaw and Ariel Montgomery would have figured out how to get along by now."

"Bad blood there." Violet shook her head. "Such a waste of energy."

"Maybe when you launch this book boat, you should steer clear of those islands." Nancy looked worried.

"You must be talking about the Montgomery-Capshaw feud." Mary Murphy entered the room with Paula Turner behind her.

Mary was Sully's younger sister and shared his reddish-brown hair and bright blue eyes. She gave Lindsey a quick side hug as she headed for the food.

"Even I've heard of that mess, and I'm still fairly new here," Paula said. She was the head of circulation for the library and was known for her ever-changing hair color-presently, it was blue-and her sleeve of tattoos, which featured a stack of books running up her arm.

"Sully's had to navigate that island for years, I will defer to his experience," Lindsey assured the group. "Besides, Ariel teaches painting at the library. I can't just cut her out of the book boat services because of a feud with her neighbor."

"Book boat? Explain," Mary said.

Beth entered the room still in her boat costume. She dropped it onto the floor and joined them at the table.

"Truthfully, it's all Beth's fault." Lindsey sent her friend a teasing glance.

Beth's eyebrows rose as she took a bite of her stromboli. Once she'd swallowed, she asked, "What did I do?"

"It was your story time costume that inspired me." Lindsey took a sip of her sweet tea. "Remember how I said I needed to raise the visibility of the library?"

Beth nodded.

"Well, after seeing you, it occurred to me that a dedicated book boat, like a bookmobile, would be the way to serve the island community and showcase the library. We've always run books out to the islands, but this would be a way they could count on us every week or every other week, however we can make the schedule work."

"I think that is a very ambitious plan." Mayor Cole entered the crafternoon room. Lindsey met her gaze and the mayor nodded. "I like it. You get the right people on board-pun intended-you just might be able to save your budget with it."

"That's the plan." Lindsey felt a surge of optimism. "I'll talk to Sully tonight and see what he thinks we'll need to do to get it up and running."

"Let us know if we can help," Nancy offered.

"If you can't staff the boat, we could be your volunteers," Violet agreed. She and Nancy leaned their heads together, looking the picture of innocence. Lindsey grinned. She could only imagine what the two septuagenarian besties would get up to if they were put in charge of the book boat.

"On to Mrs. Dalloway," Paula said. "Our craft is lavender sachets because it seemed very fitting for a novel set in June of nineteen twenty-three."

"Perfect!" Beth clapped her hands together, looking delighted.

Of course, she would be. Beth and Paula were the crafty members of the group, and while the others were adequate, Lindsey was hopeless. She simply did not have the crafter gene.

As Paula passed out little canvas drawstring bags and a variety of ink stamps and pads, Lindsey picked up her copy of the book.

"Did you know that Mrs. Dalloway was originally called The Hours?" Lindsey asked the group.

"Like the movie. I did know that," Nancy said. "True confession, I watched the movie instead of reading the book."

"Nancy Peyton!" Mary gasped.

"What?" Nancy gestured to the table. "I had stromboli to make."

"That's fair." Mayor Cole took a bite of her sandwich.

"Wasn't it originally a short story?" Beth asked.

"It was." Violet put aside her empty plate to make room for her craft supplies. "Actually, it was two short stories, 'Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street' and 'The Prime Minister.'"

"I liked that Mrs. Dalloway threw a party even when there seemed no reason to do so after a war and the flu epidemic," Beth said. "It was as if she was determined to make the most of things."

"I thought her reflection on the past, loves lost and such, was most relatable," Nancy said.

The twinkle in Nancy's eyes dimmed for a bit and Lindsey knew she was thinking of her late husband. Nancy had been a widow for decades and had never gotten over the loss.

"That is likely the appeal of Mrs. Dalloway," Violet said. "Woolf offers something to everyone who reads it."

"Even me," Paula said. "I thought it was quite shocking that Clarissa Dalloway reflected on a kiss with a woman friend as 'the most exquisite moment of her whole life.' I read it to my partner, Hannah, and she agreed that Woolf was ahead of her time."

Lindsey nodded. "She was brilliant. The critics say she found her voice in this novel and credit her with elevating literature."

"The fact that we all found something of note in the novel speaks to her talent," Mayor Cole agreed.

The conversation continued as they deconstructed the novel or, in Nancy's case, the movie. Lindsey discovered that stamping the small canvas bags was surprisingly fun as she made a border of green leaves around the edges and then stamped purple irises in the center. Stuffing the dried lavender into the bags wasn't a hardship either.

"Look at you," Paula teased her. "Not even asking for help today."

Lindsey laughed. "You might have finally found a craft I can handle."

The group dispersed at the end of their lunch hour. The next book they had agreed to read was a currently popular romantasy that featured dragons and their riders. Paula had chosen it, saying they needed to keep up with what books were hot with their patrons. Lindsey was thrilled. She was a firm believer that great writing could be found in all genres.

When Lindsey returned to her office to create a preliminary budget for her book boat idea, she found her husband waiting for her. As usual, her heart did a flutter at the sight of Sully. Given his windswept hair, chiseled features and the unique scent of the sea and sun that surrounded him, it was small wonder he still made her a little weak in the knees when he was in her orbit.

"Hey, darlin'." He kissed her quickly, mindful that the windows of her office looked out onto the library. "Sorry I couldn't talk earlier, I have a break between runs so thought I'd come over and find out what 'idea' had you so excited."

"You didn't have to do that, but I'm glad you did." Lindsey squeezed his hand in hers and gestured for him to sit in one of the visitor's chairs while she took the other. She didn't want to have her desk between them since she knew he would likely be here for only a few minutes.

"So . . . ?" He raised his eyebrows.

"We had the town budget meeting this morning. It went as badly as I feared." She paused and he nodded. They'd talked about it last night as she'd shared her concerns about the proposed budget cuts with him. "But I think I have an idea to raise our visibility in town and potentially keep the wealthier residents invested in keeping the library at its current budget."

"I'm listening." He rested his chin in his hand and gave her his full attention. That right there was probably why she adored him. On top of being ridiculously handsome, he always listened to her. She never found herself talking to the top of his head while he scrolled through his phone.

"I'm going to need your help," she said, prefacing her explanation.

"You've got it." He reached out and brushed a lock of her long curly blond hair out of her face. She sighed and then shook her head to focus.

"I want to start a book boat, like a bookmobile but on a boat," she said. "I think if we can service all of the islands on a weekly or biweekly basis, the island residents will get used to the service and realize the library is not just for the villagers but for everyone and they'll support the library's current budget and not want it cut."