Amber, Illinois was a college town, more populous than DeKalb but still hardly in the big leagues. At this time of year, it was busy, the new college year bringing an influx of freshmen still finding their way around and adjusting to the confusion and excitement of what Timothy would have called “the groves of Academe.”

As it happened, the groves of Academe were completely deserted when Todd drove in that late afternoon. Most of the students were still in lectures, Todd supposed, while the rest of the town was at work. Todd wasn’t too worried—he was in too much of a state of ignorance about the whole business of doing a book tour to have any real opinions about any of it—as his concerns were entirely practical. Like, were they going to feed him or should he get something to eat now? Was there in fact time for him to check in at his motel or should he not risk it? Whatever, he needed to freshen up or at least stretch a little—a day in a car was not the best preparation for appearing before an audience.

In the end, he decided the best thing to do would be to find the venue and make himself known to whoever was expecting him. Todd pulled out the blue folder Sara had given him to keep his itinerary in and extracted the first sheet of paper, which told him that he would be speaking at Action Books at 7:30 P.M. Checking the map, and noting that he had just under two hours before his event began, Todd started the Volvo up again and headed for Action Books.

The only college town bookstore that Todd knew well—Legolas—mostly took its heart and soul from the early 1970s, when whimsy, flowers, and dragons had been popular. Action Books was its polar opposite, a modern, jagged shrine to everything considered happening and now in the late seventies.

Where Legolas was a place of almost-quiet contemplation, with panpipe music emanating discreetly from Timothy’s cassette player, Action was brash, modern, and noisy. New wave rock burst from wall-mounted speakers, and as Todd entered, a deafening song with a squawking saxophone riff was telling the customers to contort themselves. Where Legolas favored royal blue walls like some kind of throne room, the walls in Action were exposed brickwork painted with red and white diagonal stripes. And where Legolas featured the odd reproduction of an illustration from Winnie-the-Pooh, Action was a riot of Xeroxed band posters and political slogan art.

The whole place was just noise to Todd. He approached the counter where a girl wearing a plastic T-shirt with one cap sleeve torn off was talking to another, similarly dressed girl. After waiting a minute for her to notice him, Todd was forced to take matters into his own hands and cough loudly. Only then did the girl stop her conversation and look up.