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Back Stringers Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. FRONT COVER
  2. TITLE PAGE
  3. DEDICATION
  4. CHAPTER ONE
  5. CHAPTER TWO
  6. CHAPTER THREE
  7. CHAPTER FOUR
  8. CHAPTER FIVE
  9. CHAPTER SIX
  10. CHAPTER SEVEN
  11. CHAPTER EIGHT
  12. CHAPTER NINE
  13. CHAPTER TEN
  14. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  15. CHAPTER TWELVE
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  43. CHAPTER FORTY
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  55. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
  63. CHAPTER SIXTY
  64. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“Wait, you had a stranger send a picture of me... with a note... to my parents?”

“Ludlow may be Wiccan but it’s not really fair to call him a stranger. Here, look.” Patton withdrew a rectangular thing with a screen on it. The picture was of a person I assumed was me, looking confused and disheveled. Probably exactly how I looked right now.

“Patton,” I said. “What did the note say?”

“I just told them that you are safe and being treated well and that when the time was right, we’d be in touch.”

“They’ll think I was kidnapped… they’ll think the librarian did it!”

Patton stared at me, gears turning. “I had not considered that possibility, Ben. Does have the ring of a ransom note, doesn’t it? We should probably go straighten that out.” He shrugged. “I’ll get a bag for these. Oh,” he said, “check your ear there. Might jog some memories.”

I reached up and felt my earlobe. “Ah!” I gasped. “There’s something stuck in it!”

“That’s the Alpha-Boom-Train, Ben. It’s a fishing fly. You made that. Big deal where we come from.” He went off for the bag.

I was still unclear on the whole “fishing” thing. I tilted the shining empanada tray up toward my face. “My” face. Could have been anyone’s face. The fly was a bright, flamboyant little thing. A spark of life stuck in my ear. Exquisite. Detailed and expertly crafted. Something that must have taken years to learn how to make, regardless of what knowledge I’d once had in my head that informed how I made it. There was a lot I could say about the little piece of art, but none of it came from anything I’d known before, suddenly springing to awareness in the food court. No memories kindled. No emotions swelled within me.

In the end, everything Patton had told me was just a story. And not my story. It was, and would always be, the story of the Shopkeeper and Pipefitter. The Shopkeeper was another guy who used to live in the same body who ended up doing some regretful stuff and some pretty amazing stuff from the sound of it. But I was never going to think of that life as my own. Whatever that guy had held in his mind, whoever he’d been, was gone. Utterly and completely. It was all just a thing that had happened. I was the next guy. We just looked the same.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS