When Durl Meadows walked into Brave New World shortly before noon, Kyle almost didn’t recognize him. Ordinarily jaunty and good-humored, the old man seemed not merely downcast but beaten. He silently carried in a box of books, put it on the counter, then went out to his car for another load. All total, he had five boxes he wanted to trade in, and he insisted that he needed money not store credit.

“What’s going on?” Kyle asked, concerned.

“The bank’s taking my house.”

“What?”

Durl nodded. “Got the notice yesterday. Seems my loan was sold off to this First People’s Bank, and for some reason they decided to change my terms, which I guess they can do because they’re in charge now. So instead of paying seven hundred a month like I been doing, they want the whole amount all at once.”

“That can’t be legal.”

“I didn’t think so, either. But I been looking into it, and it may very well be. The original loan was from Lincoln Savings. When they went under, it was sold to some holding company and then to someone else. I kept writing checks for the same amount, just to different companies. Now, somehow, your next door neighbor bought it up, and even though the contract was between me and the S and L, it’s changed hands so much that I guess that no longer applies. To me, a contract’s a contract, and both parties have to agree to any changes, but maybe there was a hidden clause in there or maybe regulations have been relaxed so much that they don’t need my approval.” Durl’s usual anti-government rhetoric was nowhere in evidence. “Banks shouldn’t be allowed to do that to people. Someone needs to crack down on this shit.”

“There must be someone who can help you, someone who knows about this stuff.”

“I’m open to suggestions. Because right now I’m just trying to scrounge up whatever I can and hope if I offer them enough, they’ll put it off another month.”

“But what’ll you do then?”

Durl shook his head, and the look on his face was one of utter dejection. “God knows.”

That was the day’s first notice that things were going off the rails.

The second came mid-afternoon when Rollie Brown came into the shop to announce that he was going to be opening up a used bookstore. At first, Kyle assumed he was joking. “Is it because you can get more for those Michael Connolly books than I gave you?” he asked. But Rollie didn’t smile, and it became quickly clear that he was serious. He told Kyle where his store was going to be and what type of books he planned to sell. There seemed to be some sort of chip on his shoulder, and beneath his matter-of-fact statements, Kyle sensed an undercurrent of hostility.

Where was that coming from?