“The library will not fall apart without me,” I said as I stood up from my desk. At least not between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning. In truth, I knew the library would hum along merrily without me even if an alien spacecraft sucked me up and took me away. Well, maybe not merrily, because surely someone would care that I was suddenly gone. But everyone was replaceable, a thought that was simultaneously comforting and horrifying. Comforting, to know that the library and bookmobile would go on. Horrifying, to know that someday no one who worked in the library would recognize my name.

To shake off the existential fears that had suddenly descended, I decided to walk home by a slightly different route, and by the time I’d gone half a block, I began to feel better, because even if the library eventually forgot about me, there was no way it would forget about Eddie.

And just like that, I was cheerful again. I made a mental note to tell Eddie all about it when I got home and sauntered down the street, swinging my arms and practically whistling. It was spring, the air wasn’t freezing cold, the sun was mostly out, and I had a good shot at a sideways type of immortality.

“Is that you, Minnie?” a voice called.

I turned and saw Bianca Sims in a nearby parking lot, shutting the door of a shiny black SUV. The intelligent and energetic Bianca was one of the most successful real estate agents in the area. She and Mitchell Koyne, a former slacker who’d lived in his sister’s attic for years but was now managing a downtown toy store with great competence, had married not long ago. To everyone’s surprise, the marriage seemed strong and solid, which just proved that you never knew about people.

“Hey, Bianca,” I said. “Haven’t seen you in ages.”

She grinned. “You didn’t hear? I kidnapped Mitchell a few weeks ago. Dragged him down to Florida. We just got back the other day.”

“Mitchell? In Florida?” I closed my eyes, trying to summon the image. Failed completely and opened my eyes to see Bianca, still grinning.

“Hard to wrap your mind around, isn’t it?” She laughed. “He’d never been outside the state, let alone all the way down there. He was kicking and screaming the whole trip, but after a few days, he looked around and realized it wasn’t so bad.”

“Good to hear,” I said faintly, closing off my mind forever to the image of the very tall and quite wide Mitchell anywhere close to a beach.

“You headed to the farmers market?” Bianca nodded at city hall, where there was a slow but steady stream of people both walking in empty-handed and walking out laden with bags of all shapes and sizes.