Willow was taking a video order from a customer in her own store when I arrived back at the bookstore. It looked like a big order so seeing how Lucy and Willow were supposed to be out having fun somewhere, I thought the least I could do would be to grab some of the books and help pack.

  “Willow you better come back to Woodstock, the town just wouldn’t be the same without you.”

  “Thanks Harvey, I’ll be back first thing Monday morning. Happy Fifth of July. Be safe Harvey.”

  Then the screen went black.

  “Willow what’s with the Happy Fifth of July?”

  “Some of our more progressive townsfolk, have taken issue with King Trump. So instead of celebrating on the fourth the town decided to celebrate on the fifth with a fifth. It was a whole thing. You should come to one of our town meetings sometime, I think you’d enjoy it. The hippies make fun of the maga crowd, the maga crowd storms off in a huff. The mayor bangs the gavel. The hippies make fun of the mayor. The mayor can’t storm off; he owns the gavel. Eventually the hippies sit down and we get on with town business. But when it came down to planning the Fourth of July celebration the hippies refused to budge. So the town voted and agreed until the king was removed, all future Independence days will be celebrated on the fifth. Which has actually been great for business. My store is doing a ton of business because all the people from the neighboring towns who celebrated yesterday are coming to Woodstock to celebrate again today. It’s like we created our summer version of boxing day.”

  “I am really looking forward to next weekend, so is Amy. There was a show on TV called American Princess, it was about this woman who was about to get married to a sleazebag. So she runs away on her wedding day to the Ren Fair. Amy and I were obsessed with it. Of course they canceled it after one season. But it's worth watching if you ever see it streaming anywhere.”

  Bianca was coming down the stairs aiming straight for us.

  “Just the two bookstore and collective owners I was looking for. Could you spare a half hour tomorrow morning. I have a proposal that I think would really be advantageous to the writers in both collectives. Also we are running our first two writers workshops next weekend and the weekend afterwards. We’re renting a party tent, so we can hold it outside on the lawn. Willow if any of your writers want to take part we are splitting the pot Eighty percent between whatever writers participate and twenty percent towards the collective. I’ve got some brochures, I’ll give you later. I think this will be great for our unpublished authors especially, as they will make some cash, while contributing to the collective and hopefully we’ll all learn from each other. I’m sorry you are going to miss the first one, Laura. But please think about giving a talk at the second one about editing, and what it was like to work in the publishing business. You’ll get the same eighty, twenty split.”

  “I’m always happy to talk about the book business, but I'm trying a cashless summer so the collective can have my cut too.”

  “What do you mean a cashless summer?” asked Bianca.

  “I’m going to try and barter for as many things as I need and skip the things that I can’t barter for.”

  “Aren’t you making enough from the store? I know you weren’t taking a salary before but I thought with the collective on its own you would be doing pretty well.”

  “No, it’s not that, I haven’t taken a salary, because I don’t need the money, I’ll just leave the money in the business account, we can use it for improvements to the store. Hiring employees that kind of thing. I want to barter because I want to stay out of the United States economy as much as possible. I can’t barter with the publishers nor the supermarket but I just bartered an inspection for my car, that sort of thing. Blame it on Thoreau, I just reread Civil Disobedience and wondered what he would do in the present political climate.”

  “Well if you go the Pappy route Laura, remember to always buy new underwear.”

  “Thanks Willow I will, I wonder if Walmart wants to trade underwear for books?”

  “Only spicy romances can make the panties drop.”

  “Ugg, that is bad Bianca.”

  “Alright, if you don’t care for my wit, fine. I’ll go and pepper my manuscript with it instead. At least my readers get my sense of humor. I’ll meet you both in the reading nook at nine thirty tomorrow morning, for my pitch.”

  I went back to pulling the books needed for the large order that Willow had just taken. Lucy brought a huge stack of books to the counter and we started packing them up.

  “Laura, after we get this order completed I wanted to finish up my ebook, room if that’s okay with you?”

  “Yeah that’s fine Lucy, but you and Willow should go up and make some lunch. Amy baked some very good cookies this morning. Are you starting the ebook room with the free books first?”

  “Yes, then the only outlay we have is ink and paper to print the covers and the laminator. You know that ebooks are perfect for marginalia. If we can get people to share. We could make a website where people could download all of your notes and highlights for Emma as an example. Then they share their marginalia after they finish the book. That way you never run out of margins, like a physical book will eventually after years of users adding marginalia of their own.”

  “I like that idea Lucy, but won't ebook readers pump out metadata just like a digital camera would. We’d need to assure the readers that it was private, anonymous. Just imagine the church lady who reads spicy romances and only highlights the spice, she probably wouldn’t want her neighbors and friends finding out about her reading habits or the only stuff that she highlights or puts starts next too.”

  “How about the stumpie that reads Regency romances and doesn't want the other loggers knowing about his obsession with Kate Archer novels. Yeah we would need to get rid of the meta data somehow.”

  “Lucy, Laura, I can help with that, I can just write a little script that looks at the file and strips all metadata. I’d just need a sample to see what the metadata looks like so I know what exactly to strip away without harming the notes or the highlights themselves.”

  So Lucy biked home to get her old kindle. She was back before you know it and made some highlights and personal notes on a Project Gutenberg Edgar Alan Poe collection of poems. She downloaded the file to the laptop running the video software we use to connect to the Rabbit Hole. Then she opened a terminal and loaded the text file to search for metadata. There was a user id, Amazon Username and also the email address that was associated with Lucy’s Amazon account.

  “Why do they have all that information embedded into the book and the marginalia, and highlights."

  “So they can track you and recommend the next thing to sell you, that’s all they care about, the next sale. They don’t even think they are invading your privacy. It might have something to do with digital rights management too. I imagine that the DRM must check to see if the book has been authorized for your device, if it has, then it will display in your device and it keeps you from loaning the file to a friend. If your friend loads the file into their kindle they will see that the book has only been authorized for your kindle with some kind of message or error code. Yet another reason why commercial ebooks suck.”

  “Not all commercial ebooks, Laura. The science fiction publisher Tor realized early on that DRM is only a problem for the average user. It’s trivial to strip away, by anyone with any degree of technical knowledge, and that is pretty much the entire science fiction readership. So instead of making their readers go through the bother of stripping it away, they make it a point of pride that their ebooks don’t contain any DRM. Thus increasing customer loyalty and reducing piracy by being the good guy publisher while all the others look like the profit hungry corporations that they are.”

  Willow figured out how to strip away the metadata from the Kindle text files pretty quickly and wrote a little script that Lucy could use to do it on her own. This all looked like too much trouble to me. Sure a physical book will physically run out of margin space eventually. But then all we need to do is add another used copy to the shelf and the problem is solved.

  I could also see the advantage of digital marginalia, it’s searchable being the biggest advantage in my eyes. For students just highlighting a section doesn’t mean that they actually will retain that information. If you really want to retain the information you need to understand it. That’s where making your own notes comes in. You write down how something works and according to studies the act of writing it down aids in remembering the information. But if you want to not just remember but also to understand you need to write it in your own words.

  You can also import your notes and highlights into Obsidian but if you skip the step of actually writing the note then the probability that you actually understand the material drops. So why take the chance if it is something you want to understand and remember. If it’s just to highlight the spicy sections of a romance novel, you probably already understand the material and will remember it without writing it out in note form.

  While Willow and Lucy were straightening shelves in the ebook room. I had an actual customer. It felt like between the two mysteries I haven’t waited on a real live customer in a very long time. Claire Becker came in tentatively. I wondered if she still felt embarrassed that I had caught her spying on the store, so she could stalk our resident science nerd Ezra Lindberg. In the hopes that if she bumped into him enough he might ask her out.

  I never mentioned this to Ezra, if he hadn’t noticed a little light stalking on his own, I figured it was harmless. It’s not like Claire wants to hurt Ezra, she wants to date him. Should I mention to her that it is the twenty-first century and perfectly acceptable to ask a man to coffee? Or for once should I just mind my own business, for the sake of my business. This is the first I’ve seen of Claire, since I questioned her about spying on the store. I liked her and didn’t want to lose her as a customer.

  “Hi Claire how have you been?”

  “Good Laura, I’m just here for a book, I’m not here to stalk anyone. To be honest I’d be mortified if he saw me.”

  “Claire, I never said anything to Ezra about our little encounter. If you want to tell him someday feel free to. It is none of my business, as a matter of fact if you hadn’t been keeping a watchful eye on the store. A double murderer might still be delivering books here, where he might kill again and an innocent girl might be sitting in prison for a crime she was a victim to. So you have my thanks and my sealed lips. I’d hate it if you thought I was a gossip.”

  “No way do I think you are a gossip, Laura. I was foolish, getting all pie eyed over a man.”

  “Well, Ezra is a very nice man, if you ever do ‘bump’ into him. You should definitely ask him out for a cup of coffee. He could probably tell you where and when it was discovered and the chemical analysis of caffeine. If that doesn’t scare you off I say go for it.”

  I told myself to butt out but I couldn’t just control myself. I’m not the kind of person who wants to matchmake every single man and woman I know. I agree with Epicurus that people would be happier if they concentrated more on making friends than acquiring lovers. But modern society, probably driven by advertising, just can’t stand seeing a single person as less than complete. I mean it takes a lot of products to pull off a date. Candy, flowers, gifts for the male of the species to give the female. While she goes broke buying makeup, clothes and shoes to look just perfect, cover all that with an expensive perfume to mask any odors that prove that she is a human female.

  “I’ve never asked anyone out before, Laura, I wouldn’t even know how?”

  “I can think of a suitably devious female way if you want to hear it. But it’ll require a little bit of effort on your part and I’m not sure if it’ll be your cup of tea.”

  “Surely I want to hear a devious way to do anything, you know I’m a mystery fan. The more devious the better.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Okay here goes, either order one of Ezra’s books from our sister store via the video link or check if they have any copies in the library. Here comes the part you might not like. Read the book and try to figure out what is the least understandable concept in the book. Bump into Ezra, tell him you enjoyed the book but are puzzled about what xyz means. Then say, "I'd love to buy you a coffee if you’d explain it to me.”

  “No wonder you solve all the mysteries around here, you are devious Laura Eriksson.”

  “Sorry if I overstepped, Claire.”

  “Are you kidding, now show me how to buy from your sister store.”

  I connected the video call then Claire took over. She ordered three of Ezra’s books before ending the video call. She looked very pleased with herself.

  “So I should have asked the clerk on the video, but I didn’t think about it until after I disconnected. Can I order my cookbooks from them? I hate Amazon but now I order all of my cookbooks from them.”

  “Yes, I’m sure you can, but if you are going to do a lot of business with them, let me introduce you to the owner.”

  I yelled for Willow, who appeared from the eBook room.

  “Hey Willow, I just wanted to introduce you to Claire, she just ordered some science books from your store and wanted to know about ordering cookbooks from you.”

  Willow walked right over to Claire and hugged her. Truly the hippie is strong in her. Then she stepped back.

  “Thank you for the order Claire, it’s really nice to meet you. We have a pretty good selection of cookbooks in stock and the ones I need to order usually come overnight to me and then one more day for me to get them to you if that’s alright. You will almost always be dealing with me directly as I rarely leave the store, except that Lucy invited me here to see the store and visit.”

  “Certainly that would be fine, it’s much nicer ordering from a real person than a stupid website. I’ve been trying to get Laura to stock them for years but she just downright refuses.” Claire said.

  “And I keep telling Claire that we have plenty of mysteries that have recipes included in them as a bonus.”

  Willow left Claire and I to bicker over how bonus recipes weren’t the same as cookbooks.

  “Laura, what a friendly girl but what I really came in for was a mystery A Victim at Valentine's by Ellie Alexander. If you have it, I’ll take it today. But I want to order the last book in the series that is being published next week. A Body at the Book Fair it’s supposed to be published on the fifteenth of July. I’d also like to order A Very Novel Murder from the Novel Detectives Mystery series. It's the first book in the series and is also by Ellie Alexander. It’s a sequel series to her Secret Bookcase series. It doesn’t come out until January twenty twenty six.”

  “I read the first four books in the Secret Bookcase series. I liked all of them, we have A Victim at Valentine's in the mystery section. I'll get it for you and order you the other two books. Yes, Willow is a real sweetheart. She'll take good care of you.”

  Claire left with her book and hope in her heart. I don’t know if an assignation will ever take place but she’ll learn some science and that is never a bad thing. In addition I just sold three of Ezra’s books, but I can’t tell him that I promised Claire I wouldn’t say anything.

  Amy and Amelie were coming down the stairs, Amelie carrying two huge bowls with snacks. Amy had a twelve pack cooler in one hand and another large bowl of popcorn.

  “You bringing beer to the game, Amy?”

  “No, soft drinks, do you want me to go get you a beer?”

  “No thanks, I had a dream that I was drinking too much, so I better stick to the soda.”

  Lis came in the front door, I told her to get Willow and Lucy from the ebook room as I locked up. Then we all headed to the newly minted TTRPG room. Amy passed out soda to everyone. Willow and Lis put snacks within reach of everyone at at the table. Then Lucy began.

  “Since I am the only person who read the entire book, I’ll be the game master. That means I’ll be setting the scene. Seeing as this is for half of us the first time playing a roleplaying game, we are going to play rules lite. We’ll use Vaesan rules for skill checks and for setting up the mystery only. The rest of the time we’ll be using the Mythic Fate charts to determine what is going on. You are a group of investigators hired to solve supernatural mysteries. Instead of creating characters which could easily take all night, you’ll each pick a character archetype. So if each of you rolls a die, high roll picks first.”

  Amy rolled first and picked Doctor, next Lis chose Priest, then Amelie chose Academic, Willow is an Occultist and I was last rolling a one, picked Private Detective.

  “A breathless messenger arrives at your office. He’s breathing so hard he can’t get the words out at first.

  ‘My master sent me.’

  He finally chokes out.

  ‘He wants to hire you, there was a great fire. The barn was burnt to the ground, all the animals dead, it was only luck that a last minute change in wind direction saved the inn from the same fate. Will you come to the inn and meet with my master? He’ll have half of your fee ready to pay you tonight.”

  We all talked among ourselves and of course we accepted the mission. It would have been a short and boring game if we had declined.

  “You call your servant, instructing him to have the driver bring the carriage round.”

  “Do you offer the messenger a ride back to the inn”

  We talked among ourselves and decided that we should, it was the decent thing to do, the messenger had obviously pushed themselves, getting here.

  “Yes, we do.”

  Lucy rolled some dice then said.

  “The messenger having now recovered his breath says, ‘Nigh, I’ll not go back there tonight nor ever. The place is cursed, and no place for decent folk. I’ll pray for ye.’ Then he walks out the door he had stumbled in only moments before.”

  She rolled the dice again, before continuing. “The carriage is waiting out front, there is just enough room for all of you inside but it will be tight. It is almost dark when you are all safely inside and you hear the driver crack the whip that sets the horse off at a trot. An uncomfortable hour later, it is full dark when you arrive at the deserted inn. You go in and find the innkeeper sitting alone at a huge round table. A single candle flickers and a purse lay on the table. The innkeeper gestures for you to sit.”

  “Will you eat or drink? The innkeeper asks.”

  “We talk among ourselves and have Amy answer.

  “No good sir, we are here to help, not to feed ourselves.”

  “ ‘I understand,’ the innkeeper replies. ‘I wouldn’t eat in a place that’s been cursed neither.’ I’ll just begin then, trouble started a month ago, the milk would go sour less than twenty minutes after the milking. Then the chickens died one by one, every morning I’d find a dead bird in the coop, with not a mark on them. Then the guests started getting sick, everyone who checked in seemingly in perfect health, by the next morning deathly sick. After this happened for the fifth time I couldn’t in good conscience let anyone stay. Now after the fire, I have closed completely. The fire were strange.”

  “Do you want to ask the innkeeper any questions?”

  “We talked and decided I should question the distraught man.”

  “What do you mean by a strange fire?”

  "Fire is red, orange and yellow, but the fire that finished off the animals was blue and purple and black, it wasn’t natural, not at all.”

  “Have any people died?” I asked.

  “No, well about a month and a half ago, my old cook died. But it was natural causes that killed her, she was as old as the hills.”

  “Was she happy in your employ?”

  “Aye, twenty years she worked for me with no cause to complain. I treat all my employees well, at least I did when I still had some.”

  “Was she superstitious, did she do spells?” I asked.

  “Aye she puts out milk every night for the fey. She also kept the biggest and best soup bones for something else but she would never tell me what she did with them. She wasted many good bones. I can tell you that. But that was my only complaint about her.”

  “Anything else strange happened before all the bad things started.”

  “No, I told you all that I know.” said Lucy as the innkeeper

  “Do you have any of the animals that died before the fire?” I asked.

  “The last chicken that died, I haven’t had the time to bury it yet.”

  We all talked again. I suggest that Amy, our doctor and Willow, our Occultist, examine the dead bird to see if they can discover any clues.

  “I’m a doctor, I’ll examine the bird to see if I can determine what caused its death.” Amy said.

  “Okay roll three six sided dice they are called d6’s. If you roll a six on any of the dice you succeed.” Lucy said.

  Amy rolled a one and two sixes.

  “Success, it looks to you like the chicken died of fright. It is the only explanation that makes sense in such a young and healthy looking specimen.” Lucy the gamemaster replied

  Willow also got to roll three dice for her skill check and rolled a one, a two and a six. We were very lucky with our rolls so far.

  “I perform a magical direction spell, in what direction did the Vaesen go after scaring this bird to death.” Willow asked

  Lucy looked solemn, pointing with her outstretched arm. ‘North, northeast.”