2nd Floor

Chapter 7

"You've seen this before?" Ben asked, pulling back from the drawing. He spread his arms to Amber, who took her cue and scrambled onto his lap. Cheese followed her and soon Ben had an armful of squirming daughter and cat. He didn't seem to notice, even as Amber began playing with the zipper of his coat.

Ruby stopped smacking. "Wasn't it in that book you showed me, Penny? When I was doing that essay on fairy tales?"

"Maybe." Penny hesitated for a thoughtful moment, then shuffled across the room. For a moment Matthias lost her in a sea of tall furniture and strange statuary. Her voice rang out from the other side of a fleet of bookshelves that created a pseudo library in one corner. "Matt, I need your help."

Matthias managed to follow her path with minimal destruction and found her standing before a shelf with her fists on her hips. "It's time for the Private Collection." she said.

"The what?"

She pointed and Matthias followed her gesture to a high shelf covered in thick, brown -spined books that looked decidedly older than the romance paperbacks surrounding them. "Second from the left. I can't reach it, but what does that matter when I have a tall friend?"

Matthias slid the requested book free. The cover, while initially matching the aging spines that surrounded it, actually seemed to be newer. The design clearly meant to emulate the older books. He slid his hand over a synthetic cover, not leather like its fellows.

They returned to the group, Penny climbed into her chair, and Matthias set the book ceremoniously on her lap. The book further attempted to mimic the older books around it with an unadorned front. The title was etched in gold on the spine. The Golden Brook and Other True Tales. The collected works of Miriam Dotherty. Matthias squinted. A bell rang somewhere in the back of his mind, but he couldn't put a finger on it.

Penny through the pages and Matthias leaned down to watch the paper blur past. He caught a glimpse of several brightly colored illustrations.

"Is that the book?" Ruby asked. When Matthias met her eyes she shrugged. "I only looked at it once. I didn't end up using anything from it for my essay."

"It's a children's story book." Penny explained without looking up from her flipping.

"So we're looking for the solution to a fictional problem in a story book?" Ben asked.

"Maybe that's the best place to look to solve a "fictional problem"" Ruby pointed out, making air quotes before folding her arms.

Ben rolled his eyes and returned to studying his own book, resting his chin on the top of Amber's head.

"Here we go!" Penny jammed her finger between two pages, halting their progress. She held the book open for Matthias as he leaned against the high back of her chair.

"The Princess and Her Crown. I don't think I've read it." Matthias was reasonably familiar with children's literature, having been a well read child himself, and having taken a class on it in college. He couldn't shake the feeling that he should at least know the author. His hand itched to reach for a phone he didn't have so he could google. Lacking that he tried to force his mind to do its own search to track down that pesky memory on its own. "I never wrote much kid lit though." He said, more to himself than anyone else, trying to jump-start his recollection.

Matthias peered at the illustration that accompanied the chapter. Skillfully drawn with precise ink lines it depicted a delicate blond girl – presumably the titular princess – walking down a dusty road with an eclectic group of friends. A man cavorted beside her wearing a full jester's getup, flanked by a stoic man in shining plate armor. A meek looking handmaiden stuck close at the princess' other side and a man with a full white beard took up the rear, head low over a piece of parchment on-which he appeared to be writing.