Flytrap | WATTYS 2022 SHORTLIST

18 | Petal

Harleen hesitated, shifting her weight onto the other foot. "Hmm, I dunno. Red specifically said I can't leave you alone."

"I won't technically be alone though. Mrs. Kringle, the head librarian, will be there." Despite the chilly October morning, beads of sweat formed along Barbara's brow. No offense to Harleen, but she needed to be alone for this. The last thing she wanted—or needed—was Harleen breathing down her neck as she scoured through several news articles.

"Ya' sure you'll be okay?" Harleen frowned.

"Absolutely!" Barbara exclaimed a little too loudly. "I won't tell Pamela about this. It'll be our little secret."

"Oh! I love secrets!" Harleen squealed. "Thank you, Babs! I'm going to pick out the prettiest dress! It's going to be red and black with sequins." She continued blabbering to herself as she walked across the street, nearly getting hit by a car on the way.

Barbara shook her head, forever puzzled how someone like that could be friends with someone like Pamela. Guess opposites did attract after all.

Rolling into the library, Barbara was greeted by the familiar vanilla scent that seemed to be a permanent staple of the building—probably from all the old books.

"Hello, Barbara!" Mrs. Kringle waved to her from the circulation desk. "How was the shower?"

"It was..." Barbara searched for the correct, but polite word. Gaudy? No. Extravagant? Better. "Opulent."

"That's nice." Mrs. Kringle smiled before going back to her knitting. "Did you have fun?"

"Yes, it was quite something. Mr. Wayne sure knows how to throw a party." Barbara chuckled. "Which is quite funny because I was just assigned a paper on famous entrepreneurs. And I thought, why not do it on Gotham's own tycoon?"

Mrs. Kringle glanced up from her needles and nodded her head. "Oh, yes. That is a good idea."

"Do you know where I can find the microfilm on him?" She hoped he was important enough to earn his own archive.

"Of course! Let me show you." Rising out of her chair, Mrs. Kringle shuffled to the back of the library where the rest of the microfilm was. With the flick of the light, she entered the musty room and guided Barbara towards a shelf at the far end of the corner.

Not only was there a section dedicated to Bruce, but an entire damn shelf. Either he was more important than Barbara thought, or he really was just that full of himself. No matter the reason, this was ridiculous. She'd have to spend the whole night here to comb through everything.

"Thank you, Mrs. Kringle," Barbara said with a strained smile.

"Let me know if you need anything else, dear." Mrs. Kringle walked out of the cramped room, leaving Barbara alone with nothing but her thoughts. Well, she might as well get started. It's not like she had any time to waste.

Pulling the top drawer open, which thankfully she could reach, she decided to start with the first reel.

Right at the beginning.

**

"If I have to read about Bruce making the Forbes 400 one more time, I will kill myself!" Barbara yanked at the ends of her hair, ready to pull out a handful. Thank God this was not actually an assignment because if it was, she was pretty sure she would've failed.

How could someone so rich and powerful lead such a boring life, filled with nothing but business deals and stock trades?

No, there had to be something she was missing. But what? That sudden gap year from 1961 to 1962? Yeah, she had already tried that. Several times. But she had a better chance of finding D. B. Cooper than finding what happened in between that year. No huge charity dinners. No high-profile magazine interviews. Nothing.