Completing The List

22. Finish Reading That Book

     Lizzy woke up around nine that morning, hopped out of bed and changed in the bathroom before emerging from the trailer. She wasn't surprised to see that Gary was already awake, had a fire going and was cooking breakfast over that fire with confidence. Seems he was used to camping out, and had sausage, bacon and some eggs frying up and ready to be consumed.

     "Good morning." Lizzy said to him as she walked by and grabbed a soda from the cooler. It was far too warm outside to want to drink anything hot like coffee that early.

     "Good morning." Gary replied, concentrating on what he was doing. "I hope you don't mind your eggs over easy."

     "No, that will be fine." she answered, as she sat down in one of the lawn chairs. "The only kind of eggs I don't like is poached."

     "I'm not a fan of that either. Don't like the texture." Gary said as he finished what he was doing and filled two plates with chow. In addition to the eggs, bacon and sausage, there was a small helping of potatoes that Gary had fried up earlier before she woke up.

     "Thank you." Lizzy said as she took her plate. She walked over to one of the lawn chairs and sat down. She took a few bites and showed her appreciation with some hums that passed on her compliments to the chef.

     "So about this book," Gary said as he was chewing on a sausage. "I was curious about it. You know what book he was talking about, right?"

     "That's correct and I'll show it to you when we get to the bookstore later today." Lizzy answered with a cryptic smile.

     Gary didn't like being teased, but went with it anyway. "Well, regardless of what book it is, I assume this is a book Hayden wanted to finish by himself?"

     "That is also correct." Lizzy confirmed.

     "Have you read this book?" Gary then asked.

     "I have." Lizzy answered.

     "So, how are we going to complete this task if you've already read it?" he then inquired, eager to know what the plan was. This turned out to be one of those tasks that she never wanted to take on without some kind of plan in place. To Gary, failing to plan meant you were planning to fail and failure was not something in his ignorant vocabulary.

     "Well, I was thinking about it." Lizzy said, "I was the person who asked Hayden to read the book. He was supposed to read it for me. Since I've already read the book, I can't finish it for him. It has to be read by someone who has never read it before for us to complete this task. Since Hermy is a lifeless, inanimate object, that leaves only one person here who can. "

    "Great," Gary said with a note of sarcasm that was about as thin as his the bacon he was chewing on. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

     "It's not that bad." Lizzy said as she chuckled.

     "I'm sure that's what you told Hayden too and he never finished it." Gary said as he tossed his empty plate into a large bowl that was filled with soapy water. "After you finish up, let's hit the bookstore and grab a few books."

     "A few books?" Lizzy said as she cocked an eyebrow. "We only need one."

     "I'm changing the rules of this task." Gary said, "We'll need two."

     "Two books? And why is that?" Lizzy asked.

     "Because misery loves company," Gary said, with a childish grin. "If I'm going to be forced to read something difficult, then so are you. I'm going to pick a book and you'll have to read it just like I have to read the book Hayden was supposed to finish."