فصل سی و هفتم

chapter-37

A half hour later, the library was empty except for Team Kyle, Mr. Lemoncello, Dr. Zinchenko, and the engineers locked behind the red door in the library’s control room.

Kyle and his friends wanted to be there for Mr. Lemoncello in what looked like his hour of despair.

“I’m sure whoever checked out Flora and Ulysses is enjoying it immensely,” said Sierra Russell. “I know I did.” “Thank you, Sierra,” said Mr. Lemoncello, who was breaking his own library rules, spooning a half gallon of ice cream straight out of its carton while he sat slumped in one of the comfortable reading chairs at the base of the fiction wall. He wore a bib to stop the ice cream from dribbling on his clothes.

“You’re really only supposed to eat food in the Book Nook Café, sir,” said Miguel.

Mr. Lemoncello ignored Miguel and shoveled up another gob of birthday-cake ice cream.

Meanwhile, Dr. Zinchenko had commandeered a hover ladder and sailed up to the spot where the missing book should’ve been shelved.

“The book was here last week,” said Dr. Zinchenko, examining the gap between Kate DiCamillo titles. “I know it was. I made certain of it, right before we locked down the library to the public. Since then, the only ones allowed near the books have been our thirty-two young Olympians….” “Fascinating,” said Mr. Lemoncello, not sounding fascinated at all. He shoveled more confetti-sprinkled ice cream into his mouth.

Dr. Zinchenko started her slow descent. “I must talk to security about this.” “Don’t bother, Dr. Zinchenko,” said Mr. Lemoncello. “This is a library. Books check in but they don’t check out. No, wait. That’s a Roach Motel. I forget what happens at a library. Maybe Mrs. Chiltington is correct. Maybe we should find some more mature adults to run this place. We really had three dozen copies of that same title and now they’re all gone?” “Yes, sir.”

Mr. Lemoncello heaved a heavy sigh.

“This is horrible,” shrieked the holographic librarian Mrs. Gause, as once again she flickered to frazzled life behind the circulation desk. “This is what happened last time! First, books started disappearing. History books. One title in particular. All ten copies. Nobody cared. The whole town turned its back on its library. Very important people convinced the mayor to cut our funding. Before long, you couldn’t even find a bookmark or an empty jar of library paste. Then BOOM! Here come the bulldozers and the wrecking ball! So long, library; hello, parking lot. Oh, the horror. The horror.” “Thank you, Mrs. Gause,” said Mr. Lemoncello, gobbling down his ice cream even faster. “Good to hear from you again. Control room?” Mr. Lemoncello flicked his wrist.

The hologram vanished.

Kyle approached his hero.

“Do you need anything, Mr. Lemoncello? Anything at all.”

Mr. Lemoncello looked up from his tub of ice cream. The twinkle was gone from his coal-black eyes.

“Just what I’ve been looking for all along, Kyle. My true champions.”

“Don’t worry, sir. We won’t let you down. We’ll win both of the last two medals. I promise.” Mr. Lemoncello looked at Kyle, shook his head, and sighed again.