خاتمه

Epilogue

On the first day of spring break, two weeks after all the visiting Olympians had gone home, Kyle Keeley biked downtown to the Lemoncello Library.

Charles Chiltington was outside, as usual, walking back and forth on the sidewalk, carrying a protest sign that said “MR. LEMONCELLO’S LIBRARY IS EXECRABLE.” Kyle parked his bike and waved. “Hey, Charles.” “Keeley.”

“You want to come inside and check out our reference section? Maybe borrow a thesaurus?” “What?”

“I totally respect your freedom of expression, Charles. I just think you might be able to express yourself more clearly if you didn’t use big words on all your signs. See ya!” Kyle bounded up the marble steps and entered the lobby, where the statue of Mr. Lemoncello—with his head tilted back and water spewing out of his puckered fish lips—was gurgling away again. They’d fixed up his slogan about knowledge not shared on the base and added a new one on the side: A LIBRARY IS AN ARSENAL OF LIBERTY.

In the Rotunda Reading Room, patrons were happily hover-browsing the fiction shelves. Clarence and Clement were checking their email on the built-in desktop tablet computers. Some college kids were huddled around another table, doing some sort of serious research project. And Mrs. Lonni Gause, the holographic librarian, was helping out behind the circulation desk without fear of being bulldozed. Because this library had true champions, intellectual freedom fighters who would do whatever it took to protect it: Mr. Lemoncello, of course, and all the library lovers from the first-ever Library Olympiad, plus Andrew Peckleman.

“Yo, Kyle?” said Miguel as he and Akimi came down one of the spiral staircases. “There’s a brand-new game up in the Electronic Learning Center.” “You stand on a platform, slide your feet, and go skating down a frozen canal with Hans Brinker,” added Akimi.

“You start out on wooden skates,” said Miguel, “but you can win silver ones. Just like in the book.” “It’s a brand-new Lemoncello concept,” said Akimi. “Audio-animatronic books. You get to act out a whole novel along with its main characters.” “You also get to skate,” added Miguel.

“You guys have fun,” said Kyle. “I promised Dr. Z I’d help out in the Children’s Room for a couple hours today.” “Cool,” said Miguel. “I’m doing that tomorrow. With Sierra and Andrew.” He waggled his eyebrows knowingly. “Catch you later, bro.” “Later.”

Kyle went into the Children’s Room, where kids were reading books with their moms and dads or watching a puppet show or listening to a storyteller or singing along with Mother Goose and her goslings.

“Excuse me,” said a small voice behind Kyle.

Kyle turned around. “Can I help you?”

“Is this book any good?”

A tiny boy was holding a copy of Flora and Ulysses.

“Oh, it’s excellent,” said Kyle. “I read it last week. It’s all about a squirrel who gets sucked up inside a vacuum cleaner and turns into a poetry-writing superhero.” “Awesome!”

The kid ran to the checkout desk with his prize.

Kyle watched him go and felt great.

Actually, he felt fantastic.

It was definitely another cake day.