The Mysterious Matter of I. M. Fine by Diane Stanley

Author:Diane Stanley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

15

We had convinced the bus driver to drop us off at the candy factory that morning, since the bus route ran right past it. It hadn’t seemed all that far from town. But now that we had to walk back, it seemed really, really far. Plus, there were no sidewalks, only the shoulder of the highway, which was narrow and dusty, not to mention dangerous. We had to walk in single file most of the way, with cars whizzing past us like rockets.

We reached town at last, a lot dustier and sweatier than when we’d started.

“I need food,” Beamer said. “And something wet, with ice in it. And I want to sit down.”

We were near the sub shop. It had all of those things. Plus, we had asked the waitress, Joanne, to ask around about I. M. Fine. It wouldn’t hurt to check. Maybe something had turned up.

We went inside and took a booth. A waitress came over to take our order, but it wasn’t Joanne. We asked if she was there.

“Yeah,” our waitress said. “You want me to send her over?”

We said we just needed to ask Joanne a question. No hurry. Whenever she had a free minute. But in the meantime, could we please have two supersubs, some chips, and two Cokes? She said we could and went off to get them.

“So how are we going to do this?” Beamer asked. “They’re not going to have old newspapers in the Wimberly library. So where do we go? Philadelphia? And then what? Read every single newspaper they published in 1953? And what if it’s not 1953? It might be 1952 or 1954. Like, we’re going to read nine hundred papers cover to cover?”

“On microfilm,” I said.

“What?”

“It’s bound to be on microfilm, don’t you think? That’s how they always do it in libraries. Newspapers would be too bulky to keep; plus, newsprint falls apart. We’ll have to read it on one of those little light-box dealies.”

“Oh, great. That makes it even more fun.”

“Maybe somebody at the library could help us. Like, say, the obituaries are always on the back page or something. Or maybe there’s some kind of an index.”

“It’s going to take weeks, you know that?”

“Or we might get lucky.”

“Like we’ve been lucky so far?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Like that.”

“Hi there, you two!” It was Joanne. Her hands were on her hips and she was smiling. “I was hoping you’d come back.”

My heart leapt. “Really?” I said. “Did you find something out?”

“Well, I think so. Mind if I sit down?”

“Oh, yes—please!”

We both jumped to our feet. Beamer grabbed a chair from a nearby table and swung it over for Joanne. She sat down and sighed with relief.

“Feels good to get a load off,” she said.

“I’ll bet,” Beamer said.

“Well, okay—you two look like you’re about to bust a gasket, so calm down and I’ll tell you what I heard. I got it from my mother-in-law, and she’s a little confused sometimes, so you need to take it all with a grain of salt.

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