1
BELLA
Bella stood at the edge of the children’s library section, unable to keep from smiling as she watched one of the volunteers read an Amelia Bedelia book to the children.
This was Bella’s five-year-old group, so they were all over the place in behavior and interest. Some were howling with laughter at Amelia’s misunderstandings. Some were just staring up at the reader, Lois Abraham, who was clearly of more interest to them than the story. Little Tim Perrault stood beside Lois, shyly putting a hand on her shoulder, and Emmy Rogers had fully crawled onto her lap.
When Bella first started the volunteer reading program, she used to intervene when the kids didn’t behave well or tried to snuggle the reader.
But she had learned over time that her volunteer crew didn’t mind a bit. This tight-knit group of women all had kids and grandkids of their own, and were more than used to the antics of the little ones. Although the group wasofficially called the Sugarville Grove Volunteer Library Readers, they had nicknamed themselves theGrandmas Without Borders,and Bella caught them doing all kinds of good deeds besides reading to the kids. From the danishes that were left in the library office on weekends, to the posters that now hung at every business in town whenever the library held a fundraiser, to the day she caught Judy Bunting feverishly wiping down everything at the circulation desk down to the individual pencils the week everyone in town seemed to have the flu, Bella was always amazed and grateful for their enthusiastic help. At this point, the grandmas had pretty much infiltrated the whole Sugarville Grove Public Library system, and there wasn’t a single complaint.
After a few minutes, Mrs. Abraham finished her book and the children clapped for her with all the passion of diehard fans pleading for an encore at a Bruce Springsteen concert.
“How aboutGoodnight, Gorilla?” she asked, picking up another book to the children’s immediate delight.
“Excuse me,” someone said.
Bella turned to see a pair of girls who were a little older than her nephew, who went to the local high school. One had long blonde hair in braids and the other wore spiky jewelry accented with long black fingernails. She didn’t recognize either of them, so she figured they must be from the college.
She got a familiar shiver of excitement knowing that they were almost definitely here to check out some indie music.
“Hi, girls,” she said. “How can I help you?”
“They said at the desk that you had a local music section?” one of the girls asked, confirming Bella’s suspicions.
“Yes,” Bella said, pleased as always to show off the library’s small music area. “Follow me.”
The library director had allowed Bella to take charge of the music collection and start a local section when she noticed that it was a passion project for her. Bella hoped herVermont Artistsdisplay would be her legacy long after she was retired and coming back here as one of the grandmas.
“Here we go,” she said, gesturing to the beautifully stocked shelves that she had set up to display up-and-coming local artists as well as established Vermont bands.
“Wow, you’ve got Strangefolk,” the girl with the braids said, nodding approvingly. “And Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.”
“Anaïs Mitchell,” the other one said, one black fingernail caressing the spine of the CD. “I didn’t know she was from here.”
“If you like Grace Potter, you might like The Milk Angels,” Bella said, pointing to a relatively unknown band whose catchy rhythms she was sure were going to have them on the national scene one day. “They play at a small venue in Burlington every Saturday, for now at least.”
“Yeah, we know The Milk Angels,” the fingernail girl sniffed.
“Where’s Cash Law?” the girl with thebraids asked.
Bella felt a familiar flame of frustration lick at her insides, but she tamped it down, like always.
“Cash Law is famous on a national level,” she said. “So, you can find his stuff in the regular rock section.”
“But you have Phish in this section,” the girl with the braids said.
“Staind is over here too,” her friend pointed out. “And Noah Kahan. Cash Law should be front and center of the Vermont display. He’s like super local, and his big break-out was at that Burlington concert. He’s probably some kind of hometown legend for you people.”
You people.
Yeah, these were definitely out-of-state kids from the college who had heard about her collection.
And that’s fine,she reminded herself.The library is for everyone.
“Great feedback,” Bella told her politely. “I’ll definitely keep it in mind when we rotate the display.”
“I guess,” the girl replied, shrugging.
