Page 30 of Save the Drama for your Mama
It was a brass key with a rounded bow and jagged teeth.
“Odd . . .” I inspected it. “I wonder what it unlocks.”
“It looks like a key to a safe deposit box.” Melody’s green eyes sparkled. “Isn’t this exciting? It’s like a treasure hunt. We need to track down the bank and go see what’s inside.”
I almost smiled at her enthusiasm. “Not so fast, Nancy Drew. It’s time to get back to work.”
Melody huffed. “Oh, you’re no fun.”
“It took you this long to figure that out?” I slid the key in my pocket, then stuck the music box back in the chest and closed it. “You have work to do too, remember?”
“Can we come back tonight after we finish up our duties?” she asked.
I grabbed my smoothie off the box and finished it, giving a loud, satisfying slurp at the end. “I’ll think about it. I have a goal of writing three thousand words today and I am sitting at zero, so let me try to tackle that first and we’ll see.”
Just then the music box played inside the chest, startling us both, and making Romeo howl.
I opened the chest, and the music stopped. “What the . . .” I glanced over at Melody. “Okay, that was weird.”
She shrugged. “You’re right—it’s just broken.” As Melody turned toward the door with me, the handle on her purse slipped from her grasp. The purse fell to the floor with a heavy thud, the impact causing the flap to spring open.
A familiar book poked out just enough for me to see.
The Daredevil’s Redemption.
I stared in disbelief.
Melody had a copy of my book.
Why? How? Since when?
“What are you doing with my book?” I blurted out.
She avoided eye contact and stuffed it back in her purse, along with everything else that had fallen out. “What do most people do with books?”
I sighed. “Where did you get it?”
Melody stood, then shifted, avoiding direct eye contact. “Why do you want to know?”
“You’re avoiding my questions.”
“And you’re asking too many,” she replied. “Do you think I stole it from your library? Is that it?”
“I don’t know what to think.” My confusion grew, and I crossed my arms, feeling a tinge of suspicion. “You suddenly have an affinity for stories about individuals who constantly seek attention by performing reckless stunts, mistakenly believing that their feats are awe-inspiring?”
She opened her mouth and closed it, looking quite surprised that I’d quoted verbatim what she had said in the bookstore.
“Aaaand, you called it garbage,” I added in a sing-song voice.
Melody frowned. “Look—I’m sorry for that, okay? It wasn’t my finest hour, but you were being a colossal curmudgeon, the way you were talking trash aboutPride and Prejudice.”
Maybe it was time I came clean as to why I despised that book, since it had nothing to do with the actual story.
I opened my mouth to confess and—
Melody held up her hand. “Not that I need to give you any explanation, but my friend Abigail bought it for me.” She pulled the book out and opened it to show me the page I signed in the store, her way of proving she didn’t steal it from the library, I guessed. “She said it was one of her top-ten reads of the year, and I decided that instead of judging a book by its cover, I was going to see what all the hype was about and come to my own conclusion. Can I go now or are you going to stick a bright light in my face until I tell you everything?”
I blinked. “You mean there’s more?”
