HUNTER LAKE 13/100 CARNEGIE IVY AND MARK SITTIN' IN A TREE

HUNTER LAKE 13/100 CARNEGIE MEETS MARK AND IVY SITTIN’ IN A TREE

Valley View Public Library faced the local college. Its four columns were unique. No other building looked like that in their town. Whenever she saw them she imagined the Lincoln Memorial. It reminded her of the time her mom took the family to DC to see the memorials and talk about war. She explained war and why their dad decided to represent his country that way. Ivy protested, “I want Dad back here, what’s he doing there? It’s not our war.”

Alma tried to explain that he was rebuilding the country, a country torn apart by war.

“But why our Dad, what about us, he should be here!” Every time her mom showed her another statue, all she could think of was, that all those people, who had statues were dead, maybe her Dad was dead too.

The trip had been a disaster. She couldn’t get back home fast enough. She talked to Mark the whole time her Dad was gone, he listened. Mark was going to be there. Her dad saw them leave in his truck, he must like him. Not like Rose’s mean teasing. Sometimes she felt her mom and dad didn’t even know who she was. The way she felt about Mark, it was like everything was okay when she was with him. She knew what love was, it was what she was sure she felt for him. But those other feelings, like when he wasn’t there when she wanted to talk to him, the way he helped his mom more than wanted to spend time with her. It made her confused. She didn’t want all of these feelings, but there they were.

She pulled out her cell phone, she knew there were no texts, no dropped calls but she checked anyway, and it seemed like she checked every minute or so, like she couldn’t quit checking. When she didn’t look, she thought about looking. It must be love. She knew who to talk about it to, not her mom or dad, they were always making her fell guilty. Or something. Some type of feeling, and it was the opposite of what she felt around him. Where she just disappeared and

His voice came through her thoughts. A gangly kid with glasses, sat at the edge of the town’s landmark library. “What’s up.” Mark’s long legs moved over the edge of the small space between two columns

“Hey.” Ivy’s skips matched her heart as she approached the brick building with concrete columns. No other building in Valley View looked like this. It sat on a large lot with trees that survived the harsh North Dakota winters, gave shade to picnickers in the summer.

Mark’s mouth opened in a wide grin, his teeth were a little far apart on the top and crowded on the bottom, she couldn’t take her eyes off of them. She loved his voice. It had gotten deeper in the last year, at first it cracked but now it was almost as deep and rumbly as her dads.

But now that her dad was back, Ivy was relieved, but in love with Mark.

“Just glad to get out of the house.” She stretched her hand to his.

He touched it and she felt warm all over.

“We should get inside, it closes in a few hours, and I have some AP coursework to finish online.”

“Uh, me too.”

“You have AP stuff?”

“I mean I have stuff to do.” Ivy felt the red heat cover her face and looked away. She didn’t want Mark to see.

He pushed open the heavy wooden doors to a library that was templated all over the United States, in thousands of towns.  A small plaque attached to the credenza of the “ship” as they entered. “Fargo architect, 1979 National Historic Registry.”

To Ivy it matched the DC buildings with tall columns on either side, she could feel her heart race.

As she entered through the double wood doors an imposing front desk greet them, a woman with hair tied up in a bun and grey and silver straggles flowing out at the side looked up and her cheaters slid down her nose a little more.

“Nana,” said Ivy.

The woman smiled in return putting her finger gently to her lips. A sign next to her announced: “Lectures for Library History month, Women Influential in the Creation of Libraries.” Her own photo, when she was in her twenties, standing on the steps of the library the day it opened. Rows of women surrounded her. She whispered as she pointed to the announcement. “You’re attending right, tell Alma and Henry.”

Ivy nodded.

Mark dropped Ivy’s hand, which had grown clammy, and pointed to a table at the window behind the open stacks.