FINAL PART 5-Kaylee, my 8-year-old buddy, stayed over and wouldn’t take off her pink sneakers, despite my assurances that the carpet was clean and we kept blankets in the den.

PART 91: THE PAGE MIA LEFT OUT
After the reading, Mia stayed at our house for two nights.
The publisher had scheduled more events in other towns, and she wanted a quiet weekend before traveling again.
On Saturday morning, I found her at the kitchen table with a pile of sketches.
“I thought the book was finished,” I said.
“It is.”
“What are these?”
“Pages that didn’t make it in.”
She turned one toward me.
It showed the two girls standing on opposite sides of their paper town.
Rain had broken the bridge between them.
Neither girl was reaching for the other.
“It’s beautiful,” I said.
“It stopped the story for too long.”
“Does Kaylee know about it?”
“No.”
Mia studied the drawing.
“I kept trying to decide which girl should cross first.”
“Could they both start?”
“That’s what Kaylee would say.”
Mia placed the page beneath the others.
“But sometimes they wouldn’t.”
I pulled out a chair.
“You don’t have to put every true feeling in one book.”
“I know.”
“I’m glad you kept this page.”
“Me too.”
Later, Mia put the sketches back in her bag.
She did not show Kaylee the missing page that weekend.
She waited until she understood why she had drawn it.
PART 92: THE DAY THEY ARGUED
The argument began over a train ticket.
Mia wanted Kaylee to join her at a book event in another city.
Kaylee had a branch visit scheduled that morning.
She offered to travel in the afternoon and arrive for dinner.
“The reading will be over,” Mia said.
“I know.”
“I asked you to come to the reading.”
“I already promised the branch I’d be there.”
“You can ask someone to cover it.”
“I could.”
“But you won’t.”
Kaylee was standing in Greg’s kitchen when Mia called.
She lowered her voice.
“The children know I’m coming.”
“Children miss events all the time.”
“That doesn’t mean I should cancel without a good reason.”
Mia went quiet.

 

Kaylee heard her breathing.

“I’m sorry,” Mia said.

“You want me there.”

“I do.”

“I want to come too.”

“Then why does it feel like I’m asking for something you don’t want to give?”

Kaylee gripped the edge of the counter.

“Because I’m saying no to the morning.”

“That’s the part that matters to me.”

They ended the call badly.

Kaylee stared at her phone for a long time.

Greg came in carrying a bag of groceries.

“Everything okay?”

“No.”

“Want to talk?”

“Not yet.”

He put the groceries away.

Kaylee went home without staying for dinner.

PART 93: TWO BAD NIGHTS

Mia did not call the next day.

Kaylee did not call either.

Both drafted messages and deleted them.

Mia wrote:

I just wanted you there for me.

She erased it.

Kaylee wrote:

I’m allowed to keep a promise even when you’re disappointed.

She erased that too.

On the second evening, Mia called me.

“I know Kaylee has work,” she said.

“Then tell her you know.”

“I did.”

“Did you tell her why this reading matters so much?”

“She knows it’s the biggest one yet.”

“That may not be all you want her to understand.”

Mia was quiet.

The event was in a town where a larger publisher had invited her to speak.

She was excited.

She was frightened too.

“They want me to talk about where the book came from,” Mia admitted.

“What do you plan to say?”

“I’ve been telling people we made paper towns as children.”

“That’s true.”

“They keep asking why the girls in the book are afraid when the bridge washes away.”

“What do you tell them?”

“That they don’t know how to build another one yet.”

“And when they ask more?”

“I don’t know how much of Kaylee’s life belongs in my answer.”

I leaned against the kitchen counter.

“You can ask her what she’s comfortable with.”

“I was afraid she’d think I wanted her there so I could tell the story for both of us.”

“Is that what you want?”

“No.”

“Then tell her what’s worrying you.”

After we hung up, I set my phone down.

I hoped they would call each other.

I could not do that part for them.

PART 94: THE CALL

Kaylee called Mia the following morning.

“I’m still doing the branch visit,” she said when Mia answered.

“I figured.”

“But I can catch the afternoon train.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to see you.”

Mia sat down on the edge of her bed.

“I was unfair about the children.”

“I was angry too.”

“I know.”

“Why is this reading different?” Kaylee asked.

Mia told her about the publisher and the questions.

“I don’t want to say something that belongs to you,” she said.

“You can talk about our paper town.”

“I know.”

“You can say we were friends when we were eight.”

“I know that too.”

“If someone asks why the bridge matters, tell them why it matters in the book.”

Mia looked at the sketch she had left out.

“What if they want the real story?”

“You can tell them the book has a story of its own.”

“That sounds like something an author would say.”

“You are one.”

Mia laughed softly.

“I wanted you nearby because you remember things I don’t.”

“I’ll be there after the reading.”

“I wish you could hear it.”

“I wish I could too.”

Kaylee checked the train schedule.

“Call me before you go onstage.”

“I will.”

They stayed on the phone until Kaylee had to leave for work.

PART 95: THE SIX-CHAIR BRANCH

The branch session that morning was crowded.

Six children sat on chairs.

Four sat on the rug.

A father held a toddler by the doorway.

Kaylee read a story about a family building a kite.

The children made their own from paper and string.

A little boy asked whether his would fly.

“We can test it outside,” Kaylee said.

It fell almost immediately.

He picked it up.

“Maybe it needs a longer tail.”

“Let’s try one.”

They added another strip of paper.

The kite rose briefly when he ran across the grass.

He shouted loud enough for everyone inside to hear.

Kaylee stayed to help the staff clean up.

Then she checked the clock.

She had just enough time to catch her train.

On the platform, her phone rang.

Mia.

“I’m in the room where I’m supposed to wait,” Mia said.

“How many people are there?”

“I haven’t looked.”

“Then don’t.”

“I can hear them.”

“Do you have your book?”

“Yes.”

“Have you eaten?”

“Mia.”

“You sound like Greg.”

“I’ve had that said to me before.”

Mia took a breath.

“I’m still nervous.”

“You can read while you’re nervous.”

“That sounds familiar too.”

A woman called Mia’s name in the background.

“I have to go.”

“I’ll see you tonight.”

“Kaylee?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad you kept your promise to the children.”

“I’m glad you told me why you wanted me there.”

Mia said goodbye and went to read.

Kaylee boarded the train.

PART 96: THE LAST QUESTION

At the event, Mia read the book without stumbling.

Children asked about the floating bus and why one paper house had a yellow roof.

Then an adult raised her hand.

“Did something happen when you were young that inspired the broken bridge?”

Mia looked at the open book in her lap.

“Yes,” she said.

“Many things happened as we grew up.”

She glanced toward the children in the front row.

“My friend and I made a paper town when we were little, and we kept changing it because neither of us knew exactly how to build the whole thing.”

The woman nodded.

Mia continued.

“The broken bridge gave the characters a problem they could work on together.”

She turned to the final picture.

“I wanted the children reading this to know they could ask someone to help them build again.”

Afterward, the woman thanked her.

Mia called Kaylee as soon as she was alone.

“I answered it,” she said.

“How do you feel?”

“Like I need to sit down.”

Kaylee was watching the countryside pass outside the train window.

“Then sit down.”

“I kept it about the book.”

“You’re allowed to.”

“I wish you’d heard the children argue about the floating bus.”

“What did they say?”

“Half of them wanted it to have wheels.”

“That would help.”

“The other half said it should have fins.”

“That sounds more interesting.”

Mia smiled.

“I’ll tell you everything when you get here.”

PART 97: THE PAGE BETWEEN THEM

That evening, Mia met Kaylee at the station.

They ate dinner near the hotel.

For a while, Mia told her about the reading.

Then she took a folded sketch from her bag.

“I didn’t put this in the book.”

Kaylee opened it.

She recognized the girls from Mia’s drawings, standing apart after the bridge had fallen.

“You made them look angry.”

“They are.”

“Why did you leave it out?”

“I thought children might believe the friends wouldn’t find each other again.”

Kaylee studied the empty space between them.

“They don’t know yet.”

“Exactly.”

Kaylee looked up.

“I like it.”

“You do?”

“Sometimes the next part takes a while.”

Mia reached for the sketch.

“Maybe I’ll use it in another book.”

“Maybe.”

They went back to the hotel.

Mia took the bed nearest the window.

Kaylee took the other.

Before turning out the light, Mia said, “I was worried our argument would become this picture.”

“For two days?”

“I know it sounds dramatic.”

“We’ve had worse arguments.”

“I know that too.”

Kaylee pulled up her blanket.

“We called each other.”

“We did.”

“Tomorrow we can have breakfast and talk about your next event.”

“You’ll help me choose what to wear?”

“If you promise to reject my first suggestion.”

“I probably will.”

They turned off the lamps.

PART 98: THE LETTER FROM THE SCHOOL

When Kaylee returned home, a letter from Briar Creek Elementary was waiting at the library.

The school wanted to start a small lending shelf for families who could not easily visit the public library during opening hours.

The principal asked whether Kaylee could help choose books.

She read the letter twice.

Mrs. Bennett found her standing by the return cart.

“Interested?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“It would take some planning.”

“I know.”

“You have the county branches already.”

“I’ll make a schedule before I promise anything.”

Mrs. Bennett nodded.

At home, Kaylee made a list of what the school would need.

Books for different ages.

A place to record loans.

Someone to care for the shelf.

A way for families to request books they could not find.

She called the principal the next morning.

“I can help you begin,” she said.

“But I want to make sure the shelf can keep running when I’m at the branches.”

“That’s exactly what we need to work out,” the principal answered.

They agreed to meet the following week.

PART 99: THE NEW SHELF

The school chose a space near the front office.

There was enough room for two shelves and a small bench.

Children began suggesting books before the shelves had even arrived.

One wanted every story about space.

Another wanted books with recipes.

A third asked for books that could be read aloud to younger brothers.

Kaylee brought the suggestions to Mrs. Bennett.

Together, they selected donated copies and ordered more through a small grant.

On opening day, Mrs. Fox visited.

She stood near the green chairs in the front office and watched families browse.

A girl picked up a book, put it back, then chose another.

A father read the first page of a picture book to his son on the bench.

Kaylee joined Mrs. Fox.

“Does it feel strange being here?” Mrs. Fox asked.

“Sometimes.”

“Today?”

Kaylee looked around the office.

“Today I’m worried we’ll run out of books about space.”

Mrs. Fox smiled.

“That sounds like a problem you can solve.”

“I already ordered more.”

A child came over with two books in her hands.

“Can I borrow both?” she asked.

Kaylee showed her how to sign them out.

PART 100: WHERE THE DOOR LED

That night, Mia called to ask about the new shelf.

Kaylee told her about the space books and the little bench.

Then Mia told Kaylee she had drawn a second paper-town story.

“Is the bridge broken again?” Kaylee asked.

“No.”

“What happens?”

“One of the girls takes a trip.”

“And the other?”

“She adds something new to the town while her friend is away.”

Kaylee sat back in her chair.

“I like that.”

“I haven’t written the ending.”

“You will.”

“Maybe I’ll send you the drawings.”

“Send them.”

After the call, Kaylee set her phone beside the notebook she had filled with memories.

The six pages she had shown Mrs. Fox were tucked inside.

She had not decided whether anyone else would ever read them.

For now, she closed the notebook and prepared for the next day.

There were books to deliver to the school.

There was a branch schedule to finish.

There was a message from Oliver waiting for an answer.

Kaylee checked that her keys were in her bag.

One opened Greg’s house.

One opened Mia’s apartment.

One opened the library.

She turned off the light and went to bed.

In the morning, she would choose which door to open first.

PART 101: THE BOOK NO ONE HAD REQUESTED

The first box of books for the school shelf arrived on a Tuesday.

Kaylee carried it through Briar Creek’s front doors and found the office secretary clearing a space behind the desk.

“The children have already asked whether you brought the space books,” the secretary said.

“I brought three.”

“That might get us through lunch.”

Kaylee smiled and began unpacking.

At the bottom of the box was a book she did not remember ordering.

It was a collection of children’s letters to people who had helped them.

The cover was plain.

Someone at the library had slipped it in with the others.

Kaylee opened it while the secretary checked the packing list.

One letter thanked a grandfather for teaching its writer to ride a bicycle.

Another thanked a neighbor who always remembered his birthday.

Kaylee closed the book and placed it on the shelf.

By the end of the school day, it had been borrowed.

She thought about it again on the bus home.

She had helped choose stories about adventures, animals, planets, and families.

A child had chosen a book about saying thank you.

PART 102: THE VISITOR AT THE FRONT DESK

Two weeks later, the secretary called Kaylee at the library.

“A student has a question about the lending shelf,” she said.

“What does she need?”

“She wants to know if she can put a book there.”

“A book she owns?”

“That’s what she said.”

Kaylee visited the school that afternoon.

A fourth-grade girl named Lena was waiting beside the green chairs.

She held a worn paperback against her coat.

“I don’t read it anymore,” Lena said.

“It’s still a good story.”

Kaylee examined the cover.

The corners were bent, but every page was there.

“Are you sure you want to give it away?”

“I want somebody else to read it.”

“That’s generous.”

Lena glanced at the shelf.

“Would I get to know who takes it?”

“We can’t promise that.”

“Oh.”

“You could write a note inside about why you liked it.”

Lena considered the idea.

“Could you help me spell ‘adventure’?”

Kaylee found a pencil.

Together, they wrote a short note on a piece of paper tucked inside the front cover.

This was my favorite adventure when I was nine.

I hope you like it too.

Lena watched Kaylee place the book on the shelf.

For the next three days, she checked whether it was still there.

On Friday, it was gone.

Lena ran into the office.

“Someone took it!”

“Someone did,” the secretary said.

“Do you think they’ll like it?”

“I think they saw your note.”

Lena looked at the empty place on the shelf and smiled.

PART 103: SOMETHING TO GIVE BACK

That weekend, Kaylee told Greg about Lena.

They were sitting on his porch, sorting seed packets.

“She wanted to know who borrowed her book,” Kaylee said.

“I understand why.”

“She still left it.”

Greg turned over a packet of marigold seeds.

“You’ve spent years putting things on shelves for other people.”

“It’s my job.”

“You know what I mean.”

Kaylee looked toward the garden.

She did.

Lena had offered something she loved without knowing who would receive it.

Kaylee had six pages in a notebook that she kept trying to decide whether to share.

The comparison made her uneasy.

“My pages are different,” she said.

“I didn’t say they were the same.”

“I haven’t even told you all of what I wrote.”

“You don’t have to.”

Kaylee set down the seed packets.

“I keep thinking about writing something for the children at the library.”

“A story?”

“Maybe.”

“Would you enjoy it?”

“I might.”

“That’s enough reason to begin.”

She looked at him.

“You make it sound easy.”

“I’m learning to grow tomatoes in a smaller garden.”

“You have seven plants again.”

“And I began with one.”

Kaylee laughed.

“Fine.”

She took an empty envelope from his desk and wrote STORY IDEA across the front.

PART 104: THE GIRL WHO COLLECTED MAPS

Kaylee’s first idea was about a girl who collected maps.

Some showed places she had visited.

Others showed places she hoped to see.

One map led to a garden.

Another led to a friend’s kitchen.

The girl kept them in a box beneath her bed.

After three pages, Kaylee stopped writing.

She could not decide what the girl wanted.

She read the pages to Mia over the phone.

“She wants to know where she belongs,” Mia said.

“That sounds too serious for a book about maps.”

“Children wonder where they belong.”

“I know.”

“What does she do with the maps?”

“She draws the places herself.”

“Then let her draw somewhere new.”

Kaylee turned a page in her notebook.

“What kind of place?”

“That’s your part.”

Kaylee looked at the keys on her desk.

She thought of the library room with six chairs.

She thought of Oliver finding a window seat in another town.

She thought of the paper city Mia had made.

“She could draw a place where people meet,” Kaylee said.

“What do they do there?”

“They tell her what belongs on the map.”

“Write that,” Mia said.

PART 105: THE FIRST READER

Kaylee finished a draft in late autumn.

It was fifteen pages long and had no pictures.

She asked Mia to read it.

Then she changed her mind and asked Mrs. Fox first.

Mrs. Fox came over for tea.

Kaylee handed her the pages before she could lose her nerve.

“I can wait while you read,” Kaylee said.

“You don’t have to watch me.”

“I’ll be in the kitchen.”

She spent twenty minutes rearranging mugs that did not need rearranging.

When Mrs. Fox called her back, the pages were spread across the table.

“I like the girl,” Mrs. Fox said.

“Do you think children will?”

“Yes.”

“Which part should I change?”

Mrs. Fox smiled.

“May I tell you what I noticed before we talk about changes?”

Kaylee sat down.

“The girl draws every map alone until the last page,” Mrs. Fox said.

“That’s when she meets the others.”

“I wondered whether someone might offer to help earlier.”

“She’s supposed to have trouble asking.”

“She can still turn down the offer.”

Kaylee thought about it.

“You want her to have a choice.”

“I think choices make stories interesting.”

Kaylee picked up her pencil.

“Who offers?”

“What feels right to you?”

After Mrs. Fox left, Kaylee added a boy who offered to help draw the river.

The girl in the story said no.

Three pages later, she asked if he still wanted to.

PART 106: THE MISTAKE IN THE MIDDLE

Mia read the second draft at Greg’s kitchen table.

She made notes in blue ink.

On page eight, she drew a large question mark.

“You say the bridge is too narrow,” Mia told Kaylee.

“Then three pages later, four people stand on it.”

“I forgot.”

“I thought it might be a magical bridge.”

“It isn’t.”

“That’s disappointing.”

Kaylee corrected the bridge.

Mia turned to the final page.

“The girl gives everyone a map.”

“She does.”

“But she keeps the first one.”

“I wanted her to remember where she started.”

“I like that.”

“You sound surprised.”

“I usually am when you agree with me.”

They stayed at the table for another hour.

Mia suggested shorter sentences in a few places.

Kaylee argued for keeping one long description of a garden at sunrise.

Greg passed through the kitchen, listened to them debate a single word, and quietly went back outside.

When he returned, they were still discussing it.

“Did you settle the bridge?” he asked.

“Yes,” they said together.

“Good.”

He did not ask about the garden.

PART 107: THE OPEN READING

Mrs. Bennett offered Kaylee a chance to read the story to a small group at the library.

“It isn’t finished,” Kaylee said.

“That’s why their reactions might help.”

“What if they don’t like it?”

“Then you’ll learn what caught their interest and what didn’t.”

Kaylee looked at the pages in her hand.

“You’ve been waiting for me to say yes.”

“I’ve been waiting for you to decide.”

Kaylee invited six children and their families.

She did not put her name on a poster.

She called it an afternoon of trying out a new story.

Mia sat near the back.

Greg and Elaine came too.

Mrs. Fox brought her own copy of the draft, covered in little pencil notes Kaylee had asked her to make.

Kaylee began reading.

The children were quiet through the first pages.

When the girl refused help with the river, one child said, “That was rude.”

Kaylee stopped.

“Do you think so?”

“The boy was trying to help.”

Another child said, “Maybe she wanted to make it herself.”

Kaylee wrote both comments in the margin.

Near the end, the girl brought her unfinished map to a table where other people were drawing.

A child raised her hand.

“Can they add a mountain?”

“They could.”

“Then you should say so.”

Kaylee made another note.

Afterward, the children drew maps of imaginary places.

One had a castle surrounded by a moat of orange juice.

Another had a library on a cloud.

Kaylee went home with twelve suggestions and a headache.

She also went home smiling.

PART 108: THE PAGE SHE KEPT

For weeks, Kaylee revised the story.

She added the mountain.

She kept the river.

She shortened the garden description, though she told Mia she still preferred the original.

Then she reached the final page.

The girl stood beside a table covered in maps.

Everyone had added a place.

Kaylee had written that the girl put her first map away because she no longer needed it.

She read the sentence again.

Then she crossed it out.

The girl did need the first map.

It showed where she had begun.

She took it from the box beneath her bed and set it beside the new ones.

When Mia read the change, she nodded.

“That feels right.”

“You don’t have a correction?”

“I might find one tomorrow.”

“For now?”

“For now, I like it.”

PART 109: TWO DIFFERENT STORIES

Kaylee kept writing in her private notebook too.

Some nights she wrote about the girl with the maps.

Other nights she returned to the morning at Briar Creek.

The pages did not sound alike.

One was a story for children.

The other held things she remembered and questions she was still willing to ask.

She worried that people would connect them if she ever published the map story.

Mrs. Fox listened while Kaylee explained.

“What would you want them to know?” she asked.

“That I wrote it because I like working with children.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“You can say that.”

“What if they ask whether it’s about me?”

“You can decide what to share.”

Kaylee closed her notebook.

“I thought writing the story would make me sure.”

“It gave you more choices.”

“That’s harder.”

“Sometimes.”

Kaylee thought of the girl with the maps asking for help with the river.

“I still want children to read it,” she said.

“Then we can think about how to get it into their hands.”

PART 110: THE ENVELOPE WITH THE DRAWING

In December, Kaylee received another envelope from Oliver.

This one held a drawing instead of a letter.

It showed a table covered in maps.

Around it stood five people.

Oliver had drawn Kaylee near the end of the table, holding a blue pencil.

On the back, he had written:

GRANDMA SAID YOU ARE MAKING A STORY.

I THINK THE MAP NEEDS A VOLCANO.

Kaylee laughed so loudly that Mrs. Bennett looked over from the circulation desk.

“What is it?”

“Oliver has heard about my story.”

“Does he have notes?”

“Of course.”

She pinned the drawing beside his others.

Then she wrote back.

Dear Oliver,

Thank you for the suggestion.

There is a mountain now.

I will think about whether it is a volcano.

I’m glad you keep drawing.

From Kaylee.

She sealed the envelope before she could spend an hour debating the last sentence.

PART 111: THE DRAWING TABLE

During the winter break, Kaylee set up a drawing table at the library.

Children could add places to a giant map on the wall.

She did not tell them it was connected to her story.

By lunchtime, the map included a train station, two playgrounds, a cave, a garden, and a river that ended abruptly at the paper’s edge.

A girl asked what happened beyond the edge.

“We can add more paper,” Kaylee said.

She taped a fresh sheet beside the first.

The girl extended the river.

By closing time, it ran past a mountain.

Oliver’s volcano stood at the top.

Mia came to see it.

“You used his idea.”

“The mountain needed something.”

“It has smoke.”

“He was very clear about that.”

Mia looked along the wall.

“Your story could have pictures like these.”

“Every child drew a different part.”

“That’s what makes it good.”

Kaylee thought about Mia’s paper town and all the drawings the children had added to it.

“I don’t want to take their pictures for my book,” she said.

“You can ask someone to illustrate the story after you finish it.”

“I was going to ask you.”

Mia turned toward her.

“You were?”

“You’re busy.”

“I can make time.”

“You should read the final draft first.”

“I will.”

They stood before the map until the library lights dimmed for closing.

PART 112: THE ANSWER MIA GAVE

Mia read Kaylee’s story on the train home.

She called that night.

“I want to draw it,” she said.

“You haven’t asked about the schedule.”

“I’m asking now.”

“We can work that out.”

“I have an idea for the cover.”

“Already?”

“A girl sitting on the floor with maps all around her.”

“I pictured her at a table.”

“We’ll compare.”

“She has brown hair.”

“I haven’t drawn her yet.”

“The river has to be blue.”

“I can do blue.”

“And the mountain—”

“Might be a volcano.”

Kaylee laughed.

“You read Oliver’s letter.”

“You showed me.”

Mia’s voice softened.

“I like that the girl asks the boy to help her.”

“That was Mrs. Fox’s idea.”

“You chose to keep it.”

They talked until Kaylee’s phone battery grew low.

Before hanging up, Mia said, “I’m excited to build this with you.”

Kaylee looked at the marked-up pages on her desk.

“So am I.”

PART 113: GREG’S OLD PHOTOGRAPH

Greg found the photograph while unpacking a box he had brought from the old house.

It showed Kaylee at seven, sitting on the floor with a sheet of paper in front of her.

She was drawing something too large to fit on the page.

Greg called her over to see it.

“I don’t remember this,” she said.

“You were making a map of the backyard.”

“Why?”

“You said the birds needed to know where the birdbath was.”

Kaylee smiled.

“Did you keep the map?”

“I didn’t find it.”

She studied the little girl in the photograph.

A year later, she would come to my house wearing pink sneakers.

In the photograph, she was focused on her drawing.

The pencil in her hand was nearly worn down to the wood.

“Can I have this?” she asked.

“Of course.”

She took it home and placed it inside the notebook where she was drafting her story.

The photograph did not explain everything that came after it.

It reminded her that she had loved drawing places long before she knew what she would write about them.

PART 114: THE FIRST PICTURE

Mia arrived with three sketches for the map story.

In one, the girl sat at a table.

In another, she sat on the floor.

In the third, she stood beside a wall covered in maps.

Kaylee examined them.

“I like this one,” she said, choosing the floor.

“I knew you would.”

“Then why draw the others?”

“I wanted us both to be sure.”

The girl in the drawing held a pencil above an empty space.

Someone had placed a cup of blue pencils nearby.

“You added another person,” Kaylee said.

“Only a hand.”

“Whose?”

“We can decide.”

Kaylee looked at the outstretched hand.

“Let it belong to the boy who helps with the river.”

“Okay.”

Mia wrote a note beneath the sketch.

They spent the afternoon choosing colors.

The garden would be green and gold.

The river would be blue.

The mountain could have a little smoke, provided it did not frighten the youngest readers.

Oliver would be pleased.

PART 115: THE LAST PAGE

Months later, Kaylee stood at the library’s front desk holding the finished sample pages.

Mrs. Bennett looked through them.

“So what happens next?” she asked.

“We’re sending it to publishers.”

“Nervous?”

“Yes.”

“Excited?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Kaylee put the pages back in their folder.

At the school shelf, Lena’s donated adventure book had been returned and borrowed again.

Oliver’s drawings still hung above Kaylee’s desk.

Mia’s paper town sat on display in the children’s room.

Kaylee’s map story might become a book.

It might stay a folder she read aloud to the children who knew her.

Either way, the girl inside it had reached the last page.

She had drawn a garden, a river, a mountain, and a place where people could gather.

The space beyond the edge of the paper was still blank.

Kaylee left it that way.