Read Where We Belong for Free Online Page B

the Tibet one three times. And Nepal twice. Bhutan only once.”
    “Read? Or looked through? Because those books…”
    She held her hands apart, exaggerating about how thick they were.
    “Yes, ma’am, I know they’re big, because I read them cover to cover, and I know how much reading that is.”
    “Well. Wow. We could order something else from one of the other libraries.”
    “Uh. No, ma’am, that’s fine. I’ll just go on the computer.”
    It costs money every time they send a book from another branch.
    “You know there’s the Road Warrior database—”
    “Yes, ma’am. I’m good at that. If I ever go to a whole new country, I’ll go back to that. But I already know all the facts it has for all the countries I just talked about.”
    “Hmm,” she said. “Can I interest you in a job as a reference librarian?”
    I laughed, and it hurt my lip.
    “I think I might be a little young.”
    She put her hand on the top of my head for a second and then walked away. The whole time I was watching her walking, I could still feel that warm print where her hand had been.
    I settled in the computer room and surfed Norway for an hour, but nothing made me feel the way I wanted to feel.

    On the walk home, I passed a bookstore. New and used, both. It was called Nellie’s Books, and it looked kind of nice inside. Not like the big, new, modern kind of store with an espresso bar. Just books.
    I went inside.
    The woman behind the counter looked up at me and smiled. For some reason, that smile was almost like what I’d been looking for in Norway, except that didn’t make sense, because I could never travel to somebody’s smile. Then again, I’d never get to Norway, either. Who was I kidding?
    “Are you Nellie?” I asked. “Or is that just a name for the store?”
    Then I stood there dwelling on what a stupid thing that had been to say. Why did I even care? I didn’t, I’d just felt like I had to say something. But then I didn’t even know why. I thought, “Hi” would have been good.
    “In the flesh,” she said. “What can I help you with?”
    “I was wondering if you had any of those big, nice coffee-table books that are about travel.”
    “Any special place?”
    “Mountains are always good.”
    She looked at me a little funny when I said that. I guess because most people travel to a country, not to a shape of the ground.
    “I had something nice in the used section about the Himalayas,” she said. “Let me see if I still have it.”
    My heart jumped. If it was used, maybe I could even get it. But it was just one of those split-second thoughts. Those books cost big money, even used. Besides, they were way too nice to bring into my house.
    I followed her down a couple of aisles, watching her, but more from the corners of my eyes. So in case she looked back at me, it wouldn’t look like I was staring. She had hair like Sophie’s but a little browner, and her eyes were brown. I liked her nose, but I didn’t really know why. I couldn’t tell you one thing that was wrong with my nose, except for a few freckles, but all of a sudden, I wanted to trade it in for hers.
    Then she stopped and took a book off the shelf and held it with the cover toward me. I swear, my knees turned to butter. I felt like I might fall over. It had a picture on the cover that was so much like the first picture I’d ever seen of Tibet, it made my head feel foggy and far away, like this wasn’t really happening. It was like the place had followed me, and found me. It had the white temple with the fancy roof, the incredibly craggy and snowy mountains behind that, the smiley children in bright clothes, the prayer flags blowing in the wind. Well. It was a still picture, of course, so the prayer flags weren’t blowing. Except they were, and you could tell.
    Children in Tibet are always smiling in pictures. I think that might be part of how all this started.
    It had the word
Himalayas
really big on the cover, and in smaller letters it