Page 74 of The Lost and Found Girl

And she had come away from the meeting with a stack of brochures, which to young Ruby had meant the entire world.

Whether she had wanted one, Dana had earned a friend for life that day.

“We just finished a new display. But the whole back wing needs to be reset. I don’t know if you had any ideas.”

“Well,” Ruby said, thrown off-balance for a second, but realizing that she shouldn’t be that surprised that Dana had gotten right down to it. She wasn’t really one for small talk or chitchat. She certainly wasn’t going to ask Ruby anything about her time overseas. Unless it was to find out about which historical sites she had visited.

But she wasn’t going to want to know about Italian men.

Which was fine.

Ruby didn’t really want to share about that with her anyway.

Dana had long been like a family member to Ruby. But like a sort of distant, grumpy aunt.

“I thought that I would look and see what we have,” she said. “I want to see what kind of state the archives are in.”

“We haven’t had an archivist in official capacity, so I imagine you will find it...”

“Anarchist archival?”

“I think that’s slightly too exciting a word to use here.” Dana’s lips twitched with just the slightest bit of humor, and Ruby felt accomplished.

She did make people happy.

She was here for a reason.

“Well, I’m looking forward to gathering and reorganizing all of the resources. Looking at the catalog of artifacts and seeing what we can feature. Especially for the holidays. I think when tourists start to come in for Victorian Christmas we should have some kind of coinciding theme.”

“You do have ideas,” Dana said, and if Ruby hadn’t known better, she would’ve thought that her tone was approving.

“Yeah, I guess I have a few. Or rather, I have a direction.”

There was a staircase toward the back of the building, dark walnut steps and more of that bright white on the banister. The museum was large and cavernous. And very empty. But on a weekday that wasn’t unusual. Especially in the fall. Over summer, people came to stay, and again over Christmas, but otherwise there was a lot of weekend traffic. Very much the usual tourism cycle.

She followed Dana up the stairs and down the hall. And toward a part of the museum she had never been in before. The ceilings were high, the moldings ornate, and Ruby felt like she could easily compose poetry about them. Dana pushed the door open, and a rush of satisfaction washed over Ruby. It was a library. A proper library. With big, weighty bookshelves built into the walls. Each one of them absolutely filled to the bursting point. With folios filled with documents, books and artifacts that were on display.

“This is your office,” Dana said.

“Really?” Ruby asked, turning a circle, aware that she looked a little bit like an overeager golden retriever.

“Yes,” Dana said. “There’s a microfiche, for records that haven’t been fully digitized. There are some that are digitized.”

“Do you have thePear Blossom Gazette?”

“Some,” she said. “Notable events. Announcements about World Wars I and II, the paper from 9/11. But the majority of the archive is housed in their offices.”

“Mmm. Dahlia showed me yesterday. I might want to use some. I love old newspapers,” Ruby said. “I like to find the smallest local paper wherever I go and go back through different articles. It gives you such a picture of the place.”

“Well, better you than me,” said Dana. “I don’t have the patience to read newsprint.”

“I have infinite patience for it,” Ruby said.

“There are clothes,” Dana said. “They’re in a wardrobe over there in the corner.”

“Clothes?” Ruby asked. “Well, we have to do a clothing display.”

“I thought you might like that. I remember you were very into the costuming when you did living history.”