6 - Pages of Sin

couple with loose hinges. Go through them carefully and then we’ll do some quickie fixes on the spot.”
    There was general chatter as everyone began to thumb through their books.
    A guy named Rob sounded horrified. “This page is completely falling out.”
    “Excellent,” I said.
    “I’ve got a bad thingie-ma-jig,” Celeste said, holding her book out for me to see.
    Trudy chuckled. “That’s gotta hurt.”
    There were a few more laughs as I took the book and examined it. “Oh, you’re right, that’s really bad. You’ve got a flapping spine.”
    Celeste gave Trudy a pointed look. “See? I told you there was something wrong.”
    Trudy snorted. “You’ve got something wrong, all right.”
    “This is easily fixed,” I said, overlooking their friendly banter as I walked up and down the rows of tables showing everyone Celeste’s flapping spine, flicking the loose material back and forth so they could all see the problem. “Now remember, we’re talking quick and dirty repairs here. If this were a rare antiquarian book, I would cut off my arm before I’d use any of these tips. Is everyone clear on that?”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Sam said.
    I grinned. “Good. Now you all can practice sliding your skewers into the bottle of glue. You can see how uniformly the glue is applied.”
    “Excuse me, Brooklyn,” someone at the next table said. “There’s something inside this book. It looks personal.”
    I turned. A woman named Meredith held a folded square of paper in her hand. I took it from her, unfolded it, and found an old letter on a piece of lined school notebook paper. Every line of both sides of the paper was covered in writing.
    My darling Byron, it began. I frowned and almost folded it closed. This was none of my business.
    “Oh, hell,” I muttered. Who was I kidding? I continued reading. The handwriting was curvy and loopy and feminine. Wanda must have written this love letter to her husband-to-be many years ago.
    It was so sweet. Of course, now that Wanda was gone, this would be a bittersweet memento for Byron. Still, I knew he would want to keep it. I could give it to him at the memorial service Thursday night, unless I saw him sooner.
    The letter started out flowery with lots of gushing promises of a timeless love that she knew would last forever.
    Before continuing on, I glanced around the room and found Robin staring at me with a suspicious gleam in her eye. I gave her a brief nod as if to convey the message that I would share this information with her later. She nodded back. Message received.
    Everyone else was practicing with their skewers and bottles of glue, so I kept reading.
    With the next paragraph, Wanda abruptly changed the subject. She had to leave town and she knew he would be upset about it. It was a last minute decision, but it was important to her, some sort of religious mission she had signed up for and pledged to carry out several years before she’d met him.
    I’ll only be gone for one short year and I wouldn’t be going if it wasn’t so vitally important to so many people. But I’ll think of you every day, my darling, and when I return, I’ll be ready to marry you immediately—if you’ll still have me. Oh my sweet love, I can’t wait until we are husband and wife!
     
    I should have felt guilty, reading her private words to her lover. It was almost like I was eavesdropping on the two of them. On the other hand, I’ve never had a problem with eavesdropping, so I continued reading.
    There was a short paragraph extolling the virtues of performing good works and dreaming of the wonderful things she would teach the village children. Then she veered off again, explaining how her church group would be installing a new irrigation system for the poor community that would allow their crops and animals to flourish.
    She followed that up with more flowery words of love. I had to assume that everything worked out for the two of them and Byron forgave her for going away, because they got married, right?
    I turned the page over and read more of her meandering words of devotion. The letter ended with, I pray you will always love me as much as I love you.
    All my love,
     
     
    Elaine.
    I blinked and read it again.
    Elaine?
    Yes, it was written by Elaine. To Byron. Who was married to Wanda. Who was dead.
    I turned it over and checked the date on the top. The letter had been written almost sixteen years ago. By Elaine !
    My hand trembled as I folded the pages and slipped the