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They finished their coffee and muffins in silence Jade was about to leave when Alex Stanton froe metal object that appeared to be extremely heavy for the wiry man He all but dropped it on the spare desk in the corner and dumped a satchel next to it

He took a moment to catch his breath as Jade closed the door behind him Then he told her, “Special delivery for you”

“What is it?” she asked as she stepped around him

Lisette answered the question “It’s a manual typewriter A Royal from the early 1900s”

“There’s parchment too,” Alex said as he lifted the flap on the satchel to reveal a thick stack

“The ribbon looks to be in good shape,” Lisette rabbed a sheet and rolled it into place, then typed a feords “Very nice Quite smooth, in fact, so perhaps it’s been recently refurbished”

Jade was perplexed “What am I supposed to do with it?”

With a laugh, her friend said, “I haven’t the slightest idea Write a book, I guess You do love reading them Maybe someone thinks there’s a story inside that head of yours” She went back to her desk

To Alex, Jade said, “Thanks for bringing it over”

“Sure thing”

He left the library and Jade sat at the chair behind the typewriter, staring at the letters on the keys “Why are they not alphabetized?”

“It’s been a long tiic I once heard is that they’re arranged by coe You becoh, you can type without even looking at the letters”

Jade laughed “Yeah, right” She started pecking out words, nonetheless Fascinated, even though she wasn’t actually typing anything coherent—just accli herself to the layout—she spent the rest of the afternoon clicking away before heading to the tavern

When Walker returned her hoot another surprise

As she entered the living rooarland on the fireplace ular table was set for tith her usual dishes and accented with a long, plush arrangearland, pinecones and tall tapers