The Library Visit

As I was cleaning the marble plaque near the original reading room, I gasped: the name

'Ethan R. Scott' was etched right beneath the library's founding donor.

The shock of seeing his name—the name of my college love who vanished—carved into history made

my heart stop. Just as I grasped the reality of the weathered plaque, Ethan himself walked

into the room. I had to bite back the question of the plaque's meaning; the sheer shock

of his presence was overwhelming. Our eyes met, six years of silence hanging heavily

between us. 'So you're volunteering here too?' he asked. Tension tightened its grip when we

discovered we’d been assigned to catalog the same section. As we worked side