………….

I found it by accident, of course, that’s always how the strange things begin. Just carelessly sliding my hand along the shelf. The spine was plain, the cover worn, and its title stamped in fading gold. There was no picture or blurb, just a name, mine.

I laughed out loud, a little embarrassed in the quiet of the library. Someone’s idea of a joke. Some other Sharon-Lee Such somewhere. I’d never really stopped to consider someone else could have my name.

But when I opened it, the first line took my breath away. It wasn’t even vague or just a similar coincidence. It was me. The street I grew up on. The dog I had when I was seven. The lie I told in grade three that still made my stomach twist with guilt when I thought about it. Even the way my mother used to clear her throat before speaking.

Page after page, my life exposed with a precision no stranger could possibly know.

My fingers tightened around the cover, as I flipped ahead faster, my heart racing. There were even mentions of things I had buried, deeply, even from myself.

And then I reached the part about the library. I read how my own footsteps were described in clinical detail, the smell of the old carpet that I’d always turned my nose up at. The the hum of fluorescent lights, with their little flicker, I’d always found them annoying for a library. Even the way my eyes lingered on the on the spine because my name looked wrong in gold lettering. I read about the laugh I’d just made, the one I hadn’t meant to make.

I looked up, half expecting someone to answer the mounting questions I had.

Then my eyes dropped back to the page.

I wanted to put it down. I should have put it down. But I bargained with myself… there were still so many pages left. Surely it was safe to keep reading.

The next line read, She’s going to turn the page anyway. And before I could stop myself… I did.