Jeff stopped by the library one afternoon to pick up a movie he'd placed on hold. Knowing Chelsea was working that day, he wandered back to her office to say hi. None of the other library workers asked him what he was doing there or gave him a hard time for being in the employee area, because he'd been such a great Santa.
"Hey Chels," he said. "What are you up to?"
"I'm about to go shelve these books," she replied. "Want to help me?"
"Sure."
They walked back out to the floor and wound their way through the shelves to the back corner of the library. Chelsea began finding the proper place for her armful of books; Jeff, meanwhile, began pulling books off the shelf and looking at them.
"You're supposed to be helping me," Chelsea said. "That isn't helping."
"A lot of these look pretty old," Jeff said, ignoring her. "I didn't think you had anything this old here. Ooh, what's this one?"
Jeff eyed the thickest, oldest-looking book on the shelf. The title was too faded to be read on the spine. He tried to take it off the shelf, but it wouldn't budge.
"What the heck?" Jeff began pulling on the book with both hands.
"Be careful!" Chelsea said rather loudly, prompting several shushing sounds from unseen patrons in other parts of the library. Then, quieter, "these ARE old books, so you'd better not damage them!"
After a third effort also failed, Jeff got annoyed and tried pushing the book farther in to the shelf--and this time it did move a little. Immediately, a hidden door opened at their feet, with stairs leading down into the darkness.
"What is this? Did you know about this secret passage?"
"No," said Chelsea. "But I want to know about it. Let's check it out."
She set the rest of her books down, and the two of them turned on their phones' flashlight apps and headed down the stairs.
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