I'd instinctively notice something wrong with the neighborhood for several days before my brooding focus lifted long enough for me to truly grow curious.

Standing and walking out from the porch where I've been sitting, I approached three children that were

huddled around some sort of object.

What do you have there?

Immediately, the children dropped their object of interest and bolted.

I scanned the street, but nobody else was around at this time of day.

The object they dropped was a book, and that was the odd thing. I had recently seen children walking around

with half hidden books, magazines and even newspapers. That might have been normal in

my day but children today are more interested in their phones and video games.

Why were they all walking around with artifacts of the written word?

A tale of two cities.

I dusted it off, flipped it over, scanned the front and back, and opened it up.

Nothing inside.

Flip to the first page.

It was the worst of times. It was the best of times. It was the age of foolishness, it was the

age of wisdom. I frowned. It was technically correct, but the phrases were out of order.

Hey, where did you get this? correctly correct, but the phrases were out of order.

Hey, where did you get this?

The darting children rounded a distant corner without more than giggles and screams.

Patience.

I had it, they didn't. I watched from the porch for the next several days, waiting

for the right moment. It came without much fanfare. An older boy walked past with several of

...