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“Uh-oh,” breathed Luna. “Now what did we do?”
I frowned. “Is he . . . smiling?”
Wilson was. In fact, he was positively beaming. Never having seen quite such a delighted expression on his face, I wondered if he’d had a small stroke.
“The phone call I just took was someone interested in making a donation,” he said.
Luna groaned. “Don’t tell me. A complete collection of National Geographic magazines again.”
“Or, perhaps, several hundred Reader’s Digest condensed books?” I suggested.
Wilson shook his head, eyes glowing. “You’re both wrong, for once. No, she wants to donate money.”
“Money?” chorused Luna and me.
Wilson said, “Money. A real gift, too. Substantial.” He frowned. I’ll have to figure out where those old gift record forms are. And the receipts for donor tax deductions.”
“Somewhere dusty, no doubt,” I said dryly.
Luna asked, “What did she want the money to be used for?”
Wilson waved his hand in the air. “That’s the best part of all. It’s to be used at the library’s discretion.”
I blinked at him. “So not just for material acquisition?”
“It could be used for library services, program support, staffing, whatever we choose!” Wilson could barely contain his delight. I could see the wheels turning in his mind.
“Is this some sort of memorial? Or to honor someone?” I asked.
“Not a bit. But I understand I have both of you to thank,” said Wilson, grinning at us.
Luna and I stared at each other.
“We have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Luna.
Wilson chuckled. “I must say you’ve been very cagey about it all. You must have had some sort of idea it was in the works. She surely said something to you about it.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Grace Armstrong. I understand she was your hostess this weekend.” He laughed again, which must have been a personal record. For Wilson, he seemed positively giddy. “If I’d only known, I’d have been a lot more thrilled about your weekend off.”
Luna and I stared at each other again.
Wilson continued, “She said what great representatives of the library you both were. And that she’d been considering making some sort of donation to benefit the community for a while and decided on the library after speaking with you.”
Luna said, still sounding doubtful, “Well, I guess she’s moving back to Whitby after being gone for a long time. Making a donation that the community can all enjoy makes sense.”
Wilson said, “I’m trying to think of how we should recognize her contribution. Perhaps we can name our community room the Grace Armstrong Community Room?”
I nodded. “That would certainly be easy enough.”
Wilson added, “And maybe we could thank her in one of our online newsletters. And have a link in case anyone else feels they would like to make a contribution, themselves.”
I could feel Wilson just getting cranked up on the whole program. It was likely going to turn into an entire movement.
“I don’t know why we haven’t focused on donations before,” muttered Wilson, almost to himself. “Perhaps some people would like to even list the library in their wills. The library could be a beneficiary.”
I glanced at Luna. We were losing him, I could tell.
“Just think of what we could do with more money!” Wilson’s eyes lit up with glee. “More laptops for the computer area. We could update our technology. Purchase more periodical subscriptions. Buy educational toys for the children’s department. Get software: language learning software or genealogy reference software. Update our furniture!”
He was on a roll. He started walking away from Luna and me, still muttering under his breath and likely on his way to make a list of all the ways the library could benefit from donations. Then he stopped short and whirled around. “And you two are having lunch with Grace today.”
I blinked at him. “We are?”
“Indeed, you are. She asked if she could take you both to lunch and of course I said yes. Any time. She’ll be here around noon.” He strode off toward his office.
Luna and I stared at each other.
“What on earth was that about?” Luna rubbed her forehead.
“I don’t really know. I didn’t get the impression that either of us were great ambassadors for the library over the weekend, did you? I mean, people asked about what we did and we talked about it. I do love it here, so maybe some of my passion rubbed off. I gave Felicity and Grace a book recommendation. But it wasn’t as if we were doing some sort of propaganda campaign to get guests to donate to the library.”
Luna shrugged. “I guess it’s like I was saying: she’s back in Whitby and wants to do something to make her feel as if she’s helping out the town in some way.”
“It sure must have been a generous donation to have Wilson act like that. I’ve never seen him that way.”
Luna nodded. “Yeah, he’s on cloud nine.” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “Maybe this is the right time for my mom to ask him out to dinner. I’m going to tell her.”
She hurried off in the direction of the periodicals and I slowly got behind the circulation desk. I’d somehow thought that the oddness of the weekend was going to completely dissipate once I’d gotten into the safety of the library, but that wasn’t proving to be the case.
Fortunately, the morning proved to be as busy as the weekend apparently had been. I helped several patrons with computer and cell phone questions, showed another patron an Excel spreadsheet tutorial, helped two women find something to read, and helped another find local resources to help with a job hunt.
Wilson came up to me shortly before noon. “Don’t you need to be getting ready for lunch?” He frowned reproachfully at me.
“It’s pretty busy up front,” I replied. “And Grace isn’t here yet.”
“I’m sure she’ll be here any minute. I’ll take over the circulation desk, myself,” he said briskly. “Go find Luna.”
I wasn’t sure how much preparation was required in getting ready for lunch, but when your manager asks you, you go.
Luna was shelving books and glanced up as I walked over. “We’re to be getting ready for our lunch,” I said dryly.
Luna knit her brows. “Getting ready? What on earth does that mean?”
I shrugged. “Maybe we’re supposed to figure out what to say to Grace. I want to make sure she doesn’t feel bad about the way her party went.”
“No, she did everything right. She couldn’t control what happened.” Luna gave a little shudder.
“Do you think that’s why she gave a donation to the library?” I asked. “It just seems sort of random. I’d gotten the impression she wasn’t much of a reader.”
“She’s not,” said Luna. “But maybe she wants to be. Or maybe she just liked what she heard about it. Or maybe she simply wants to make a contribution the whole community can enjoy.”
“It must have been a sizeable one if Wilson is talking about new computers and furniture.”
Luna said, “Yeah, but everything is relative, right? This is a woman who had a yacht with a captain for a weekend party. Maybe the size of the donation didn’t even seem big to her.” She looked behind me. “Here she is now.”
Luna and I both turned around with big, hopefully genuine grins as Grace walked toward us.