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“We’re sure going to miss you around here,” Leslie said, handing Stede the selected reading for the day.
“I’m going to miss it, too. But it’s time I finally, and fully retire.”
Leslie narrowed her eyes and then asked, not so seriously, “Is Ed making you do this?”
From the desk in the corner, “Hey. I’m right here, you know?” He picked up another crayon and continued coloring on the worksheet on the table.
“I know, love, I’m only teasing,” Leslie said, walking over to give him a pat on the shoulder. Turning back to Stede she asked, “Do you need anything else for today?”
He looked at the stack of books she’d given him and his customary mug of tea. “I think we’re all set. I’ll be out there in a few minutes. Get ‘em good and warmed up for me, yeah?”
She stood for a moment, her eyes glassy. “Oh,” she said, before pulling him into a hug. “I love you. No one’ll ever be better than you, Captain. You do all the voices.” She kissed his cheek and wiped at the tear tracks on her cheeks. She nodded once then turned to leave.
He heard the scrape of the chair feet against the old linoleum of the office. He looked up to see Ed, black framed glasses and white hair pulled back in a ponytail, reaching out to put his hands on Stede’s shoulders.
“You ready for this?”
Stede exhaled. “I really am. It’s been wonderful these last 15 years. You know, just last week one of my first kids came in with their niece for story time. It really made me realize how long I’ve been doing this but love, I’m 77. It’s time.” He kissed Ed. “Want to help me carry these out there?”
Ed picked up the short stack of books but stopped Stede just before they left the office. “I’m proud of you, Stede Bonnet. You’ve done something special here with these kids.” He squeezed Stede’s hand before leading him out to the reading area.
The floor was packed with kids of all ages. It didn’t seem to matter that the space was usually full of 5, 6, and 7-year olds. Today it looked like the ages ranged from toddler to teen with adults lining up along the walls and squeezing into the small chairs at the kid-size tables. It took his breath away.
“Please give a great big Republic Library welcome to Mr. Stede!” Leslie said to raucous, surely too loud for a library, applause.
“Well, hello!” He gave a quick double-wave and took his seat at the front of the space. “Thank you. Thank you so much!” He flapped his hands to quiet them down. When the applause finally ended, he said again, “Thank you. For the wonderfully warm welcome and for the last 15 years. You’ve given an old man so much joy. Now, who wants to hear a story?” Hands shot up into the air from the floor.
As had become custom, he held up two books one at a time and whichever one had more hands raised moved on to the next round. There were three rounds every week and the ones that didn’t make the cut got recycled to the following week. Ultimately, an all-time favorite, The Book With No Faces won out. Stede did all the silly voices and funny sounds to much joy and more applause.
“Now, if you’ll indulge me,” he said, pulling one more book from the bottom of the stack, “I’d like to have my final reading be a book I used to read to my kids when they were your age.” He cleared his throat and began, “‘The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another his mother called him “WILD THING!” and Max said “I’LL EAT YOU UP!” so he was sent to bed without eating anything.’”
As the wild rumpus got started, Stede noticed some very familiar faces squeeze onto the carpet in front of him. All four of his grandchildren had taken their seat and behind them, flanking Ed, stood their parents. His voice caught in his throat, only for a moment, before he hid it behind the roar of a Wild Thing. The story ended as it always does, with Max returning home to his supper, and Stede held tears in his eyes at the very library-inappropriate hoops and hollers he received.
He was met with hugs from his grandchildren and Alma and Louis through the sea of milling parents and children. “Congratulations, Grandpa!” “Well done, Dad!” “Happy retirement!”
“I didn’t expect you all to make it,” he said, his arm wrapped around Alma’s waist.
“Wouldn’t have missed it.”
“We’re all coming back to your house for dinner and cake. Ed planned everything,” Louis told him.
He looked around but was unable to locate his husband in the crowd. He was about to ask if either Alma or Louis had seen him since the reading ended but a tiny tug on his pants leg and small voice saying, “Mr Stede?” had him looking down instead.
**
“Do you want to just follow us home?” Ed was asking his kids as they stood near the exit.
“Do you need us to pick up anything on the way?”
“No, everything should be there. Roach was going to grab the food and Lucius is already there getting everything set up so we should be good.”
“Edward, how much did you do for this?” Stede asked, slipping his cable knit sweater on.
“I gotta round up the girls. I'll see you at the house,” Alma said before Ed could answer. She kissed each of their cheeks and said again, “Congrats, Dad.”
Louis had already ushered the boys out to let them run around on the library’s front lawn.
“Nothing less than what you deserve, babe. You ready to go?”
Stede looked around at the space he’d been at every week for the last decade and a half. He knew he’d be back, he had a stack of books on the coffee table due next week, but it felt different to be leaving it this time. He nodded and was just about to turn to go when Leslie caught him.
“Stede, oh, please don't go - we'll eat you - we love you so!” She handed him the copy of Where the Wild Things Are he’d read from as a parting gift. Another hug and he slipped out of the library without any further notice.
In the car on the way home, Ed kept the radio low and the conversation to a minimum. Stede opened the book in his lap and out of it fell a homemade card, Ed’s writing on the front combined with a crayon sketch of a rudimentary library. ‘Congratulations, Mr Stede!’ and inside were varying successes at signatures from the kids he’d read to that day. Tears filled his eyes and slipped silently down his cheeks as he held the card to his chest with one hand and held Ed’s in the other.