I started reading to myself, as well as out loud to Mother and other family members, between the ages of three and four. By the time I turned five, I was reading “chapter books,” like the Bobbsey Twins. I read whenever books came my way, usually by my mother taking me to the town’s small but book-packed library on Saturdays. Along my journey as a reader, there were other helping hands that develop my love for books-Mrs. Eleanor Harrison, my first-grade teacher.

When I started first grade, making friends became a challenge for me. My rich vocabulary made me easy to be labeled as a bookworm (书呆子), causing other children to shy away from playing with me. My mother explained that there would be “stuff” I already knew while others didn’t. Reading was one such skill — I could read while none of my classmates were able to. Therefore, when we moved to a new city, and I found myself in a new school, I decided to pretend that I didn’t know many words either, just to fit in.

On the first day of school, my mother walked me there and introduced herself to Mrs. Harrison, my new teacher. After that, I walked to school and back home by myself. However, around a month later, something significant happened. One afternoon, when I came home from school, my mother told me that my teacher, Mrs. Harrison, had called and wanted to have a meeting with her. I immediately asked if I was in trouble since I had only heard of teachers calling parents when there was all issue.

“She didn’t say so,” responded Mother, as thoughts raced through my mind, “She said she wanted to talk to me about you.” Mother pulled me to her — one of her healing hugs. I trusted my mother. I knew she loved me. I blurted out, “So, you think this will have a ‘happily ever after’ ending?” Mother kissed me on the top of my head, just as she often did, and smiled saying, “Yes. I’m sure it will be alright.”

The day of the meeting came.

“I like that idea!” Firmly, I nodded a yes.

There are a number of volunteer organizations out there that deal in things like clothing donation and the sale of remaining books. Retired schoolteacher Cathy McAllister has been a member of such an organization, VNSA, since 2012.Her duties in this regard involve working throughout the year to help prepare the books for their February sale and acting as personnel chair for the sale itself. This means that she helps coordinate(协调)all the other volunteers that help out before, during, and after the event.

It was before the 2019 book sale and Cathy once again found herself sitting among a towering pile of books and sorting through them to ensure that they would be in go0d enough condition to resell. As she was sorting, she came upon a book. The slightly broken book was in fair condition but it was one of four copies she had already found, and she a saved three of those already. The others had been much more gently used as well. Though she didn't like doing it, she had done this long enough to know that the only remaining choice was to throw it into the pile for repurposing.

A greedy book lover herself, Cathy felt guilty about throwing away a perfectly good book. Before she threw it away, she decided to check for more serious damage inside that might justify her giving it up. She opened the cover and moved to fan through the pages when she noticed something unusual.

When she opened the cover, Cathy was surprised to see that a part had been hollowed out inside the book. It looked as though someone had taken an X-Acto knife and rather expertly hollowed out a significant space. What's more, the book's previous owner had chosen to hide something in that space. She looked down and saw that someone had hidden four packages in the space, each containing ten$100 bills. Cathy's first thought was that the bills were toy money that perhaps a kid had hidden inside as part of some childish game or something.

But Cathy soon realized that these were real $100 bills.

Luckily for Cathy, the book also contained the name of the book owner.