Local
A long-overdue library book returns with a fern between its pages
During an attic clear-out, someone discovered a long-overdue novel and brought it back with an apology. Between its pages lay a fern leaf preserved for years.
It turned up in a cardboard box at the back of an attic, under a stack of old magazines: a hardback novel, its cover faded, the library stamp still crisp on the inside page. The return date was from long before the person who found it was born.
Rather than quietly keeping it, the finder took the book back, along with a handwritten note apologising on behalf of whoever had borrowed it all those years ago.
The library staff expected a curiosity. What they did not expect was what they found when they opened it. Halfway through, flattened between two chapters, lay a fern frond: dry, brown-green and completely whole, every tiny leaflet still in place.
A bookmark from another time
Nobody knows who pressed it, or why. Perhaps a walk in the woods and a reader looking for something to mark their page. Perhaps a keepsake that was meant to be found again and simply never was. The page it marked offers no obvious clue, which, staff admit, has only made the mystery more fun.
No fine was charged. Instead, the book and the fern now sit side by side in a glass case by the front desk, with a small card inviting visitors to guess the story behind them. The guesses so far range from a first date to a school nature project.
The novel is back in the catalogue after its long absence. For now, though, it is staying exactly where it is.