From the time he was a young child he loved reading books.
So, when he was old enough, he joined the local library. He would read just about anything. Of course, as time went on he settled down into his favourites; these were mainly mystery and crime. That’s what made it so unexpectedly intriguing the day he came across the cover. It was late afternoon and the park was practically empty. The bus from school to home dropped him near the park and the footpath that ran along the far edge of it was part of his shortcut. It was on this occasion that he found the book’s cover. It was the soft cover of a paperback book. He surmised that it must have been a slim volume. Looking at the width of the spine it wouldn’t have had many pages. The picture on the front cover was interesting enough, but the title was almost obliterated with stains.
He looked around, and it was then that he noticed the pages. They had been scattered, by the wind presumably, halfway across the large, grassy field. It looked as though, despite being strewn around, they were all there. There was nowhere for them to go, being dotted around in the middle of such a wide expanse of field. So, it was with this sense of confidence that he proceeded to pick them all up. Having done this, he returned to the path and made his way to the nearest bench seat where he sat sorting them by page number. He felt sure he’d found them all when he came across the end page, but when all fifty odd pages were put in their correct sequence he realised that the first four pages were missing. Nevertheless, being an avid reader and regardless of the failing light, he sat and read it.
On continuing his journey home, he was plagued by the knowledge that quite apart from it being a really good read with a great ending, he just couldn’t imagine how it began!