WHO STOLE CURIOUS GEORGE

Written by Moe Zilla, Published on 8/21/2009

"I'm 75 years old," shouted Mr. Ferguson, "and I like Curious George!"

Everyone in the library stared at Mr. Ferguson, and Mrs. Yee, the librarian, glared, like she was trying to will him to talk more quietly. Even Mr. Ferguson's white hair seemed, like it was puffing away from his head in little tufts. But he was arguing with a seven-year-old!

Mr. Ferguson had a round face and round eyes, and he looked like an angry pancake as he leaned down to make his point. "The pictures are still funny!" Mr. Ferguson insisted. "And I'm glad when the monkey gets some help from his friend, the man with the yellow hat!" Seven-year-old Skyler looked at him suspiciously.

"Maybe the books remind me of when I was young," Mr. Ferguson added wistfully. "Back then, I had my whole life ahead of me."

"But now you're too old," said Skyler, and kicked him in the shins.

Mr. Ferguson hated children, but he loved children's books. For 75 years he'd lived in Granville, but he'd never visited the library before. Now he visited every day, always checking out one of the tiny yellow Curious George books with their funny, cartoony illustrations. It was embarrassing when Skyler kicked him, or the librarian gave him a scolding look, but he really enjoyed the books. (And it was cheaper than going to the movies!) Sometimes Mr. Ferguson's eyes lingered over the pictures, and he imagined what it would be like to live on an island far away, like the monkey in the Curious George books.

The daydreams were so wonderful, that it sometimes took a long time before he'd turn to the next page.

But now Mrs. Yee was stomping over towards the children’s section to scold the two noisy patrons. Skyler took off to hide behind a tall bookshelf, expecting Mr. Ferguson to come and chase him. Despite all of this, Mr. Ferguson still thought most days in Granville to be pretty boring. The library was next to a water silo that said "Granville" in bold black letters, and there wasn't much to see on the one road through town. Granville Avenue had just a few stores on either side, plus a narrow building that doubled as the sheriff's office. When the children grew up, they moved away from Granville, and if you stayed, like Mr. Ferguson did, life was pretty quiet.

Maybe that's why Mr. Ferguson liked the library so much.

But there was one story that Mr. Ferguson had never read. The Granville public library had 34 different books that were all about the life of his favorite funny monkey. There was "Curious George Goes to a Costume Party" and even "Curious George Goes to the Library." But now Mr. Ferguson was crouching by a floor-level shelf in the library's small children's section. He pointed his spectacles towards the books' spines so he could read every title for the book he was still looking for.

“Curious George and the Pizza”

Every day he’d looked through the other 33 books for that title. And every day it was gone. "Checked out by someone else," he muttered, and that only made him want the book more. He never told any of the children which book he wanted and least of all, Skyler. But today, yet again, he'd have to check out a different book instead.

Mrs. Yee, the librarian, seemed glad that the children's section had quieted down. Sometimes she wished she could throw out the noisy people and reserve the library for just quiet people. Yes, she'd read a story out loud every Wednesday at 2 p.m. for the children, but even then she talked in a soft, careful voice.

Walking sadly to the checkout desk, Mr. Ferguson carried his second choice: "Curious George at the Ballet." He tried not to look at the teenager behind the checkout desk, an intelligent looking youngster wearing glasses named Dexter. As Dexter ran his book over a laser scanner, Mr. Ferguson asked a question that would lead to a complicated mystery.

Is it possible that a book could be stolen?

"There's no way!” said Dexter proudly -- pointing to the library's new anti-crime system. "Our computer's pretty old so it can only track the adult books and the mysteries." But then he pointed to two tall rectangular panels, one on either side of the door. They were white and looked ordinary, but there was a fat wire connecting the two panels, and it led to a grey metal box on the wall by the checkout desk.

"Every book in this library has a small radio frequency transmitter.” Dexter said. "If you tried to walk out the door with a stolen library book…” And then he pulled a book from the stack, and carried it over to one of the panels. The box on the wall made a very loud ringing sound as Mrs. Yee squealed in surprise. Dexter smiled proudly and said, "It's not possible to steal a book. The alarm bells will always go off unless the book has been checked out."

Mr. Ferguson said it seemed like a waste of time, which offended Dexter. It seemed like Mr. Ferguson was always offending people. He was sorry that he'd raised his voice today at the 7-year old, although earlier in the week he’d even raised his voice at Dexter! ("It's never here!" Mr. Ferguson had shouted. "I check every single day, but the book that I want is never here!" It had been early in the morning, and he'd been feeling cranky. He'd walked over a mile to get to the library only to once again be disappointed.)

But on that day, shouting didn't seem to help. "Shh!" Mrs. Yee said fiercely. "Maybe I'll feed the book to my dog and then you'll never come back and make noise in my library." Dexter smiled like he thought that was a good idea, so Mr. Ferguson just took a deep breath and checked out a different book instead: "Curious George goes to the Dentist."

But Dexter seemed happy today, proud to be triggering the loud alarm bells. "See?" he said smugly. "It's just not possible to steal a library book."

"Except last Wednesday,” Mrs. Yee said angrily, just so she could disagree with Dexter. “What happened last Wednesday?” Mr. Ferguson asked.

"At 2:00, the box shorted a fuse for 10 minutes.” Dexter grumbled quietly.

"Because Dexter plugged a slide projector into the same circuit!" teased Mrs. Yee.

* * *

The next day, there was a police car parked in front of the library. The sheriff's office was only two blocks away, but Granville's sheriff liked having an excuse to drive the police car around. "I'm on official business,” he said to the librarian.

"What's that?" asked Mrs. Yee, suspiciously.

The sheriff looked down and mumbled under his breath. "I need a copy of 'Curious George and the Pizza.'"

"What?!" squawked Mrs. Yee.

The sheriff's face turned bright red, and he looked really uncomfortable. "It's not for me," he said. "The governor's family is having lunch in Granville today, and my wife wants to read a story to their kids. The governor is Italian-American, so she wants to read a children's book that's about pizza."

Mrs. Yee was so excited about the governor that she clapped her hands loudly while Dexter checked the computer's records for the book. "It says it's here -- it should be in the children's section." But the sheriff shook his head. The library had just opened, but he'd already checked in the children's section, and the book wasn't there. Mrs. Yee started to panic, while Dexter just looked hurt. "Our library's anti-crime system is foolproof!"

"There he is!" shouted Mrs. Yee, pointing at Mr. Ferguson. "He asks for that book every day! Arrest him!"

Mr. Ferguson glared back at Mrs. Yee, and then -- acting like a librarian – he said "Shh!" He was feeling even crankier than usual -- it was hot outside. And he didn't even think it was possible to arrest someone over Curious George.

"How come you're so sure I stole it?" Mr. Ferguson said. "I'm not the only one who wanted it. Mrs. Yee threatened to feed the book to her dog so I'd stop coming around making noise in your precious library. And when she said it, Dexter laughed! Maybe he stole it, and then hacked into the anti-crime system."

"Maybe Skyler stole it," Dexter suggested with a smile, "just to keep Mr. Ferguson from having it."

"Does Skyler hate Mr. Ferguson?" the sheriff asked.

"Well, he kicked him in the shins once," Dexter said.

"What are we going to do?" wailed the sheriff. "The governor's coming, my wife's counting on me -- and I want my Curious George!"

Can you help the sheriff find the book?