How fun! Today is Operation Book Drop Off Day (a.k.a. #operationtbd on Twitter) which means that if you want to play, you’re to take a book to a public place and … drop it off. Yep. Just like that.
Needless to say, I just had to get in on the action! So, I signed a copy of SMUDGE’S MARK and wrote a note inside telling the finder that “Surprise! Finder’s Keepers!” Then I went to my neighborhood train station and strategically placed the book in a spot I knew it wouldn’t be overlooked: right on the steps that lead to and from the tracks! At least one person in the crowd that would soon be teeming out of the rush hour train would be curious enough to pick it up on their way up the stairs! Brilliant!
Brilliant idea!
I left the train station with a big smile on my face. I mean, who doesn’t love doing random things like this? And who wouldn’t love to find a free book, right? It was just so much fun, being all clandestine-like, dropping off a secret present for a secret person. Awesome!
About half-way home, I was struck with a horrible thought. What if … what if someone goes DOWN the stairs. And what if that someone doesn’t see the book and trips on it and falls all the way down the steps and breaks a leg! Both legs! And splits their head open on the concrete! And maybe sprains their wrist(s) as they’re trying to break their fall! And spills their hot coffee all over them and (gasp!) crushes their brand new iPad that they drove all night to wait in line for!
Crap! I signed the book! I wrote a “Surprise!” note in it! I’ll be sued! Horror!
I’ve got to move that book!
I did a u-turn as quickly as I could (and those aren’t always legal here, in Canada) and raced back to the train station (which isn’t legal anywhere, I don’t think) I parked, jumped out of the car, and speed-walked in the direction of the stairwell. I didn’t run because I didn’t want to look, um, obvious in case that poor person was already lying on the concrete, crying out in pain and at the loss of their iPad, with a crowd of people around them.
Well, you’ll be happy to know that there was no one lying on the concrete, crying out in pain. (Or at the loss of their iPad) In fact, the stairwell was still empty. I scooped up my book and put it in a much safer place.
A much safer place
Now I’ll be able to sleep tonight.
one word at a time 