The book arrived in a donation box with a return slip dated three days after its borrower's death. Ellis, the library assistant, checked the obituary because the surname matched his own. The borrower was his uncle, whom he barely remembered.
A second slip had been pasted beneath the first. It showed that the book was returned before the death, then borrowed again on an account recorded only by its number. Ellis thought someone had used his uncle's card. The lending register showed a different borrower: his aunt.
She had taken the book home to finish a passage he marked for her. Years later, she could still quote its opening line but had forgotten returning it. The donation box came from a library storage room, not from her house; the book had continued circulating after both slips became obsolete.
Ellis added no family explanation to the catalogue. He sent his aunt a photograph of the marked passage, then placed the book on the public shelf. By closing time, somebody else had borrowed it, carrying their private history into an entirely new reading.