Bently McQuinn Saves Literature

Fifteen Years Later

Bently McQuinn yawned as he shuffled out to his mailbox. His wife had already left for work, and he was expecting a package today. Inside, he found what he was looking for; a small box, like one that would fit a good-sized book in it.

He flipped the flag on the mailbox down and went back inside. He made himself a fresh cup of coffee and sat down at the round kitchen table and began opening the package. It was from his agent, Hailey Holmes. “Congrats Bent, it’s in the Top Five of the NY Times list already. ~Hailey,” read the card. Inside was his latest book, Night Watchers.

He smiled and turned it over. On the back was the summary and a small picture of himself. It was surreal, seeing himself on the back of a book cover, seeing his name in the book shop windows, having thousands, perhaps millions, of people reading his words.

His phone buzzed noisily against the table. He picked it up and flipped it open. Meeting with King today at the Raven Café, one o’clock, it reminded him. Nodding, he closed his phone and took a sip of his coffee.

-

“Long time no see, partner.”

Bently sat down across from Stephen King at the small café where he had spent a lot of time writing and dreaming of his adventures in the literary world.

“How are you, King?”

King was quite a bit more aged since Bently had last seen him. But he was still writing strong. In fact, it was his latest book that was at the number one spot on the New York Times best-seller list.

“I’m good, yourself? I saw that Night Watchers hit number five last night.”

“Yeah, it did,” said Bently with a smile. “I’m good. I’m going to be a father in three months time.”

“Really? Congratulations,” said King, raising his glass of water to Bently.

“So, was this just a random meeting?” Bently asked after a bit of silence.

“Certainly not, I have something for you.”

King reached down and pulled out a notebook from his bag and set it on the table. Bently snorted.

“Like I need more of these, King.”

“It’s not just any notebook, Bently. It’s like the one Meggie used. You can communicate with people from the literary world with it.”

Bently pulled it closer to himself in wonder. “Thanks King!”

“No problem,” King replied mysteriously.

Bently ran his fingers over the cover. Could this be it? His chance to go back to the literary world and see everyone he had met there?

He flipped open the cover and found to his surprise a line of text penned neatly on the first page. Bently could tell that it was none other than Albus Dumbledore’s from the way it looped. And he smiled when he read it.

“Just in case.”

The End