Those First Pages
No one ever reads the first few pages of a book.
Why should they? Those pages mean nothing to the story.
Take this book for example. Complacency of the Learned. Big, isn't it? Hold it in your hands. Heavy enough to kill a cat if you dropped it. Careful now, don't want to cause any damage.
Look down at the cover. Pretty mysterious. The androgynous hero facing a battlefield of chess. Many people have wondered about the symbolism of the cover art. What is the significance of the hero being genderless? What is the deeper metaphor behind the chessboard?
But that is not our purpose here. Nor is our purpose to read the book. You wouldn't understand it anyway. No one does, yet it has amassed an enormous following. No one knows why. Our purpose here is much simpler, and much more mysterious.
Not a single member of the fanbase has ever noticed this mystery. If they have, no one has felt the need to investigate. You may be the first to figure it out.
Open the front cover. No, do not go to Chapter One. Do not flip to the Preface. Look there, in the very front. Do you see that?
That is the dedication page. Read it. No one understands it. It reads simply this:
For Roxanne.
