"JESS! JESS! Come look at this!" Michael called excitedly.
She hurried to his side to find him carefully holding a scrapbook. Before she could close the distance between them, he roughly opened the cover. Jessica winced at the sound of cracking leather, but Michael ignored it and thumbed through a few pages.
She saw faded pencil writing and a few pictures on one page, but before she could focus on what was before her, Michael flipped the page to reveal a worn cardboard placard advertising a circus sideshow featuring a mermaid.
"Mermaid?" Michael scoffed, rapidly turning the page. "What nonsense."
Mermaid? Jessica felt a cold shiver run down her spine and the sudden need to distract her husband although the logical part of her brain did not know why. Michael continued to abuse the scrapbook with his haphazard shuffling back and forth.
"Why is it nonsense?" Jessica asked, growing irritated at the lack of regard her husband was showing the book.
"Because the Masen family were all scientists and everyone knows mermaids are made up. No one in their right mind would ever believe in such poppycock."
"Poppycock?"
"Masen the second's favorite curse word."
"Of course it was."
Jessica saw bits and glimpses of tickets and playbills and advertisements, but all were rapidly passed in order to advance to the next page. She could tell he was getting more and more frustrated as bits of paper fluttered to the floor. Somewhere an archivist was having heart palpitations, she was certain.
She gently took the scrapbook from him.
"Why don't you go rummage through the library, instead? Maybe the Masen's were more organized than you think, and your answers are there."
Michael looked at her as if she had just solved the question of world peace, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, and who put the bop in the bop she bop do whop all at the same time.
"Of course they did! Rumor has it Mrs. Masen prime was a librarian! Or writer. Or something bookish."
And with a quick peck on the cheek, Michael raced toward the stairs.
"Be a lamb and put everything to rights, yes?" He gave her a boyish grin before winking and disappearing down the steps like a herd of elephants.
Jessica blinked owlishly for a moment before shaking her head. She loved that man, but ye gods, he could be frustrating. Jessica began straightening the papers as best she could.
