A/N: Tom is from a novel I hope to publish later this year.

When Tom was still a kitten, his favorite place was in the house library.

He would spend hours curled up in the chair next to the fire, looking through the books, at pictures and maps of faraway places. He’d read through the collection of scripts that his mother and father collected from the theater. He’d look through the window, dreaming about what his life would become.

After the theater had been bought and Tom’s life was changed, one of the first things to go were the books. In small stacks at first but by the end, the whole library was empty.

Now, while he was teaching Clyde to read, Tom couldn’t help but think back to that sheltered room and miss his books.