Mystery at the Library

 Mystery at the Library

Cast in Alphabetical Order: Pete Fascione, Faith Flaherty, Alice Judge, Helen Kelly, Bo Kinney, Bob O’Day, Violet Rovani, Steve Sherlock, Bill Wyllie

Setting:  Board Meeting of Friends of Franklin Library.  This library is in Franklin, MA and is arguably the oldest in the country.  This claim to fame is due to the Franklin Collection.  In 1790, the town requested a bell from Benjamin Franklin, because we named our town after him.  Instead, Franklin sent us 116 books, with a note saying “sense is preferable to sound.”

The library still has the books.  They are kept in an hermetically sealed show case. That is until the books were mysteriously stolen, one ill fated Sunday.

Scene 1

Narrator: We begin in the library conference room where the chairperson is 

Welcoming the new youth representative, Violet.

(Chair) Helen:  Take a seat anywhere, Violet.  We are very informal.       Everyone this is 

Violet, our new member, representing our Young People.

Everyone: Greeting Violet and each other.

Helen: I think we are all here, except for Bo and his emotional support dog, Iggy.  

Bill: He always comes late..

Steve: Yes, but he comes.  It’s his work, you know.

Helen: It’s one o’clock.  Let’s begin.  

Roll call: 

Pete Fascione, Faith Flaherty, Alice Judge, Helen Kelly, Bo Kinney, Bob    

O’Day, Violet Rovani, Steve Sherlock, Bill Wyllie

I have called this emergency meeting to inform you of a very distressing

Situation.

Everyone: Oh no.  The rumors are true.

Helen: Sunday afternoon, the town’s automated facilities management software 

malfunctioned and unlocked the doors.  Even though the building’s     electricity wasn’t on, people entered and roamed the halls, acting

like nothing was unusual. Not a single staff person was on duty.  

Families with young children came in and behaved as though playing 

games in the dark were normal. A group of people even conducted a meeting in this very room. How the word got out that the library was unlocked is a mystery, but a bigger mystery is the subject of this emergency meeting.  Some mischief making villainous miscreant broke into the sealed enclosure containing Ben Franklin’s books!

Everyone: (Audible gasps) “Oh no!!!”

Alice: Those books are our claim to fame.  Franklin donated them to the town 

and they were lended out.  Horace Mann, the famous educator, born in 

Franklin furthered his own education by reading these very same books.

Helen: The lock on the bookcase became unlocked and the books are gone!

Bob: Probably due to that same facilities management malfunction.

Narrator: The Friends of Franklin Library board broke into frenzied conversation, 

especially with the arrival of Bo and his emotional support dog, Iggy.

Scene 2

Narrator: The board convenes the next day.

Pete: What happened?

Helen: We received a ransom note.

Bill: How much do they want?

Helen: Well…it’s not really a ransom note.  It’s a note explaining that the books 

really not stolen.  They’re still in the library, somewhere.

Everyone: What!

Helen: Yes, they’re hidden here and there and everywhere, in the library.

Steve: You mean they’re still in the building?

Helen: yep.

Bo: Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.  Sorry Iggy.

Helen: The note states that this is a scavenger hunt.

Everyone: What!

Narrator: Frenzied conversation again as we go into Scene 3.

Scene 3

Helen: Ugh.  I’m so upset.  Alice, you read it.

Alice: The first hint is, “Periodically, I am read?”

Bob: That’s a hint????

Bill: What does it mean?

Pete: That’s what a scavenger hunt is.  We get a hint and we have to figure out 

the answer.

Steve: How do we do that?

Bo: By thinking.  What is periodically read?  Periodically…periodically…

Violet: I know.  Magazines.  

Bob: Yes, magazines are periodicals!

Narrator: Everyone races to the magazine racks.

Alice: Look, there’s a Ben Franklin book!

Pete: Great!  Only 115 more to go.

Violet: There’s a piece of paper sticking out of the book.

Bo: What does it say?  

Violet: It’s the next hint.

Bo: Read it.

Violet: “I’m not used anymore, but I used to keep the building warm.”

Steve: The fireplace!

Narrator: Everyone runs to the fireplace in the Booksale Room.”

Bill: There on the mantle!

Helen: Look, 10 books!

Bob: 105 more books to go.

Narrator: And so it goes, bit by bit the scavenger hunt goes on and on to Scene 4.

Scene 4

Pete: Only 10 more books.

Bo: This hint is harder than the others.

Helen: “We look over our memorial endowment but never move.”

Bob: A statue, there’re no statues in the library.  Are there?

Steve: How about a picture?  There’re lots of those?

Alice: “We look over our memorial endowment.”  What endowment?

Violet: How about the library itself?

Pete: There’s a statue of Franklin, outside.  But he’s not looking over the library.

Steve: I still think a picture is our best bet.

Bill: What’s an endowment?

Bob: It usually is money, but it could be this very library.

Pete: Who gave the town the money to build the library?

Steve: J. G. Ray and Emily Ray.  And their portrait looks over the main entrance 

to the library.

Helen: You mean that humongous portrait of the Rays with their dogs?

Bo: Dogs?  Iggy will like that.

Steve: Yes, let’s look.

Narrator: Everyone rushes to the portrait.  

Alice: Of course.  It makes sense now.  We are in the Ray Memorial Library.

Violet: On the table, underneath the picture are the last of the 116 books.

Helen: Finally, we are finished.

Bo: What a relief!

Bill: Who would steal Franklin’s books and make up this scavenger hunt?

Bob: Yes, who?

Narrator:       Exactly.  Who?