JohnnyBLit

Derrek hated the park at this time of year. It was what once would have been considered an unusual warm spell in what in past days would have been considered the middle of winter. These days though  temperatures well above freezing were getting more and more common in northeastern Illinois, even in the dead of winter. Derrek liked the park because it was close to his workplace and he liked to slip away from his station and clear his head sometimes.  The best thing about the park when it was cold is that he would always have it more or less to himself. When it was cold enough to see his breath he could walk without worrying about running into anybody or anything. During these warm spells though the place would have more pedestrians. And it was muddy as hell. Derrek hated mud. He didn't really know why. As an HVAC technician he was no stranger to getting dirty. Dust and oil never bothered him. But mud? Mud bothered him. Maybe it reminded him of his time on the dairy farm. Where the

In the far north, where the prairies met the pines, perched over a cliff of old midwestern sandstone was a palace. It hadn’t always been a palace, in its heyday it had been a Carnegie library, a place where anybody could seek knowledge, rich or poor, Black or White. In the 1890’s that had really been something to behold.  It had changed though. A sorceress wearing a pink dress and a crown had arrived in the city and changed everything. She had taken the library as her own  and changed it as she saw fit, until it was an almost grotesque thing that only barely resembled what it had once been.  Deep inside of the palace was a help desk, where the various people of the city could fill out paperwork, receive advice, or file a petition to their queen for some sort of boon. This room was set up not unlike a post office, with a series of service windows set across from a sitting area. The sitting area was a cozy enough place. Consisting of several large tables with small chairs set around