Everyone remembers that classic song when we grew up, you know, “A, B, C…” so on and so forth. I used to go to the library every single day when I was little to join the “story time” they do there, and we always opened with the classic alphabet song. I used to sing my heart out to that song and the reader (the town librarian) would always give me a gold star. She was a much older woman, probably in her mid to late 60’s at the time. Her eyes were a dark brown and her hair was long but violently unkept. She would sing the song with us but her raspy voice sometimes killed the song in my opinion. Granted, we were all kids so we didn’t care all that much though. Whenever the last line of the song “next time won’t you sing with me” came on however, she would always give this blizzardly cold stare at the kids who more quiet and didn’t want to sing. As a little kid however, I thought they were kinda strange too, considering they didn’t want to sing along to the best song ever at the time.
I began to notice though, that the kids who didn’t sing along would never come back to the story time circle. I figured they were probably too nervous to come back and that they just weren’t welcome by the librarian anymore. I made sure to sing every single time I came because I didn’t want to be unwelcome there either. Things did start to get a little weird though one day. This younger blonde kid that would come every day just like me and sing the alphabet. One day however, he didn’t sing and his mom said that it’s okay if he didn’t want to because his throat hurt. The boy mouthed the words and did a little dance and such, but the librarian gave him that look. As we were leaving, I realized I had forgotten my favorite Blue’s Clues hat so my mom and I ran back in to grab it. I peaked through the little door window into the story time room to see if my hat was in there. While I didn’t see my hat, what I did see was the little blonde kid’s mom slumped over in the reading chair the librarian would sit in. Again, keep in mind I was a kid at the time and oblivious to things, so I figured she was taking a nap. I knocked on the door to wake her up and see if I could find my hat, but she didn’t move a muscle. She just stayed there. My mom asked why I was knocking and said the little blonde boy’s mom was asleep in there and that the door is locked. My mom looked in, screamed, and turned this almost violently white shade. She grabbed my arm and we sprinted out of the library.
My mom then called the police and held me closer than she ever had before. She told me that the blonde boy’s mom couldn’t answer the door and that we could get my hat later. Days went by and I hadn’t gone to story time and I kept begging my parents to let me. I kept asking why I wasn’t allowed to and why they were being mean. My mom kept trying to calm me down, and in all honesty it worked, I just really wanted my hat back. Later that next week though, a headline came up on the local news I will never forget.
Margaret Lynnes, 68, arrested and connected with the abduction and murder of several adults and children at local town library.
My mom exploded into tears of rage and to be honest, I think relief. Relief that I hadn’t been a part of that body count. While I was definitely small and naive, I knew what murder meant and I couldn’t believe it. Crime scene photos began coming up on the screen, and as they scrolled there was one that remained on the screen, and it was a picture of some books, the chair, and a small child’s “Blue’s Clues” hat. She had written on the brim of the hat as well in Sharpie and it said,
Return this hat. He is the only one who would always sing with me.
To this day, I never stepped foot in that library, and never got my hat back…and to be honest, I hope that hat burns in hell just like Margaret. I never would’ve believed something so sweet and innocent could’ve been a motive for murder.