What kind of story is this?

For its thickness, it weighed almost nothing. She opened the front cover and ...

a book without pages?

Where's the story in a book with no pages?

A corner of the paper covering the interior bottom had lifted. Mary grasped the edge of the paper and pulled. Brittle, the sheet began to crumble. She saw a corner of a photograph, its edge curled and yellowish.

The paper disintegrated, covering the photograph with its ash. Mary drew a breath and blew. Particles flew up and out of the box, causing her to sneeze. She put the box on the table and went to the kitchen for a tissue. That’s when she started to worry about what she had done. Had she ruined some kind of storybook?

Returning to the library, Mary approached the box .She would not touch it any more. She would only look inside. She would size up whether the thing could be fixed. After all, she couldn’t just put it back on the shelf.

She was one to own up to her mistakes.

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