Dad chuckled. “We decided to take a walk around the town square and came upon a store that had recently gone out of business. And we got curious.”
“The store was calling out to us,” Mom said. “I couldfeelits pull.”
“We’d been talking about starting a bookstore but hadn’t settled on where.”
“When I peered through the front window and saw the beautiful wooden shelves running up to the ceiling, I knew.”
Dad nodded. “When Carmen’s right, she’s right. Two months later, we signed a lease and moved to Heartsprings Valley, and we’ve been here ever since.”
“Wow,” Daniel said.
“It was a big move. I’d grown up in Boston and was used to city living. The change was even bigger for Carmen.”
Mom nodded. “I’d only recently moved from Oaxaca. But something about Heartsprings Valley spoke to me. There was so much here to love —the charming town square, the beauty of the lake, the wonderful views up on the ridge. But what drew me most was the feeling of community. People were so welcoming. Heartsprings Valley is a place where people can settle down and establish roots, where folks can really get to know each other.”
“Where did you two meet?” Daniel asked.
“We met in Oaxaca, forty-four years ago,” Dad said. “I was a graduate student in archaeology working on the excavation at Mitla, a pre-Columbian site near Oaxaca.”
“Archaeology — wow.”
“The site is known for, among other things, its intricate mosaics of finely cut and polished stone.”
“I didn’t know you were an archaeologist.”
“I’m not —I left the field —but in those days, that was the career I was pursuing.”
“What changed your focus?”
Dad shrugged. “I’ve always been drawn to reading and learning, especially about history. A career in academia seemed to align with that. But over the course of that summer in Oaxaca, I realized that becoming a college professor wasn’t for me. The dig was important and I was proud to be part of it, but what I enjoyed more was being in Oaxaca and poking around bookstores and libraries in search of new topics to explore.”
“You’re saying academia was too…?”
“Limiting,” Dad replied. “My interests were —are —quite broad. Tenure tends to reward specialization.”
Mom piped up. “Robert would have been a wonderful professor if he’d chosen that path. But his journey has been his own.”
“At one of the libraries in Oaxaca, one of the staff members was Carmen.”
“So that’s where you met,” Daniel said.
“I checked out a book on Latin American history,” Dad said, “and Carmen immediately suggested two related books.” He turned to his wife. “And when I asked why you were recommending those two books, you told me exactly why, in detail.”
“I’d read both of them,” Mom said with a shrug.
“Which started a conversation about books that hasn’t stopped,” Dad said.
Daniel turned to Mom. “Penny told me that you’re a huge lover of literature.”
“Oh, yes,” Mom said immediately. “Since I was a child. The reason I took that job at the library was to read their books. As one of my very favorite authors put it, ‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.’”
“Who wrote that?” Daniel asked. “Hemingway?”
“Dr. Seuss,” Mom said with a smile.
Daniel laughed.
“Carmen and I bonded over our love of reading,” Dad said. “Every time I visited the library, we ended up talking for hours. I very quickly realized that I was falling for her.”
