Bookmobile Witness Protection

In the early '80s, to the best of my recollection, there used to be a Bookmobile that drove from place to place all over southern Davis County. As you might assume, it was a mobile library of sorts. You could check out books from the Bookmobile. Then, theoretically, you would return these books to the Bookmobile whenever it came back into your neighborhood or to your school.

Somehow, The Monster at the End of This Book never made it back.

Someone in my family checked this book out from the Bookmobile in 1981 and never returned it. As a result, this book has remained in my family's possession longer than all but three of the people in my improv troupe, by my figuring, have been alive. If the Bookmobile police ever catch up with the book and/or us, we might be facing a late fee of something like a combined total of $30,000.

Mom has also been recorded reading the story of The Monster at the End of This Book. My sister arranged it at the recording studio where she works. In this recording, Mom reads Grover's story in her best Grover voice. It's hilarious. All of her kids now have copies of Mom reading this story, and it is an heirloom I hope we will all cherish for a long time.

It's amazing how very simple things like The Monster at the End of This Book can mean so much for these simple (and other reasons). I have my own copy of the book now, and, the other day, I picked it up from my bookshelf to re-read it for the first time in a few years. It took me all of 30 seconds to complete it. All the while, I could hear Mom's voice narrating in my head.

Then, somewhere off in the distance, I also heard a siren in my head, and I immediately began to panic. Because I know that somewhere, somehow, the Bookmobile Police are out there, and they will not stop searching until they track us down one day.