Sunday, October 11th, 1987

     Vivian invited me over for afternoon coffee. I brought over some apple turnovers, which I thought she might enjoy with her bacon. There was a break between the rain storms, so we sat on her front porch. The steam rose and swirled from our cups as we sat and discussed the curse. After a pause in our conversation, Vivian changed the subject.

     “Marco proposed to me again last night. This time, I said yes.”

     I rested my palm against the warmth of my mug and stared down into the coffee. “He won’t be happy. He can’t be, here. Not completely. You understand that, right?”

     “We make each other happy.”

     “But you can’t stay happy.” I looked at her, knowing she wasn’t begging me. “The curse will find a way to upset that.”

     “I know and so does he.” She held out a reassuring hand. “He doesn’t know, but I’ve told him about my illness. I’ve joked before and said I’d probably die the day before our wedding day.”

     “That’s not a very funny joke.”

     “No, it isn’t, your Majesty. But sometimes I think the only thing that’s kept me alive is not agreeing to marry him.”

     The rain started falling again. We stayed outside under her porch’s cover. The chill in the air from the rain made our coffee that much warmer.

     “You haven’t completely swayed me in your opinion about the curse.” I reached for the turnovers and served one to Vivian. “It makes sure that the people of this town stay miserable because I want them to be miserable.”

     Vivian chuckled and dug into her turnover.

     “But I don’t want you to be miserable,” I said. “I have some things that might be able to help you.”

     Vivian sat back in her chair and smiled at me. I didn’t have to tell her I still had three pieces of magic I could use to help her. Daniel’s coin was protecting me from the other Regina, and I’d already used another piece to keep Owen’s father asleep. It was risky, but the other three pieces could potentially keep her here longer.

     “Nothing can rid me of my cancer, your Majesty, even if you had magic of your own here. I’ve had it for too long.” It wasn’t pride that was frustrating to me. Pride was something I knew how to overcome in others. Vivian had resolve and that was something I couldn’t rid her of. I thought of something else.

     “But still, I want you to be happy. I have some things of my mother’s…”

     “Have you been looking for my heart? You won’t find it among your things.” She put a hand to her chest. “It’s in here.”

     “Most people who’ve had their heart taken don’t know it. Others can even hear it beating if they listen.”

     “Your mother never took my heart. She took my husband’s. He was different once he was promoted to general of the royal army. He wasn’t the same to me. He didn’t treat any of our children with the same amount of affection. But he was the same, intellectually. Your mother had plans that he carried out, but his sensibilities eventually won out and he defied her one day. He refused to sacrifice more lives for her plans. He was dead the next day.”

     Now it was time for me to sit back in my chair.

     “No one can defy the one who has their heart.” I said.

     “They can, my Queen, but it is rare. It takes great strength of character and great support from those who truly love them.” Her cup was empty. She rolled it around in her hands as she thought back. “I tried to convince myself that’d she’d taken my heart, too. But there’s an absence of feeling when your heart is missing. I felt rage when I couldn’t go after the Queen. I felt resentment and anger that Cinderella looked so much like her father and reminded me what a trap my life was. I felt desperation with the knowledge of my illness and the desire of wanting my daughters to be taken care of. And I felt remorse when I became myself here.”

     We were quiet for a long time as the rain continued to fall. No one had touched my heart like Vivian had in a very long time. The knowledge that this time was ending, paired with the fact that I could do nothing about it, upset me greatly.

     “You are my friend.” I reached out my hand and put it on hers. “If I can’t help you, what can I do for you?”

     “Be happy for me.” She smiled. “And come to my wedding.”

     So I did. It was very small and held in the church. I was there for Vivian and so was Ashley. Vivian’s other daughters were there as well, although they acted like being present was a hassle for them. The men they were with seemed respectful enough and I recognized one of them as the baker. Dr. Hopper was there for Marco, as well as his dog. Vivian wore a nice white dress with a blazer and a lovely white hat. Marco was the best dressed I’d ever seen him, in a grey suit that looked like it was made just for this day. They looked so happy, standing in front of all of us and before Mother Superior. The sun was shining through the windows of the church, casting blues and reds over all of us. When Mother Superior pronounced them married, everyone clapped as Marco kissed his bride. Vivian was so happy and that made me happy for her.

     There wasn’t much of a reception. We all went back to Vivian’s house for dinner. Everyone had prepared something beforehand. I brought lasagna, of course, but I think everyone was pleasantly surprised at the roasted chickens Dr. Hopper had prepared. And the baker had prepared a lovely but modest cake. When dinner was over, Vivian’s daughters and their companions left quickly. Doctor Hopper and Marco went to relax and talk on the porch, while Ashley tossed a ball for Pongo. Vivian and I chatted in the living room.

     “We’re going to keep both residences,” Vivian responded to my question of where they would live. “But we’ll primarily live here. Someday, after I’m gone, Marco will probably move back to his house and Ashley can have this one.”

     I smiled. I was genuinely happy for her in this moment. Through the window, Dr. Hopper called for his dog. Pongo barked and ran up to him so he could put his leash on, and the two walked down the lit street.

     “It’s late.” I stood up. “Your wedding was beautiful, but it seems it’s time I left you to your husband for the evening.”

     Vivian stood up and led me to the door. Marco stepped inside and he and Ashley began to clean up in the kitchen. Before I walked out, she stopped me one more time.

     “Marco will someday wake up and remember who I was, but he’ll also remember who I was to him. This is an opportunity to show what kind of queen you really are before the savior arrives.”

     I couldn’t think of anything to say at that moment, but I thought of so many ways to respond. Initially, I thought she was wrong. The only one who’s supposed to be happy here was me, but maybe she was onto something? If I could put plans into action to make the people’s lives better, then, if the savior arrived, they wouldn’t even want her. What a revenge that could be! I imagined Snow White trying to take arms up against me, but everyone in town choosing me instead. Then I’d be the hero who put the good people of my kingdom under this curse to protect them.

     I wanted to talk about this with Vivian, but she was also newly married. I felt the least I could do was give her and Marco the weekend to celebrate. So I went to her house on Monday after work, but Marco answered the door and turned me away. I protested, but he seemed genuinely upset and insisted she was tired. I went back the next day to have Ashley answer the door and tell me the same thing. By the third day, when they wouldn’t let me in, I called for the ambulance to take Vivian to the hospital. By the end of the day, Dr. Whale told all of us that Vivian was not doing well. He did his best to suggest Marco make preparations.

     I went back to work the next day, but couldn’t do much of anything. I was dumbfounded by how fast the cancer was taking her now. I took the rest of the day off before lunch and went straight to the hospital, but it wasn’t enough. By the time I arrived in the waiting room, Ashley was crying in Dr. Hopper’s arms. Marco arrived in the waiting room, having just come from Vivian’s room. He saw me. He clearly had been crying but now his eyes had run out of tears. He walked over to me and took my hands in his.

     “She is gone.” He said. And he wept again.

Tuesday, September 8th, 1987

     We stood at the edge of the southern town line this morning. Vivian had prepared coffee and breakfast to take with us. It was so early, the sun still hadn’t come up, but it was light enough outside to stand without flashlights. She and I leaned against my car and watched the morning breeze blow the leaves over our border.

     “Do you see how easily they cross over?” Vivian munched on a piece of crisp bacon. In the short time we’d known each other, bacon was all I’d seen her eat. I had no idea how a woman with her frame could eat so much bacon and stay so small. “It’s no problem for objects to enter Storybrooke. But living things…” a flock of birds flew straight for us, then turned as a group away from us and flew west instead. “Living things can’t come in. The curse confuses them.”

     “I know.” I thought back to Owen, trying to convince the police that there was something before them that none of them could actually see. “But this doesn’t explain how outside mail gets here. Or food or anything that needs to be delivered by a person.”

     “The curse does it. It reaches farther than just Storybrooke. It has to in order to protect us.”

     “So the curse allows us to subscribe to a magazine?”

     “Yes.”

     “And it just goes and gets us the magazine?”

     “Ultimately, yes.”

     “How?”

     “It confuses people.” She pulled up the collar on her coat as the breeze picked up. “Obviously I haven’t been able to see this on the outside. But you remember the butcher. He knew he received shipments every morning, but who delivered them didn’t matter to him. I think the same is true for the post offices, magazine companies and anyone else who is supposed to send things to us. They know they have items to send us, but we are forgotten once our items are prepared. The curse takes them after that and makes anyone involved forget.”

     “And the items just magically appear?”

     “Yes. I’ve seen it.” Vivian glanced at her watch. “You can, too. It’s still early. Let’s go back into town.”

     On our drive back, Vivian munched on her last three slices of bacon.

     “Should you be eating all of that?”

     “What’s it going to do, your Highness? Give me cancer?” Her frankness made me laugh. I think it was the first time I’ve genuinely laughed here.

     “My physician back home told me of my condition long before the curse brought us here.” She continued. “Nothing new is allowed to form here. Have you had one cold since arriving here? Have you seen anyone else have one? People only have what they’ve already brought over; it just progresses slower here. My physician back home said I had weeks to live. But here, I’ve lived three years I thought I’d never see.”

     “Maybe you’ll live through the entire curse?”

     “I hope not. You wouldn’t put me through the final stages of cancer for twenty-eight years, would you?”

     We pulled up behind the butcher’s shop, but far enough away that we couldn’t be seen. Not that anyone would see us. Only a few people were out preparing things for the town to open up for business. I asked Vivian if we should get out of the car, but she assured me we didn’t need to and she wanted to sit anyway. She looked like she was ready to fall asleep and I offered to take her home. She refused and insisted I watch.

     I would have missed it if she hadn’t pointed and made me look right then. At 6:05 exactly, a purple glow appeared before the back entrance to the butcher’s. When it vanished, crates and boxes two feet high sat in its place. On cue, the butcher walked out of his shop and began to take the boxes inside.

     “How is that possible?” I almost felt upset. “There was supposed to be no magic here.”         

     “Even a land with no magic has to have some magic in order for a curse to work,” Vivian said.

    “But no one’s supposed to be able to use magic here.”  I neglected to mention my pieces for emergencies.

     “Do you think the butcher did that?” She laughed and then caught herself. “Pardon, Majesty, but the curse is not a person. It doesn’t follow the same rules as us. Does a tree need money to buy its food? Does it need clothes? But it can still live on this earth.”  She adjusted herself in the car seat. “Would you take me home now, please? I think it’s time I lay down.”

     I stopped by again after work to check on her. Ashley let me in and took me into Vivian’s cozy living room. Vivian was propped up in a very fluffy chair with plump pillows and a blanket. I sat on a less-fluffy sofa. Ashley kissed Vivian goodbye before leaving for work.

     “She’s the only daughter I ever see.” Vivian’s voice became strained. “I have two daughters of my own, and I know they’re under a spell, but they never visit me. I was so mean to that girl and she’s the only one who takes care of me. I couldn’t see how innocent she was when we lived back home.”

     I thought about what Vivian had just said as she composed herself. “What happened to that book that gave you back your memories?” I asked.

     “I hid it the same day I found it in the library. I realized its potential to greatly change things, but the curse isn’t supposed to be broken until the savior arrives.”

     “I don’t think she will arrive.”

     “She will.” Vivian sat up away from the pillows, which by now were threatening to swallow her petite body. “You think this will be easy, but before twenty-eight years have gone by, you’ll want the savior to get here. Do you know what’s supposed to happen if she doesn’t?” I shook my head. “Everyone will stay as they are and become lost to the world. In your case, you’ll become the curse’s idea of who you should be.”

     “That’s not true!” She knew I’d been lying about that anyway. I calmed down; the thought of being trapped behind that frightened version of myself scared me.  “I just mean that I know how to prevent that from happening to me.”

     “That won’t last. The curse will only get stronger until the savior arrives.”

     There was a knock at the door. Vivian leapt out of the chair with an energy she didn’t have this morning and checked herself in a mirror on the wall by the door. She opened the door to Marco with a bouquet of flowers. He could see me and stepped back.

     “The mayor was just about to leave, darling.” Vivian took the bouquet and set it in a vase by the door. “Would you mind if I just said goodbye?”

     “Of course, angel.” Marco pecked her on the cheek. “I’ll be waiting outside.”

     I must have looked absolutely stunned as Vivian closed the door and turned to me.

     “I’m sick, but I’m not dead.” She shrugged.

     “You’re dating him?”

     “I love him. Every afternoon, the curse made him come and repair something on my house. Once the curse was broken for me, I decided to ask him to a movie. That was all it took.”

     “But you support my decision for casting the curse. He actively fought against that.”

     “He’s a good man, your Majesty. You could try befriending some of the people who were against you, yourself.”

     “There’s no point. If the curse ever does break, they’ll hate me.”

     “It will break, but they’ll remember the good in you if you choose it. Not everything’s black and white. Add as much grey as you can.”

Tuesday, September 1st, 1987

     I’ve been spending my free time trying to understand how things work under the curse. I thought I knew everything before I enacted it back home, but I was proven wrong once I found the book in my safe haven. There are too many things that disagree with each other.

     I know the curse provides us much. The market has fresh produce every day. Where does it come from? Sure, some residents have vegetable gardens and there’s plenty of land for farming, but there are some things we eat that we don’t grow out here, like bananas. Where do the bananas come from? And we eat meat, but the people aren’t the only creatures who don’t age here. If we did eat the few cows, pigs and chickens that reside along the outskirts of the town, there would be no baby animals to grow up and replace them. We would have run out of meat in the first week. But the butcher always has meat to sell.

     I was pondering this while I was at the butcher’s buying ground beef and some fish. The shop was full of other people buying their meat for the week. I asked the butcher when he gets his shipments. He boasted that they arrive first thing every morning. I asked him who delivers them, but he laughed at me and got someone else to help with my order.

     “You won’t get a straight answer out of him.” A thin, short woman was standing beside me, waiting to be helped. Her face looked older than her voice sounded. Her hair was full, short, blunt and very blonde. She wore a black dress and matching hat that looked old but expensive and very well taken care of. To say she looked familiar wouldn’t be a surprise after being stuck here for almost three years, but where I knew her from hadn’t come to me yet.

     “I’m just curious.” I tried to ignore her as the man behind the counter weighed my order on the scale and wrapped it in white paper. I looked at her again out of the corner of my eye as she finally raised her ticket as her number was called.

      “Of course you are,” her order of two pounds of bacon was wrapped up and paid for before I had a chance to pay for mine. Her parting words to me, “but you don’t want to make him curious. Then he might actually think about it only to realize he doesn’t know. You don’t want to have another issue like the library on your hands, do you, your Highness?”

     I knew who she was. She walked faster than I thought she would. I threw the money on the counter and ran out of the butcher’s shop after her. She was already down the block ready to cross the street. I called after her and she was smart enough to stop.

     “You were the librarian!” I may as well have accused her of murder.

     “Vivian Boyd, your Highness. Or at least that’s my name here. I’m very honored to meet you, formally.” She curtsied. I reached out, stood her up and told her not to call me that out here. “Don’t be alarmed. Do you see anyone looking at us? No. Why don’t you come to my house for breakfast? I have more than enough bacon and I haven’t served royalty in a long time.”

     My instinct told me this was a good idea. Would I be able to silence her and make it look like an accident? She must have guessed what I was thinking.

     “I’ve known for years, Majesty. I assure you, if I was a threat, I would have done something long before now.”

     So I went to her house for breakfast. The bungalow was old and small, but very well taken care of. It was clean floor to ceiling. The furnishings must have been decades old when I compared them in my mind to mine, but everything was as fresh and clean as the era they were supposedly made. I brushed my fingers on a porcelain doll in a blue silk dress.

     “Isn’t that pretty?” Vivian walked past me and into the kitchen. “I’m sure it’s supposed to have important value to the other Vivian. It doesn’t mean anything to me.”

     “Your name was Vivian back home?” I sat my meat on the counter, but she put it in her refrigerator and then gestured to it to remind me where it was before I left.

     “Yes.” She put some grounds into her coffee maker and looked for my nod before pushing the button. “The curse didn’t think I needed a different name, I guess.”

     Vivian moved around the kitchen, making bacon in a skillet and pouring the coffee once it was ready. I sat down in a chair at a small table along the wall, but I got up when she stood still at the stove a little longer than seemed normal. She saw me stand and assured me I could sit back down.

     “My body just makes me take breaks sometimes.” She turned the stove off but the bacon continued to sizzle. “Let’s have more conversation, Majesty. I’m sure you have questions.”

     “So how long have you been yourself?”

     “Probably since March of ‘84.” Vivian placed a mug of coffee and a very full plate of bacon in front of me before grabbing some for herself. “Leroy checked out that book from the fiction aisle and it forced me to go in there to organize things. Once that happened, I just began reading. It wasn’t long before I came across a book with my story in it and I was myself again.”

     “I was worried something like that would happen.” I tried a piece of bacon. It was crunchy and not too greasy. She knew what she was doing.

     “It had everyone’s story from our home in it” Vivian sat across from me and finished off a slice of bacon in three bites. “I learned a lot about you and the ones you were fighting. Even your friends didn’t want you to do the curse.”

     “Do you agree that I was right to unleash the curse?”

     “I don’t agree or disagree, your Majesty, but I understand it. I’ve wanted revenge before, too.”

     Vivian finished her bacon in no time. I’d only eaten three of my slices. She looked at me, down at my plate and then back at me. I slid my plate across the small table to her. Vivian giggled politely before chomping on a piece.

     “I’ve been studying the curse for a while now.” She said in between bites. “I’ve had more time since you shut down the library. Not that I needed to work. I’m quite comfortable. It just kept my mind off things. But the curse does that too. It’s a fascinating creature.”

     “You talk about the curse as though it was alive.”

     “It is alive. It thinks and adapts. It’s smarter than all of us and is loyal to no one.”

     “It’s loyal to me.”

     “Is it? Have you ever experienced your other self? Because when I think back on Vivian Boyd’s memories, she knew of a Regina Mills who was insecure and relied on her father’s money and influence to get her whatever she wanted. Have you ever been that Regina?”

     “No.”

     “You lie.” She sipped her coffee. “I can tell when I’m being lied to. You were allowed to remember who you are because you cast it, but the curse wants to show you who is really in charge. The library shouldn’t have existed to begin with. It was a flaw that you were wise to correct. But if you ask me, the curse was showing you the flaw and asked you to correct it.”

     The front door closed and a young woman walked in. Her blonde hair was styled in a sloppy bun that only hard work can accomplish. Her jeans and oversized tee shirt were worn and dirty and clearly weren’t meant to be worn when spending time with friends. Cinderella stood still and stared at me.

     “Ashley, have you met the mayor of Storybrooke?” Vivian reached her hand to the girl to pull her over, but Ashley wouldn’t budge.

     “Hi.” She knew who I was. I remembered the girl being with child back home, but it wasn’t as obvious here. The clothes of this land made things like that easier to conceal.

    “Mayor Mills and I met at the butcher’s shop, so I invited her to breakfast.”

     This seemed to stir her. “You walked all the way to the butcher’s shop and back? In your condition?”

     “Ashley, I intend to keep moving and living my life as long as my body allows me to. It’s me who should be worried about how hard you work, given yours.”

     Ashley gasped and ran out the back door. Vivian turned back to me.

     “She gets emotional easily.” When I didn’t respond, she shrugged and answered, “I have cancer.”

     “You’re Cinderella’s mother?”

     “Step-mother. Her father was a general for your father’s army. I knew your mother. I had the honor of being one of her ladies in waiting when you were very little.”

     I hadn’t thought about my mother in a while. She liked to take the hearts of everyone who served her. I had inherited her hearts once I’d sent her to Wonderland. Was Vivian’s heart beating below my father’s crypt?

     “Majesty, if I may?” She broke my chain of thought. “I’ve had a lot of time to study the curse and how it works. I would never say I know more than you, especially since you’re the one who cast it. But after this morning I would guess that you don’t know everything. I may have learned some things that you have yet to learn. May I share them with you?”

     I leaned back in my chair, suspicious. “What do you want in return?”

     “The company.” She shrugged. “How many people can you talk to who know what’s really going on around here?”

Friday, November 9th, 1984

     The next morning, the library was closed and the windows shuttered up. The land it sat on was deemed too unstable to be safe for anyone to go in there. Fortunately, my experts said the land surrounding the library was safe, so no other businesses had to close. That afternoon, Deputy Sanchez had a short funeral and was laid to rest. Things had managed to work out the way I wanted, although not the way I’d intended. It wasn’t until this morning when the curse began to play tailor and do its stitching.

     “I’ve got to go.” Graham sat on the edge of the bed and stretched each well-toned leg into his pants.

     “I imagine you’ll have a lot more work to do today.” I stretched in bed, not used to him being up so fast.

     “I’ll have the same amount of work that I always do.”

     “I just meant now that you don’t have a deputy.”

     “I’ve never had a deputy.”

     The general consensus had been that it was actually Deputy Sanchez who was trying to steal the ballots. At least, that was what I’d told everyone. I could understand Graham’s feeling of betrayal.

     “It was horrible, what he was trying to do, but you can’t just dismiss a man like Deputy Sanchez after all the good he did for this town.”

     “Who is Deputy Sanchez?”

     “He was your deputy.” I laughed because I couldn’t believe this. I assumed he must have been in shock still. “You found him in the elevator of the library two nights ago? He’d handcuffed me to a chair? He liked cats?”

     “Regina, I don’t know if this is your idea of a joke, but I’ve never had a deputy. Leroy and I found you in the library after the earthquake. You were alone and you weren’t handcuffed.”

     “Really?!” I marched around the bed and held out my wrists. “How do you explain these bruises?”

     “Those are from my handcuffs.” He winked at me before dashing out the window.

     The day grew even more ridiculous when I had lunch with Kathryn. She came to my office, because I didn’t want to go out and risk seeing Graham. I was still mad at him for pretending like I’d made his deputy up. I didn’t tell that to Kathryn, though. She’s not fully aware of what my relationship is with the sheriff. Or if she is, she’s never brought it up.

     “It’s a shame what happened to Deputy Sanchez.” I said before taking a bite of my sandwich.

     “Who?”

     “Sheriff Graham’s Deputy.”

     “Sheriff Graham hasn’t had a deputy for as long as anyone can remember.” She spoke as though this was an absolute truth.

     “But I was found in handcuffs. Who else could they have belonged to? Sheriff Graham had his on him. They belonged to the man who went down the elevator and came back up burned to death.”

     “Oh, Regina, that’s awful!” Kathryn put her sandwich down. “Don’t say things like that. No one was burned alive. Sheriff Graham discovered you in the library before you could be hurt.”

     “We buried Deputy Sanchez yesterday!” Maybe I was just supposed to go along with this? I couldn’t though. “You were at the funeral! You brought mashed potatoes to the gathering at Granny’s afterward!”

     Kathryn put a reassuring hand over mine. “You’re still in shock. That’s what it is. You need to go home and rest.”

     But I couldn’t just go home and take a nap. Work needs to get done, whether I’m making stuff up in my head or not. And I knew I was not, but the longer I went through the day I realized just how much the curse had corrected itself. Now that the library was shuttered, no one spoke a word about the election. Not one person cared about who was president now. I even asked one of my assistants who won the election. His response was, “I don’t know. I don’t like to vote.” I must have given him a puzzled look, because he added, “But I voted for you, Madam Mayor!”

     Before coming home, I decided to stop at Granny’s for dinner and a glass of wine. I sat at the counter and remembered the riddle about the dress. Not everything had been corrected. In a booth behind me, Marco and Dr. Hopper ate dinner and talked like old friends. Not every hole in the fabric needed to be stitched over, it seemed. Marco and Archie weren’t a threat, but a man being killed by a dragon was. It was working in my favor this time, so I decided to go with it. I don’t know what I’ll do yet if it ever works against my favor.

     But not everyone had forgotten the deputy. Someone in the diner was saying his name.

     I turned and there was Leroy. Judging by his loud speech and delayed movements, he’d had more than enough to drink. He continued to try and get his audience to remember Deputy Sanchez, but everyone around him was either ignoring him or telling him to be quiet. He’d been in the literature aisle more than anyone. Maybe that gave him enough clarity to remember things that others couldn’t? Whatever it was, I’d had enough of the deputy to last me a lifetime. I paid my money and got up to leave, but Leroy saw me and stopped me as I was walking past him. He almost fell off his stool before staggering over to me.

     “Come on, Madam Mayor! You were there. You know who I’m talking about, right? No one believes me, but you do, right? He handcuffed you to the chair.” Leroy reached out for one of my wrists that still had bruises on them, but I pulled it away.

     “Don’t touch me! You need to go home, sir. The sheriff doesn’t have time to arrest everyone for public drunkenness.” I walked out, leaving him surrounded by men and women laughing at him.

Wednesday, November 7th, 1984

     Yesterday was Election Day. I was ready. The ballots had been printed secretly. We staged it to make it look like they’d arrived in the appropriate way so there would be no questions. The church was chosen as the only polling place for our little town. And we had volunteers who had no idea what was going to happen to their leader.

     Not that he knew what was going to happen, either. It was no secret that Leroy’s burden by the curse was his low self-confidence, and his biggest symptom was his frequent drinking. Since I appointed him in charge of the volunteers, Leroy had been seen visiting the Rabbit Hole much more, being cut off at Granny’s or taking a brown paper bag home from the drug store after work. Sidney had really done all the work organizing the volunteers and he was not happy about it.

     So it shouldn’t have been a surprise to me to find out that Leroy hadn’t even shown up to the polls yesterday morning as I placed the first ballot in Storybrooke. It should not have irked me that he didn’t come in to help in the afternoon when I called to see how things were going. And I shouldn’t have been upset that I had to call his apartment from the church when I arrived there after work, but I had a plan in place and I needed my sacrificial lamb!

     My lamb was there by the seventh ring. Leroy burped into my ear before groaning his hello.

     “I’m disappointed, Leroy. I was going to have you and I hand the ballots over to the men from Portland who would take them and officially count them. Now I’ll just have to meet them by myself.”

     “No, please, Madam Mayor! Let me come with you! I won’t screw this up, I promise.”

     “All right. The polls close in an hour. You better hurry up and vote. I’ll meet you with the ballots at the library. That’s where they’re meeting us.” I hung up the phone on the wall. When I turned, I almost walked right into Deputy Sanchez.

     “Excuse me, Madam Mayor.” The deputy seemed to be everywhere I was, lately.

     “It’s all right. Looks like you had to work today after all.”

     “Yes. I wanted to vote before it was too late.” His eyes wouldn’t stay on me as he spoke. “I was on my way out, but I couldn’t help but hear the last of your conversation. I could accompany you, if you like.”

     “Thank you, Deputy, but that won’t be necessary. Sheriff Graham will be meeting us over there, too.” It was only a half-lie. Graham would be at the library after I called him to tell him what happened to Leroy.

     “I could help you carry the ballots to your car.”

     “Sidney will be doing that, thank you.” I nodded goodbye to him, since he said he was leaving.  He nodded back at me and left the church.

     Leroy rushed in and voted. He came to apologize to me and smelled like he’d had the decency to take a shower. I told him there was no need, just to relax and to meet me at the library after the polls closed. He looked at the other volunteers, but they ignored him since he really hadn’t taken part. Leroy left the church too, I don’t know where to.

     Finally it was eight o’clock. We gathered the ballots into boxes, thanked the volunteers and sent them home. Sidney and I loaded the boxes into my car before we went our separate ways.

     I only had to drive a few blocks from the church to reach the library. I took the skeleton keys out of my pocket and used the one for the library. Once inside, I left the lights off and set to work. I dragged a metal waste basket to the center of the floor and pulled over a chair for me. I pulled a few ballots from my purse and threw them in the basket. Then I pulled out my matchbook and waited for him. The rest of the ballots were in a box in my trunk of my car. They’ll be great to have this winter. Nothing warms a house better than the voice of the people.

     It’s been a long time since I’ve enacted an evil plan. I’d been working on this one for most of a year, and I was really worried it wasn’t going to work. There are a lot of things to consider: weather, time of day, who could potentially discover you.

     One key to the success of an evil plan is not to have the intended victim have enough time or sense to think about what is happening. No asking where the officials were to take the ballots from us. No asking why I was only burning a few ballots with a match into one of the library’s metal waste baskets while I’d carelessly thrown the rest down the elevator shaft into the mine below. Any answer I gave would make about as much sense as peasants voting for their ruler anyway. You need to have a sense of urgency without looking desperate. The haze of Leroy’s hangover would cloud his judgment, but he was one of Snow White’s friends deep down inside. I knew he’d try to stop me.

     But Leroy had only been my planned victim for about a week after I’d first appointed him in charge. I’d already put him in his place and the curse had been doing the rest since then. He was no longer a threat. My real sacrificial lamb was more persistent, and when I turned to the sound of his footsteps and was blinded by his flashlight, I knew my plan would work.

      “How long have you known?” I held my hand over my eyes to try to block the light.

     “Since the beginning.” Deputy Sanchez lowered it so I could see him better once my eyes settled. “I heard your conversation with Sidney at the diner back in June. Then I decided to follow you and overheard your conversation with Leroy. I listen to my gut a lot and my gut was telling me something wasn’t right. So I’ve kept an eye on you this whole time. I found your copies of ballots at the printing press for the Mirror. Nice try, but I knew exactly what you were planning.”

     “And that was?”

     “You were going to turn off people from voting and from the library, by using one of the loudest advocates of it as an example.”

     Not bad. “Go on.”

     “Leroy was the only volunteer you invited to help you take the ballots out of our precinct. But wouldn’t you just take them across the town lines? Why would you go to the library? Because there’s a mine underneath that leads out of town! You were going to make sure it looked like an act of self defense. That he attacked you and tried to steal the ballots.”

     Close enough. “Well, you’ve found me out.”

     “I know these few are for show.” He pointed to the burning ballots. “Where are the rest of them?”

     I didn’t say anything. Instead, I glanced at the elevator door. He saw me look and then I did something to make sure he wouldn’t ask questions: I ran for the door. He reached me before I got there, pulled me back to the chair and handcuffed me to it. Then the deputy ran over to the elevator and turned the wheel to open the doors. They opened with ease and Deputy Sanchez stepped inside. He nodded at me for the last time before the doors closed.

     I’d sat in my chair for only a couple of minutes before the ground trembled. Then a loud BOOM rocked the library and knocked most of the books off their shelves. I wasn’t sure whether or not the floor would cave in, but then Graham ran in, followed by a stunned Leroy, and the ground became still.

     “Why are you here?” I honestly couldn’t figure out that the sound from the library may have made him come and not my command.

     “It’s good to see you, too.” The sheriff unlocked my handcuffs. “Deputy Sanchez called me for back up. Where is he?”

     I pointed to the elevator. By now, the smell of the air had changed from old books to sulfur and something burning. Graham walked over to the elevator turned the wheel. The gears on the other side of the doors chugged as they tried to start up, but by the third time they whirred and pulled the elevator up to the main floor. But when the doors opened, Deputy Sanchez wasn’t standing. He was slumped in the corner, very charred and very dead.

Thursday, June 14th, 1984

Twenty-eight years is a long time to look at the same dress

There will be those who see a hole and think it is a sleeve

Rid the room of those who would rip the fabric

The tailor will stitch it back

The greater the tear, the greater the repair

The sleeves may not be even, but the dress will fit

     I was searching through the book this morning looking for a rule that fit this particular issue. This was the closest I could find to anything that made sense.

     Speaking of dresses, my clothes are fitting so much better. Aerobics class is crucial to maintaining my sanity—that and Hibiscus Hollow. If I could have put my plan into action by now, I would have. But everyone is aware that elections don’t happen until November. It’s not like I’m incapable of patience; I waited over nine months to enact the curse and I waited years before finding the right man to murder Snow’s father. But the wait for November is killing me. Fortunately Ruby’s aerobics classes calm my anxieties. I am out-shining Mary Margaret as the best student. No one will say as much, but the fact that Ruby doesn’t point to Miss Blanchard as the prime example tells me as much.

     Having until November just gives me more time to make sure everything’s just right. What it also does is give more people the chance to visit the literature section. Just to make sure I haven’t been too rash, I’ve visited the bookshop where I bought my cookbook my first day here. There were some stark differences between the two places. For one, the bookshop sold no fiction. Even the children’s books were instructional. But the people who shopped there knew what they were going in for. No one was milling about discovering new topics that might interest them.

     “The library is not the problem.” Sidney and I were taking a break at Granny’s. I wasn’t fully sure of my plan yet, but I knew I needed ballots printed. The printing press at the Daily Mirror is the perfect place to do that, especially when the other people who work for Sidney do whatever he tells them, like not to go near the printing press under any circumstances. The curse simply wasn’t going to allow government officials to gather our votes, even though it allowed the people of Storybrooke to get magazine subscriptions. I don’t really understand why that is. “The issue is television,” he continued. “The news is so up to date on T.V. that less people are buying newspapers. I can put whatever you want in the paper, Regina. You know that and your father knew it. But as long as everyone has a television, they’ll know there’s more out there.”

     “We can’t get rid of televisions.” Was I never supposed to watch Hibiscus Hollow again? “And even if we did, there’s still the radio and magazines. Outside information will always come into Storybrooke. I’m telling you, the problem is the library.” I looked down at my hands. My fingernails still had newspaper ink under them. That stuff is persistent.

     “Well you can’t just close down the library. Not without a good reason. Do you want to be mayor again?”

     He was right. I threw my napkin onto my empty plate. Granny’s was packed today. Everyone in town was there, it seemed. People were standing by the door, waiting for a booth or a seat at the counter. Deputy Sanchez was two tables away on his lunch break. Mr. Gold was leaning on his cane, perturbed that he couldn’t buy himself a seat. Ruby was blowing her hair out of her face as she scrambled to serve everyone their food. Granny stood behind the register with her eye on everyone, ready to tackle anyone if a riot broke out. Leroy was just getting up from the counter with a lunch to go when he saw me. He puffed his chest up and walked over to our table. Sidney tried to shoo him off, but Leroy ignored him.

     “I want to volunteer to work the polls for our precinct.” He stared directly into my eyes; sure I’d turn him down.

     I decided to call his bluff. “Leroy, right? Sidney, you remember Leroy from career day at Miss Blanchard’s class.” Sidney looked the janitor up and down, but said nothing. It didn’t matter—I had an idea. “You clearly have a passion for how our electoral system works. I’d like you to be in charge of organizing the volunteer poll-workers.”

     Leroy immediately began to fidget. “I’ve never been in charge of anything before.” He reached with a stubby finger to pull his collar away from his neck. “I just thought I’d help in the background.”

      “Well, that’s what makes Election Day so special.” I loved this. He hadn’t expected this from the woman who almost couldn’t remember how she got into office just a couple months ago. “You should be in charge of this. It’s a great responsibility and the whole town will be counting on you. And then when the polls are closed, we can take our ballots to the federal officials in Portland.”

     “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

     “That’s how it’s going to work this year. The government is trying something new. I received a call from our governor just last week.” I knew he wasn’t going to question me on this. Leroy was sweating, probably hoping that I’d change my mind. “You won’t let your town down, will you, Leroy?”

     “Yes—I mean no!”

     “Thank you. I knew I could count on you.” Oh, how I loved piling the praise on him as he squirmed. “I’ll gather a couple other people to help you. Sidney will call you tomorrow.”

     Sidney glared at me, less than thrilled that I’d just volunteered him. Leroy squeezed out a sort of thank you and took his lunch out of there. My lunch with Sidney had ended as well. I left the payment on the table and made my way out, but was stopped by Deputy Sanchez as soon as I’d walked out the door.

     “I just heard your conversation with Leroy.” He’s a scrawny many who might not own a comb. “Could I volunteer to work the election too?”

     “How nice of you, deputy. I’d say you could ask Leroy, but I’m sure you’ll need to work that day.” I smiled and he gave me a little nod before walking off.

     I need a good reason to close the library? How about death by dragon? Would that be a good enough reason?

     The best way to prevent people from ever going in there again is by proving that it’s too dangerous to do so. I’m going to send Leroy down to see Maleficent. And then when everyone sees his charred corpse they’ll shut down the library and forget about voting at the same time.

Wednesday, March 8th, 1984

     It all started on Saturday. It was Miner’s Day, an actual holiday designed to preserve the town’s history and culture. Did you know that this town was founded by miners? They didn’t have electricity, so the nuns made candles for them. No word on who made them matches.

     I was asked to attend the commemoration of the library that day. According to everyone, the first entrance to the mines was right on that spot and the elevator was actually used by the miners to go down into it. The elevator turned 100 years old this Miner’s Day and everyone was there to mark the occasion.

     I’d never seen the library busier. Easily one hundred people were crammed inside, squished in the aisles and pouring into the main reading area. Every aisle was full except for the literature aisle. I smiled from my spot at the podium as people avoided the aisle with their own stories in it as though it wasn’t even available for standing room.

     That changed about halfway through the ceremony. The whole thing was supposed to last around a half an hour, but that didn’t count getting people arranged inside, or one of the speakers running twenty minutes late. So many bodies meant the library was getting considerably warm despite the cool weather outside. The people were fidgeting, and I wondered if part of the curse for anyone here was claustrophobia.

     Sure enough, as I was delivering my speech on the historical richness of our town, Leroy started making his way towards an empty space, and the crowd spit him out into the literature aisle. I tried not to stop speaking so as not to draw attention to him. He looked surprised as though he didn’t know the aisle existed, but then calmed down and looked ahead at me.

     Once the ceremony was over, about half of the people left for the fair at the church. The nuns held a small one every year to help the sale of their candles, apparently. The rest of us stayed behind to socialize and have lunch. I was in the center of the library, chatting with men who were once kings. Albert Spencer kept pestering Mitchell Herman about his son. Back home, Mitchell had been Cinderella’s father-in-law, but here he was the local cannery tycoon. He was surrounded by wealth but isolated the ones he should love. Albert was asking Mitchell if his son was still with his girlfriend. It seemed to be a subject he didn’t want to touch and I didn’t care. My eyes wandered to the main desk, and there was Leroy checking out a book! The librarian seemed to have no qualms about doing her job during a private engagement. I excused myself from the gentlemen to see if I could get a better view of Leroy’s book. I had to know if he checked out a book from that aisle. It could have been a different kind of book; non-fiction, self-help, hygiene. I was getting closer, but the check-out process had ended and he was leaving. I certainly wasn’t about to follow him out, but the thought of asking the librarian what he checked out crossed my mind.

     I didn’t get the chance to ask. The floor only shook for a couple of seconds, but it was enough to scare everyone. People ran for the doors and flooded into the street. They were panicked and confused, but no one was injured. I found Sidney in the crowd and grabbed him by the arm. I knew what had happened, but I was going to make sure the people thought something else.

     The next morning I watched the people as I went for a walk. A little bit of rain in the morning doesn’t scare me into my car anymore. It always rains here. Beneath umbrellas and under eaves, everyone was reading the daily paper and talking about what had happened at the library the day before, or at least what I wanted them to think happened. She was too far below to do any real damage. Maybe it was the sounds of all the people that woke her up or maybe it was the smell of the chicken lunch with chocolate cake? Whatever stirred Maleficent, the people of Storybrooke simply thought it was settlement of the earth due to the mine underneath.

     I also observed something else. Passing an apartment building, Leroy’s face peeked through the blinds of a fourth-story window. As it disappeared, a white square sign with “Reagan ‘84” painted in red and blue replaced it. The sign didn’t surprise me, since he seemed so passionate about voting. At the time I shrugged it off and continued my walk.

     But Monday evening I visited the library before they closed. There were two more people in the literature section, and before the librarian had locked the doors for the night, two more books were checked out. Yesterday morning on my walk to work, two more signs for presidential candidates were up in front of homes.

     It wasn’t only thoughts of the election that stirred in these people as more of them shared the same coincidence. Discovering the literature section of the library was like catching a virus. First, you walked through it and picked up a book. It didn’t matter if you checked it out or not; once you read a page or two, you began to get ideas. Ideas like personal choice, self expression and even the desire to leave Storybrooke. The travel section of the bookstore down the street was bustling with people buying maps and travel books. No one was going anywhere, of course. The curse prevents that.

     The most alarming thing is that the people who enter the literature aisle are slowly reconnecting to their original selves. Today at Granny’s Diner, Archie sat down beside Marco and the two just chatted away. Until today, I’ve never seen them even look at each other. I saw the former cricket and puppet-maker in the literature aisle on separate days. I don’t even know if they’d met until today, but there they were talking like they’d known each other all of their lives.

     But the library was becoming a popular place to visit. Tonight after work I wasn’t even allowed inside. Due to the event on Miner’s Day, the number of people allowed inside at any given time was lowered and the limit had been reached.

     Why the curse allowed a library in the first place, I’m not sure, but this is something I need to handle now. I’ve got to find a way to shut the library down or risk people coming out of the curse, let alone having others think they can elect someone who will hold more power than me.