26

He sighs again, but this time his eyes go to the place where the sculpture used to be.

"It really sucks what happened to it," he murmurs. "It's the kind of thing you never really think about until it's gone, but it's like a whole piece of history is missing. I don't know a lot about art, but I'm pretty into history, and the artist is a pretty big deal in the town's history. You know she was the first woman to run for the Town Council? And then right before the election, she just disappeared from town and didn't come back for, like, twenty years. I think this was one of the last sculptures she made before she left."

"I'm kind of researching her," he tells you, lifting up his notebook. "It's sort of for my job at the civic archives. I mean, mostly I just help keep everything organized, but I was hoping, if I could get enough material for an exhibition…See, every year, the Town Council offers this college scholarship for people that make some big contribution to the town. Ever since I've been working in the archives, I've had this idea for this big exhibition that shows off some of the cool stuff we have there, to maybe try and get some people interested in parts of the town's history they don't know about. And, you know, to have a shot at winning the scholarship. I didn't really have, like, a plan, though, until I started reading about Selene Corvina. She's kind of like the town's mascot, but even though her work is just sitting out here, nobody really notices. I mean, look what happened to her sculpture."

Robin pauses, taking a moment to catch his breath.

"So—my idea was to plan this whole exhibition that kind of links her work with all the stuff in the archives from that same time. It would be kind of like showing where it came from, and maybe it could help show people who she actually was more than a sculpture you just walk past. But…"

Finally, he runs out of steam.